Tread lightly to the music,

Nor bruise the tender grass,

Life passes in the weather

As the sand storms down the glass.

Drift easy in the shadows,

Bask lazy in the sun,

Give thanks for thirsts and quenches,

For dines and wines and wenches.

Give thought to life soon over,

Tread softly on the clover,

So bruise not any lover.

So exit from the living,

Salute and make thanksgiving,

Then sleep when all is done,

That sleep so dearly won.

Here are some photos from Sages in Chardon.

I like them.  They have a great selection of apples and other stuff – fruits, vegetables, cheese, jam, popcorn, cider, pancake mix, etc.

Best of all they have samples so you can taste the apples before making your selection.  This is so helpful!

This is a Fuji, a Spartan, and a Honeycrisp which appear to be levitating on a table in my office.  I recommend them all.

I seem to have a lot of photos of pumpkins from this apple orchard.  Let’s just call it a gestalt autumn experience.

These are raspberry fields forever. Did the migrant worker thing and gathered raspberries the other day. I had fond hopes of buckets of berries for freezing and pies, as well as for jam, but the rain this year did not cooperate. The berries were very soft, the ground was very wet – anyway- I had enough berries to make two batches of jam, each enhanced with a good slug of Slivovitz.  It’s the only way to jam.

It looks as if we are in the mountains somewhere picking berries, but actually the location is just south of Cleveland.  The mountains in the distance are part of the berry company’s resource recycling facility.  This is at Rosby’s. 

The weather that day was perfect and the  jam is excellent.

and squid . . .

and pho . . .

and leftovers . . .

Happy birthday to me.

I do love the socks. They are small. They knit up quickly. They are complicated enough that they are interesting, but not too complicated that I can’t watch a movie or something while knitting. They are useful and they feel good. I have gotten good enough at it that they fit right and don’t make me walk funny (like the first pair I knitted.)  Also, there is something meditative about the process – I’ll have to think some more about the Zen of knitting.

Click here for my Basic Sock Directions

My words of advice – buy the best yarn you can afford. There are great washable wool and other luxury blended fiber yarns available. Natural fibers feel SO much better (and wear better) than the cheap stuff.  Most socks only take one skein or ball of yarn – 2 at the most – so go ahead and splurge. I (now) make sure that the yarn is washable and sturdy enough to handle the wear that socks get.  Still, I wash them in cold water on gentle and hang them up to dry.

The socks in the picture are from left to right: worsted weight yarn, 2 in sport weight, and the stripey design ones in fingering yarn.

I am a devotee of double-pointed needles.   I think that people who have trouble with double points are using too long a needle.  For socks, I think 4″ needles are ideal although they are a little harder to find.  Addi makes some good ones that are aluminum.  Metal is not usually my favorite, but these little needles do the trick.  I am also salivating over a set of  4″ multi-colored, wooden double points at Knit Picks.

Favorite yarn sources:

Cala Lily Yarns in Wooster, OH

Yardgoods Center in Waterville, ME

Fine Points in Shaker Heights, OH

Heavenly Socks Yarn in Belfast, ME

also

Halcyon Yarn in Bath, ME

Knit Picks online

I have a quilt project I am working on, so I will be taking the Glock to the range soon to help me design some fabric.  Stay tuned for the results.