colors of autumn

I love autumn, my favorite season, not least for the bright gorgeous colors. These French or Cinderella pumpkins were irresistable at my favorite garden center. Those are Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins behind.

This rose obviously didn't get the memo that fall is here. Note the little friend on the top petals.

Hope you're all having a good week.

paved with good intentions, etc.

Well, I'm back. I had a "lost weekend", which for me means one of my multi-day headaches arising from knotted muscles in my back. I'm still feeling this one this morning but it is much better and will probably be gone by lunchtime (fingers firmly crossed).

As promised, here are some photos from Artful Taste of Autumn. We were poolside this year, which made for a very nice setting.


John and Chris have absolutely fantastic plantings around their place.

Here's my hubby helping with the set up of my booth. It was bigger this year than last because I had more stuff.

We had a little visitor under one of our tables. This is a katydid.

There are a lot of interesting architectural elements around John & Chris' place. I like the gargoyle light fixtures.

Another interesting piece, made after an ancient Greek mask or somesuch.

Here's the pool after nightfall. It was a nice evening and everyone

seemed to really have a wonderful time as usual.

off the radar

I've been really busy, so there's been no posting this week. However I thought I'd check in and tell you that a) my knee is feeling so much better after the cortisone injection, and b) we did have a lovely time at Artful Taste of Autumn this past weekend. Photos will follow.

Sorry for the uninteresting stuff, but I'll follow up soon.

Hope you're all OK.

good news, bad news, good news

The news from the orthopedic surgeon was not uniformly bad. The good news: I don't need surgery for the foreseeable future. The bad news: When I do have surgery it will be a total knee replacement because, friends, I have as good as no cartilage in my knee (no wonder it hurts!). However, it will be awhile before I get a replacement because the prevailing wisdom is to put it off until the joint is quite deteriorated. In the meantime I will have periodic cortisone injections to keep the swelling down (I got one today--not as awful as it sounds), keep taking my anti-inflammatories, get a good glucosamine/chondroitin supplement because that does lubricate the joints, and try to take enough exercise to maintain muscle tone. In other words I can't just sit around. Wonder if I can knit on my exercise bike?

The other good news is that I did go to Hobby Lobby, not for knitting needles but for yarn. I bought 5 skeins and some circular needles with a shorter cable than the one I've been using. So it was not a trip without side benefits.

These are all yarns I bought, and in the proper colors, from the Hobby Lobby website. I got a skein of plain black wool, too, but you can use your imaginations there. It's the same stuff I knit that first hat with a couple of days ago. All in all not an unfruitful trip. I have much more knowledge, at any rate, and understand better what I'm up against.

One more bit of good news: The weather for Artful Taste of Autumn this Saturday is supposed to be PERFECT. Sunny, blue skies, and temps in the upper 70s. I will, in fact, take photos.

i'm so clever

Well, I got a bit of a brainstorm yesterday regarding those double pointed needles I couldn't find at Wal-Mart. I was in that store on my lunch hour yesterday to pick up a prescription refill and went into the yarn aisle to see if there was something I hadn't seen before. I noticed that in the clearance section there were several pairs of bamboo knitting needles and I got to wondering what might happen if I cut the ends off those needles and sharpened them--would that make them into useable double pointed needles? Answer: YES! I bought 2 pair very inexpensively and brought them back to work, asked our very kind maintenance manager if he'd cut the ends off (which he graciously did with hardly any snickering), then I used the electric pencil sharpener in my office to put points on the cut ends, smoothed them up a little with my emery board and I had my double pointed needles. I was a bit concerned that even Hobby Lobby wouldn't have dpn's in the diameter I wanted anyway, so I was doubly happy. I finished my hat from yesterday and started another right away.

On the subject of yarns and knitting, has anyone seen this:

It's felting yarn, wool yarn apparently made especially for felting. Something tells me I'll be checking into this fairly soon.

Hope you're all having a fantastic Wednesday.

tuesday happenings

I call this "orange cat on red car". This is Rusty who isn't bothered that he clashes with the paint job.

Of course he wouldn't sit still when he figured out I might be doing something interesting or involving food. That's Tiger in the background.

Here's the knitted roll-brim hat I mentioned earlier. It was easy once I figured out how to keep it from getting all twisty on the circular needles. Hard to wear a mobius strip, after all. This will remain unfinished until I find some double pointed needles because it's been decreased to the point that I can't knit it anymore on the circular ones. Can't find any in town, so when I go to Hutchinson on Thursday for my orthopedic surgeon appointment I'll stop at Hobby Lobby.

warning: surgery ahead

Well, it's official. The knee pain I've been experiencing does indeed have organic roots, as opposed to being a figment of my fevered imagination. Went to my general practice doctor and had an x-ray which showed three (!) bone spurs and thin cartilage on the medial (inner) side of my knee joint. There is a lot of popping going on in the outer side as well, which probably means either a meniscus tear or another cartilage issue. I have been referred to an orthopedic surgeon who will do an MRI later this week to have a view on the soft tissue stuff. Then I will be facing either a) surgery to remove the bone spurs and torn cartilage, or b) total knee replacement. I probably don't need to tell you which I hope it is. I'm also hoping to stave off whichever surgery I need until the beginning of the year to make the most of my insurance and time off for healing options. I will, of course, keep you posted.

I have been madly knitting scarves and will have several for sale at Artful Taste of Autumn coming up this weekend. I'm also rather tentatively trying the little knitted roll-brim hat pattern I found on this rather amusing blog. If it turns out I'll post a photo. If not...

Hope everyone is having a fine Monday.