We did indeed have rain this weekend.  Ken woke me at 1:32 Saturday morning so I'd be sure to hear it pattering on the patio roof!  It was, after all, quite an occasion: the first rain since March 15!

The plants looked so much fresher - the rain washed off much of the dust and spiderwebs and such that accumulates over the summer.  The house looked better without the summer coat of dust and cobwebs too.  I walked with my face to the sky every time it sprinkled or drizzled, even a little bit.

All over our neighborhood, people were in their yards and gardens.  We're all hoping for a wet winter - droughts are not fun in our part of CA - to replenish the reservoirs and lakes, put an end to the fire season, and turn our golden hills back to green.  We chatted with folks we've not seen during this hot-for-us summer, and took short walks in different directions.

On one, I found these:

which I think are chestnuts.  The spike-y thing, which resembles a large cockle burr is part of  the shell or casing for the seed.   Erica wrote recently about the dying off of east coast chestnuts, and I thought then that I'd never seen a chestnut tree, but apparently I've just never realized that this fairly plain tree is some sort of chestnut.

Do you know what this is?  It looks like an exotic flower, doesn't it?

It's actually a very ripe fig, which has basically exploded due to the heat followed by rain or something.  All the ripe figs on the tree are now "flowers", which makes the blue jay-who-thinks-this-is-his-fig-tree very happy, and makes me rather unhappy because I wanted to eat those figs!

I spent much of Sunday knitting, and have progress photos to show next time.

Looking at photos of Bess' Adult Surprise Sweater reminded me that I've wanted to do something similar for a long time.  For a while I collected cotton odd balls in pale, southwestern shades.  I've swatched shades of reds and greens (not together), and rusts and teals.

Today it reminded me of this:

Don't laugh.  This is the 3rd item  I ever knit, after a baby sweater for a niece and an all-over cabled sweater for my ex-husband, which he still wears.  (It's made of not-great acrylic, but the knitting is good; however,  the sweater has absolutely seen better days.  It must be 16 years old, and we've been divorced for 14 years!  He can't be all bad if he still wears that sweater, right?  And his new wife can't be too bad either!)

I digress.  Anyway, this was adapted from a pattern that appeared in Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 1985 issue.  It was offered as a kit from Fantacia Yarn of Italy, and was pricey at the time: $225.  It was 1992/3 when I started knitting (yes, I bought knitting magazines before I learned to knit; doesn't everyone do like that?) and by then, Fantacia Yarn was no more.

I took the magazine to Straw Into Gold in Berkeley (sadly, there is no retail outlet any longer but they do continue to exist as Crystal Palace Yarn) and a lovely and patient woman - I think it was Susan Druding (the owner) helped me choose substitutes for the 5 yarns.

For years I wore the sweater quite happily, but now that I'm a better knitter I want to do it again and resolve the issues and correct the mistakes I made in this version:

• It's not as drapey as it should be
• My color choices contract with each other too much
• I can't crochet worth a darn, consequently the neckline is quite uneven
• Gauge and I were strangers; if the pattern said to use the yarn doubled I did, even if the end result was stiff and unyielding - see the ribbing?
• The rust stripes actually felted at some point, which doesn't help the drapeyness issue
• Use wool, rayon and other fibers this time - not mostly cotton

I'm doing a bit of stash reorganization at the moment - the urge to play with stash often arrives with the first rain of the Autumn - and am looking for likely candidates for this sweater.  Perhaps the 7 different red yarns, or olive and sage greens, shades of turquoise and teal, rusts, or even browns.  I'll see what tickles my fancy later this weekend.
Still, it's not terrible for a third project, is it?

Can you believe it's October already?  It's time for a Random Wednesday post!

1.  Bess -- I have lots of oddball and leftover yarn in your gold and amber colorway, and you are welcome to it.   Leave a comment or send me an email if you're interested.  I tend to collect single balls of yarn because I just must have it, and rarely make good on my plan to do something amazing and creative.

2.  I'm currently working on 4 different socks. (Not counting the 8 or 10 that are barely started and just hanging out in the basket until I get around to them.)  It dawned on me this weekend that they are all 2nd socks!  How did that happen?

3.  The weather guessers are predicting at least 2 storms in the next few days, complete with wind and rain.  In fact, some areas may get as much as 2 inches of rain.  I can hardly wait; Friday afternoon and evening are supposed to get the brunt of this first storm of the season - my firewood is ready on the hearth.

4.  La shanah tovah (happy new year) to those who celebrate.  May this year be good and sweet for you, and may you receive all good blessings.

5.   Tickets for the Train of Lights go on sale Monday at 9 a.m.  Ken and I need to decide what form our holiday train party will take this year.  For some reason it always creeps up on me!

6.  Can you believe we're already worrying about the holidays?  We have several invitations for Thanksgiving from various friends, my family and Ken's family.  It almost makes me want to stay home instead, because no matter which inviation you accept, someone will be miffed.

7.  I hope October is a better month for blog posts than September was.  It doesn't have to be a post every day like August, but a couple a week would be good.

8.  Time for me to fold laundry, dry the bathroom rugs, scoop the litter boxes, read my home email, send a couple of work emails, take a shower and knit for a bit. 

Good night!

Between the new job and the shorter days (hooray for Autumn) there’s been precious little time for blogging or even the reading of blogs.  I’m not sure why this is, but that’s just he way things go sometimes. Add to that a camera that refused for 2 days to connect to the computer so photos could be downloaded, and, once that was resolved, blog-hosting that refused to acknowledge my existance.  Pretty much sums up my non-work life for the past week.

 

The terribly wonderful case of startitis that afflicted me this summer has given way to a strong desire to finish projects, especially those that have been languishing for some time.

 

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve finished a few small projects.

 

• The silk garden striped scarf made famous by Brooklyn Tweed.  I made it narrower – 29 stitches wide - which is plenty for a fashion scarf since it’s really not cold enough here for a warm scarf.  I used 2 skeins of Silk Garden Lite by Noro,  and the result is about 6 feet long; it comes to mid-thigh on me.  The colors used are 2030 and a different one - I'll update when the ball band reappears.

 The colors are not as vibrant as in many versions I've seen, which is fine for me.  I did wear it once when the weather was cool for a few days, and it's perfect with the brown corduray blazer I've had for years.

• A mistake rib scarf in a NoBo yarn – that’s a short-lived Wal*Mart house brand. It’s soft enough, and the colors are fine.  It was rather a pain to knit with: very slippery and fuzzy. 

• Another mistake rib scarf in a very well-aged stash yarn.  It’s short and quite warm. 

 

I have several entries written, but the necessary photos aren't ready.  I've taken some truly craptacular photos recently - it's been a long time since I've shown no ability whatsoever to take an in-focus shot.  There's nothing on my calendar for tomorrow evening right after work, and it should still be light enough out to get good pictures.

My baby brother came through his double knee replacement surgery with flying colors, and is in a rehab facility for another week or so.  Then he'll have a few weeks of in-home rehab before perhaps going in for more out-patient work.  It sure makes me want to baby my own bad knees!

Del, the brother who reads my blog, came through Hurricane Ike with minimal trouble.  He's now the proud owner of a generator; power was restored on Thursday - so they were powerless for 4 or 5 days.  No trees came down on their property, but they did lose lots of branches and leaves and such.

Ken and I spent a lovely weekend.  Sunday was the 74th birthday of poet / musician Leonard Cohen; we attended a concert of some of his best known musical works performed by local musicians.   It was wonderful!  I am so amazed at the talent in this seriously suburban city.  Friday night was open mic - our friends Will, Eddie, Steve and Patrick performed beautifully.

Knitting and photos tomorrow!

I’ve mentioned changes a couple of times recently, and it’s all good.  The main change is that I have a new job!

This means a new commute, a new schedule and a serious wardrobe change from city dressed up to techie dressed down.  So far, even though wearing “Friday casual” clothes for San Francisco, I’ve been overdressed every day.  Because I love classic clothes – blazers and slacks and such – that’s probably not going to change any time soon.  I will gladly abandon pantyhose for wool socks any day, however, and that’s certainly incentive to knit more!

 

I’m taking the ACE train rather than BART, going to Silicon Valley instead of San Francisco, working at a company I’ve wanted to work at for at least 10 years, and working for a manager on the East Coast.  One major bonus: Ken and I now work for the same company (which is actually how we met!), but will probably never see each other unless we plan to – there are almost 50 buildings on this campus.

 

I started the new job last Wednesday, and other than being overwhelmed with newness and needing to get myself all set up and insinuated into the right meetings with the right people, it’s been good.

 

The first couple of days I felt like a kid starting a new school: new train with new stops, new shuttle bus with several stops and the possibility of other mass transit systems as well.  Ken brought maps and schedules home for me, and told me which shuttle to take. 

Apparently I misunderstood, and should have followed Ken onto his shuttle.  I figured out how to get to my office using light rail, and headed off - only to be met by Ken at the rail stop.  He’d gotten off to find me and make sure I got to my office on time.  How sweet is that? 

There’s one major downside to the new job: on my old BART commute, there was at least an hour daily – and often more – of good knitting time.  The ACE train takes 15 minutes, which is barely long enough to knit anything larger than a sock!                     

Think good thought for my brothers today, please.  And for my parents.  While you're at it, my sister is trying to sell her house, and I'm sure she could use some good thoughts too.

My baby brother is having both knees replaced this morning.  He's afraid if he doesn't do them at the same time, he'll never go back for the second one.  I think he's nuts.

(Edited to add: Surgery went well and he's moving both legs well. )

My other brother, older than Mark (above) but younger than me, was in the line of Hurricane Ike.  I know he's OK, but haven't been able to connect with him.  

And finally, my elderly parents are driving across Texas this afternoon - really! - so they can spend a couple of days with Mark and spell his wife, Jena, from hospital duty.  They're both good drivers, but Daddy's almost 81, and I worry.

(Edited to add: They reached McKinney about 10 pm CDT.  I'll hear more tomorrow.)

If you're in the market for a lovely large house in a suburb of Atlanta, I'd love to hear from you!