Happy Halloween everyone!  I can hardly believe A-it is the end of October and B-I am wearing sandals today!  I have enjoyed a day off work with the fellas.  The pre-teen is going trick or treating after I fill his belly with chili and the teen is helping hand out treats tonight.


I saw a little inspiration in internet land and decided to make some little yarn ghosts for the trick or treaters out there.  The boys promptly said you are still going to give out candy right?  Nervous laugh . . .   Yes I still got the chocolate, the suckers, and the sour patch kids by request but am hoping some little ghosts and goblins might like a little wool treat as well!




I got a simple skein of  Patons white wool- I went cheap friends and got it at Michaels.  I cut off a piece of cardboard and starting wrapping this little ghosts yesterday.  I made them until I ran out of wool which is right at 19.  Just a strand for the top, a strand around the neck and clip the bottom loop.   The jury is still out on the best method for the eyes.  I think I like the black paint marker better than the dark brown fabric paint.

Wool on the brain- yep- next year I think I am going for the zombie knitter costume for sure!

When I came across this old photo in the book I shared with you recently, People Knitting a Century of Photographs I knew it should be shared on Halloween eve.  It is labeled as "Halloween reveler costumed as little old lady with her knitting ca. 1915.  Not sure what makes it more interesting- the vintage feel of the photo with the paper cache style mask or that someone thought that dressing up like a knitter made a good Halloween costume!


I am really enjoying this book and highly recommend it.  I will share more of my favorite images as well as some of my own personal photo collections.

If you are into old photos I also recommend this books as well.  It has actually been out for a while and I actually won a book display contest back in the day from the publisher when this first came out.  A central character of its own in the book is the old photographs.  Both in inspiring the author to write the story and in the narrative itself the book does an amazing job capturing the intrigue one has when they come across old photos left behind to sell at the antique mall that a relative no longer wanted.

Well, revel on this Halloween my friends and try to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children before the movie comes out!  I am off for a Hallows Eve dropping my boys off at sleepovers and heading to the local haunted house.  From there I will start that day off antiquing and looking for more old photos for my own collection!

I took the afternoon to start putting out some harvest/Halloween decorations.  Even though the boys are way past picture books I cannot resist putting out some reading for the season featuring my favorite ghost- Gus!  I loved him from my childhood and I also added some printed burlap to the decor this year.  I like the simple design that gives a rustic- look as most of the fall fabrics are bit too cute for my style.  A killer fall plaid would have been cool as well.





A few dried flowers and of course buntings and I am pretty tickled with the seasonal change.  I pulled out the dead marigolds and last of the herbs from the outside clawfoot tub and could not find the winter pansies I was wanting to plant in it so I recycled past decorations for a little cemetery for Mr. Bones!



Now it is time to finish up some yarn ghosts for trick or treaters, buy some candy, go get some pho soup to go for dinner and light some candles.  Home does this soul so much good!

Looking forward to a nice long weekend and getting ready for Halloween with my crew.  Out will come the spiders, pumpkins, and other Halloween decorations this weekend.  Remember that rustic churro wool yarn I came across?  I took a break from the cardigan knitting this week and knit up a little rustic pumpkin.  It came out pretty darn cute so I thought I would share how I did it in case you wanted to knit one up too.

I browsed Revelry at several patterns and wanted to credit this pattern Curly Purly Pumpkin pattern with some slight changes:

Yarn- Churro Wool Yarn medium weight
US 10 Double Point needles
Rib pattern knit 4 purl 2
Cast on 42 stitches

Divided the stitches on 3 needles- I knit in the rib pattern and knit approximately 45 rows.  I finished the bottom and then added a few marbles for weight, wool roving for stuffing, and added stick tip for the stem before cinching up the top.


Easy enough!  Thanks to all the great pattern inspiration out there!  Now for a real fright- yep this finally happened.  Reading glasses for this knitting mama is starting to be necessary for pattern reading and seeing the stitches!  Bound to happen some time or other right!

Now back to the cardigan and some ghosty inspiration to come yet!

I really enjoy this time of year and to celebrate it I thought it was time for a little give-away.  To celebrate all the fall beauty spirit that is around us this is my little leaf sprite that loves to hold and share bits of nature with you!  She sits on a little wool play mat in fall harvest tones and I am also including a blank moleskine journal so you can jot down observations and pictures of the fall to savor.

A couple ways to enter:

*leave a comment on this post
*share on Instagram
*follow me on Instagram and Facebook

Good luck- I will draw the winner on Nov 1.  The winner is Katy!

Have I mentioned how I love that my boys will join me on some adventures that they normally would not because they know how much I dig it?  I will share later a camping adventure they indulged with me surrounding wool, but I digress!

So as it would happen to be I was on our local library's website yesterday requesting a new knitting book and putting a hold on a ghostly read for myself when I saw that there was going to be a walking history tour of one of our local historic cemeteries in town.  The talk was going to highlight symbolism, art, and early death customs.  I was hooked.

Some spirit must have also really wanted us to go because soccer practice also mysteriously was canceled- ok well maybe not a mystery; it typically gets canceled after a Sunday of play but I still took it as a sign.  So with a small amount of coaxing with promises of candy corn we hopped in the car and headed down to the cemetery.


In my college years I was actually quite fascinated with photographing and studying the art on old tombstones.  I think it started with my grandfather and I discovering the family plot of the old farm house and land where I grew up.  Symbolism has always been fascinating but when it is etched in stones for the dead; even more so.  When my own last name is a evident and deeply rooted in this symbolism I am even more intrigued.


The presentation was fantastic, full of lore, history, and I learned many new things that I did not know before- have I mentioned how much I love my local library?  She even ended with a very unique stone that there are very few examples of in the area that totally intrigued me further and I just might need to go on a little road trip to explore this weekend to find the other stones.


A fascinating afternoon with my fellas- thanks to what ever ghostly presence made me discover the event on the day it happened and even more love to my boys for sharing in this field trip with me!

Happy to report what is on my needles will hopefully be off my needles by the end of the month- fingers crossed!  I started the cardigan "practically" this summer.  It has traveled with me on fishing excursions, camping, lots of nights at YEOW, and plenty of soccer, and some fall festivals.




I had to set it down for a few weeks when I was preparing for the Berlin Bazaar that I participated in but I have been plugging away at it here and am excited to finish it and start wearing it!  I really love the pattern and could not more highly recommend it.  I really like how the yarn is knitting up except that I am not always crazy about how it feels on my fingers.  It is a Madelinetosh that I picked up almost exclusively due to the color.  I was hesitant with it being super wash wool- the wool part yes but I have been reading and hearing more about the process of what makes a "super wash" and not totally comfortable with it ethically but I do know it feels different to knit with.

I am just starting to learn more but if you would like to read more I highly recommend starting here on Woolful not to forget to mention what an amazing podcast it is as well.  It has really opened my eyes to some amazing fiber folks out there!



That all being said I am highly anticipating the moment of bind off and weaving in the ends before I can slip this over my shoulders this fall and wear it to the festivals, the soccer games and YEOW!

The mornings are getting cooler in these parts and so the sweaters are starting to be broke out of the closet and I thought I would feature a toy that also is feeling the effects of the cooler weather and snuggling down into some homemade sleeping bags!

These little wood slugs are one of my favorites- for some reason they just crack me up and since the weather is changing I thought they deserve a little woolly goodness!

The little sleeping bags are knit in Malabrigo wool that is just gorgeous.  I wish I had kept the tag to let you know what the color dye was- I need to be better about that!



Three wee slugs are available now in the shop in a turquoise blue, pink, and yellow color scheme.  They sure would like to cuddle up with you this fall!

I do have a love/hate relationship with spiders.  On the one hand I really truly appreciate the beauty of these little nature weavers and the amazing role they play in the circle of life- you know keeping the bug population down and all.  But on the other hand I am a bit of an arachnophobe and they weird me out quite a bit.  Generally as long as they stay outside I am pretty cool with them.

That being said I do try to do some self induced therapy at certain times of the year and Halloween and the fall being prime time to work on some therapy as they seem to be prominent part of decor both inside and out this time of the year.

I am going to be pulling out my spider web skirt for my work costume this year and decided to coordinate my office decor as well so I went to Pinterest.  Yes, we have all had the Pinterest fails but this one my friends was not!  As soon as I saw the doily turned spider web in embroidery hoops I knew I had to try it.

You bet I do have a little stash of doilies but they are made by my grandma and I did not want to cut them up so I drug my eldest along to the antique mall and went on a doily hunt.  You can image we were quite the pair holding them up to the light and asking each other if they looked spider web enough!  If there is one thing you can count on in the antique mall it is doilies and hankies so mission accomplished within 22 minutes- I had 4 wonderful doilies in hand for under $10.


A quick stop by the craft store for some basic embroidery hoops and then on home.  Eldest son was also pretty sure we had some black spray paint at home- he knows me well; in fact I had 3!  Set out a good paint spot and in short time I had some black embroidery hoops.  Good to know that the chicken feed sacks make an excellent paint drop cloth!


After they dried I lined up the doilies, tightened them down, trimmed off the scrap, added some simple ribbon and spiders and they were all set.  I really like them and hope that the grandma who made these doilies will appreciate this modern use for them and my therapy session!  Pro-tip get the stretchy spiders and just stretch them between the holes- no glue needed!

Thank you Pinterest and the fantastic crafty soul who thought of this one!  Enjoy the October webs my friends!

October has lots of meaning for folks- fall, pumpkin spice, leaves, Halloween, sweater weather! Among all of the orange, gold, and dark red harvest there is lots of green clovers that are getting ready to celebrate a new year.  You see October is the beginning of the 4-H year.  That means finding out not only what my own fella's would like to explore but also planning my second year of being a project leader which is; as you might have guessed- knitting!

So I am celebrating the beginning of the 4-H year with a treat to myself of a new carry bag- I really like the collaboration with FarmHer and 4-H and jumped at the chance to get a special 4-H version of their bag at the 4-H Mall.  I may not be farming like my grandparents and beyond had done but I like to think my bit of urban chicken farming would make them proud! 


My second treat was the new book that I want to share with my knitting project 4-H'ers, People Knitting by Barbara Levine.  I like showing them that this unique thing that they are doing with two sticks and some string goes back a long time and will give them skills they can take into the future- yep- certified yarn junkie here!  This book fill my soul in so many ways and look forward to sharing some snippets of it with you through out the fall in fun ways! 

So happy fall- happy 4-H year and happy knitting! 

Last weekend comprised of 5 soccer games, 2 trips up I-70, and about 4 new inches on my cardigan.  Word to the wise soccer mamas and papas out there that may also be knitters; don't forget to google the town where said soccer tournament is at to see if there is a local yarn shop in a sweet little downtown that also happens to have some Thai food to boot!

Husband and sons thought I was joking till Siri and I had them on route to the yarn shop after some thai noodle soup in between games.



But there we were in this neat downtown and several of the businesses were closed on a Sunday afternoon but there was an open sign outside of Momo's Knitting Nook in Leavenworth Kansas. Inside were tall ceilings, creaky wood floors, and gorgeous wood fixtures along the wall filled with yarn.  Not to mention the beautiful long wood table in the center inviting you to sit and knit if one of the several cozy antique chairs did not call your name.





I visited with the shop keeper, touched the yarns and walked out with a sweet little ball of angora.  I love what you can find when you step off the path and find spots like this.  So I guess I have to thank the gods of soccer and also a very supportive family of my high fiber diet!


My eldest celebrated a good last game at his home field for his high school and we still have a couple more games for my youngest.  Time to google these towns for yarn shops as well- there should be an app for that!  Till then I am going to keep plugging away at my cardigan.

So if spice if the variety of life than I am taking a break to bring in another variety of pumpkin decor this October.  You see, when we get real pumpkins there is a problem that keeps occurring.  A certain nut burying, tree swinging critter in these parts seems to think that every time a pumpkin appears a dinner bell is being rung and this is what we have left.  Small nibble spots on our dearly delivered pumpkins from Oma's garden.  So far it is helping determine the carving path if it makes it that long.



This is why I have slowly starting bringing in some terra cotta pumpkins the past couple years but this year I decided to start a wooly pumpkin.  It is all the fault of Knit-Picks that tempted me with the free pattern, and then the yarn shop that happened to have this amazing rustic orange Churro wool yarn!  I did not know what Churro wool yarn was till I used the ol' google machine and discovered it is a rare breed sheep.  Churro sheep were the original sheep brought to the New World by Columbus on his second voyage. The king of Spain would not allow the Merino sheep to be taken from the country, so Churros, with their coarser wool, were brought over.  

I will be using the Rio Grande Churro Yarn in the color of Kota.  I love the rustic color and feel and hoping it will knit up quickly for a little wooly goodness this fall.  I will just need to find my walnut dyed wool for the stem.  For more info of Churro Sheep click here.  I am going to look forward to sharing this with my 4-H knitters this year.