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!