I was at a local apple and pumpkin and cider stand recently, and they had a rack of sad-looking bedding plants greatly marked down; some perennials, some annuals.  Some had already clearly been affected by a hard frost.  I figured, for only a couple bucks, I’d take a chance on a yarrow with silvery foliage, and also something missing its tag that seems to be in the dianthus/carnation family.  When I got to the cash register, they threw them in for free!

The dianthus is inside, but the yarrow is outside since I thought I’d try to plant it next to our heated garage before the weather changed.  Or not; perhaps it will come inside too until the spring.  In the meantime, it’s an unexpected late fall bloom as I go in and out of our door.

This weekend’s weather is predicted to be unseasonably mild and even sunshiney one day.  Time to get out in the garden one last time!

I was in Madison, Wisconsin, for a meeting earlier this week. It was one of the last nice days of the fall, I suspect. At lunchtime, I went for a walk by Lake Mendota and found this flower which I’m not familiar with, which was still braving the end-of-October chilly weather.

Whatever it is, it’s lovely!  And very purple-pink.

Yes!  It is finito!  After the edging that seemed to go on forever.

Girasole is a lovely pattern, and the Malabrigo Sock yarn in Ochre was a good fit, I think.

I had neither a daughter-model handy, nor a photographer available, so I enlisted the services of another model, who graciously acceded.

Mrs. Helga did a wonderful job.

Helga models Girasole

Even bronze statues get cold

I think she might have liked it.

Though this is a pattern that doesn’t need as much blocking as some, definitely the edging needs it.  What a difference a couple hours on my knees, and 214 or so points pinned out (but who’s counting?), makes!

This first Sunflower was just given to my mother.  I likely would have saved it to give to her at the holidays, but she’s recovering from another foot surgery and could use it now, at home.  A little bit of Sun(flower) for her lap or her shoulders, I hope.

Right before our 8 degrees below freezing night, a couple weeks ago.

Last Rose of Fall

Sigh.  It’s a long time before the earliest late March or early April bulbs bloom…

You saw the RockStar’s work when she was five in the ground-breaking illustrated Shell Report.

I just thought you might want to know what she was up to now, at age fourteen.

Illustrating The Odyssey, of course….

My personal favorites are the Cyclops, seen again below (also a favorite of my daughter’s, apparently) and Penelope with arm akimbo.

Just where have you been all this time, Mister?  This story better be good!

I wanted the RockStar to draw Charybdis, because Scylla and Charybdis just go together like bread and butter, like mmm and Malabrigo.  But she seems to think it’s rather a challenge to draw a whirlpool as a stick figure.

Photo taken last Saturday.  After an intervening week of gloom and rain and snow,  it looks like this again today, with a sunny October-blue sky.

Mmmm, fresh crisp apples!  One of the best things about autumn here.

The current state of my (first) Girasole:

Not too bad for a picture taken on my car hood in the parking lot at the end of work tonight…

Also, can you say ‘dye lot‘??

And ‘hand-dyed‘?

(I knew you could!)

Ah, well, the color shift’ll look fine in this pattern!  Over half done with the edging, but it’s definitely a process.  Onward and . . . aroundward!

Unfortunately without shawl progress photos: I haven’t gotten the Girasole all spread out to take an up-to-date photo.  But I am knitting on the edging as of late last week!  That’s the good news.

The bad news: 640 stitches per row; each stitch to bind off equals TWO  rows of the lace edging, though short rows and pretty simple garter lace.  Still.  I was thinking 640 rows, and when I realized it was 1280 rows, it made sense why progress was so slow.  (Each lace pattern repeat is less than 0.5% of the total circumference of the shawl.  Gah.  Maybe I had better stop calculating right now.)

When I have more bound off, I should be able to photograph it (right now it’s all bunched up on the needles) and of course soon there should be a blocking shot of the Golden Girasole!  In the meantime, there was a bit of sunshine to knit by this past weekend, just as I wished for last week.

Saturday’s Sky, a neighbor’s sugar maple tree:

and again:

I admit, I didn’t specify anything as far as wishes for temperature.  With the result being temperatures 20 degrees below normal.  Oh, well, at least we didn’t get more than a trace of snow before the clear-and-cold….

(No, the snow waited for TODAY.)

Despite the cold, I had visitors from the Twin Cities yesterday, just coming to see the area, tour around, hang out for a bit!  We went to Salem Stitchery & Knittery (formerly Country Woolgatherer) where Tammy was having a fall Open House and sale; and then had a nice drive around the orchards and Grandad’s Bluff.

Nicole, Jonelle and Becca.  Above, outside Salem Stitchery; below, Nicole perusing lovely yarn inside.

Oohing and Aahing about the Mississippi River Valley from the Minnesota side. 

Though we had to watch out for the herds of lawn deer roaming La Crescent.

We even saw an eagle on top of Grandad’s Bluff!

Look!!

The Painted Daisies always make me think of early fall, though they’re supposed to be a midsummer flower, I read.  They’re almost done now and we’re finally just getting what I think of fall weather in the last week or two.

I asked my 11-year-old Gothlet to help me pick one of several Painted Daisy pics for the blog post, and she picked the most wild one, with daisy petals going every which way.   I should have known.  I was explaining ‘Dungeons and Dragons‘ to her the other day, and she immediately decided that if she were a character, she would either be ‘chaotic evil’ or ‘chaotic neutral’.  Probably the former….

So, here are your chaotic painted daisies for the day!  (I won’t speculate as to their alignment.)  Click if you want to see the details of how they are, as Lisa would remind me, ‘composite flowers’.