Autumn

I always struggle with autumn. Something about the sadness of losing summer, and something about the dread of the long, cold, dark winter months to come. It usually takes me a good month to accept that summer is really and finally over. By that time, I come out of mourning and start to look around and realise that autumn is really a beautiful time of year. I do this every year! Leaves display the most gorgeous, warming colours and berries appear on shrubs.

Autumn is a time for taking stock and for getting all the stuff in the garden out of the way before winter sets in. I have a very big garden, and this can be a bit daunting. Especially the hedges! You can see below a fraction of  the hedge around the garden. Where are Boy Scouts when you need them!

Autumn is also a time for cosying down and planning woolly project for the winter months. This is the fun bit. I am still searching for a fair isle pattern but have been inspired by some things I found on the web. Like these....

I'm also planning to make myself an aran jacket this winter. My mum has a stash of about 50 vintage aran patterns so will be rummaging. However, I have found this....

This is a cable jacket from a fantastic booklet by Sirdar called Favourite Aran Knits 2.  It has a really gorgeous range of chunky, bobbly, cablishness!

I also recently found a wonderful source of Scottish dk and aran yarn. I ordered some dk and absolutely love it. It has a real rustic, flecky sort of charm and is soft and good to work with. The colours are quite muted but enough of a range to make up a fair isle pattern. I also really like the idea of using Scottish yarns for Scottish form of knitting.

The supplier is New Lanark Mill and can be found here....

http://www.newlanarkshop.co.uk/shop.php?view=page&page=1