I joined the Homemade Holidays group on Ravelry and whaddaya know now i need to make some comfort shawls for people who have lost loved ones. i know that it's the change of seasons--a time to mourn and a time to heal--somehow i don't ever seem to heal, but i try to help other people by making shawls or something for them at least.
So instead of going to my vast library of patterns, of course here i am There are so many beautiful beautiful shawls and yet most of the comfort/prayer shawls are really not..apologies apologies...i have made several in the past, just simple ones using Homespun but i found the yarn really too frustrating. I'm thinking about Ye Olde Feather and Fan just because it's fast, you know? and it looks like you made an effort too.
i just wonder if that would be okay? I have to find some suitable yarn, something easy to live with, probably a nice washable thick wool.
I'm already wondering what is wrong with me because i was making some washcloths yesterday and i kept having to start over and it's so simple! why in the world was i not getting it?
i've only made a million washcloths!!!
so i guess the holidays will wait. i can always make more handwarmers really quickly, provided that i can pay attention while i am casting on
Mice

Sounds like the knitting of a comfort shawl may be comforting to you as you knit it. I think anyone would like the feather and fan pattern-and you're right-it does look impressive. Much prettier than the K3, P3 "prayer shawl" pattern too!

i think so too. there's nothing wrong with a "simple" knit or crochet, you know? and it looks nice, but i guess for me i want just a little more somethin'...basket weave might be okay too, but i think there really is nothing that compares to F&F
and you are right, i need the comfort too.
i don't know if it's the change of seasons or the passage of time? or the proverbial empty chairs at my book group? sadness everywhere..
yup. must knit to smile
Mice

Mice,
Hands down, this is my least favorite time of year. I don't much care for Halloween and all the associated colors and symbols. Loved it as a kid, candy you know!, but as an adult, not so much. Even Thanksgiving isn't tops. The food and family is great, but just the colors.
I like Christmas because everything is bright and cheerful, and spring and summer because I can garden.
Knit and enjoy the process.
Diana

I'm sorry Diana, that the holidays are sad for you too? at least that's how i read your note. or did you mean just the colors? i am not sure why All Hallow's Eve has become such a big event. When we were kids we did go trick or treating, but we also we collecting for UNICEF and that was actually more rewarding. I still don't like candy that much
Have you ever read Kristin Lavransdatter? it's a series of novels about medieval Norway, by Sigrid Undset. Mabye it would help you put the time of year in a different light for you?
I finally decided on yarn and ordered it today, and in the meantime i am diddling with more washcloths and handwarmers because you just can't have too many, can you?
i love gardening if only summer would last longer.. i am making squash soup and i'm thinking, hey! what happened to the gazpacho??
Mice

who wrote that message? geez. you would think she didn't get any sleep last night
sorry. i will profffreeedd better next time
Mice

OK MICE, HOW do you make squash soup? With what kind of squash? May I suggest my favorite shawl? Favorite cause you can talk every other row cause it is straight Knit. K4, (border) K2tog, K6, YO, K1, YO, K6, K2 tog, K2 tog, K 6 and on and on. Knit Ripple. 234 sts make a large Afghan. Use size 14 or 16 needles. You could also instead of 6 use 5....5 is GRACE. Hope this makes sense...it is late. LOL Grace, Love and Prayers. God Bless.

Mice,
Actually, it's just the colors, but has it happens it was around this time of year in 2001 that my breast cancer was found. But I had developed my un-fondness for Halloween long before that. I used to look forward to the changing of the colors, but somehow over the years just didn't like it as much. I do like this time of year for being forced indoors to do more knitting. But Hubby gets antsy, so some of my knit time is spent going to the mall or Lowe's with him.
Spring is so nice and soft colors and warm. Pastels are kinda blah for me, but I do like the spring greens and the sky is that nice clear blue.
Diana

Somewhere i have the world's best pumpkin soup recipe, but i think they are all fairly similar, and squash soups are too. It's just a matter of how much trouble you want to go to and how you want to serve it. If you look on Food Network or one of the Recipe sites, there are quite a few to choose from. I need to be in the kitchen even as we speak so i will dig in my archives It's pretty awful, but i did manage to organize most of it into binders and the rest is books and folders. I am not the best refiler so i have cards stuck in books that were never put back and then i wonder where they are when i need them. oh gee. how could THAT have happened? I promise i will find it for you.
And Diana--i'm so sorry..i think i understand now about the colors. And i appreciate you taking the time and patience to write about it so that i can understand. Cancer has made the rounds for people i care about too..
Funny you should say spring green, because that's my home town
More soon.
Mice

Dear Mice,
the pain of sadness and the size of our grief or loss does not get smaller. I do hope that over the years we simply grow a bit larger and more able to get a bit bigger than the pain.
I enjoy this time of year. I love the changing colors from the amazing golds and yellows and reds to the purples and fawns of the grass and the gently fading greys at the end of it all.
I love the engineering of EZ's pi are squared shawl from Knitting Around. I knitted one for My aunt after her stroke and it comforted her a lot in the last months of her life. it was soft and pretty and covered her very amply. It would work into feather and fan Quite beautifully I think.

I adore winter squash, especially the dumpling and carnival varietys. I never get around to making it into soup. I don't seem to tire of it baked with butter and salt.

We had a warm fall day yesterday, and i think we are going to have one or two more nice days of swan song before the inevitable snow and real cold. I do love the beautiful snowfalls though and especially when the sun shines and it snows at the same time..
People who live long and relatively happy lives tend to focus on the happier things and the goodness in their lives and not so much on the sadness, you know? so i think, self if only you could do that! i must have those melancholy genes someone bought from a rain-soaked peddler off a broken down cart in some shtetl..
anyway. i do have the soup recipe. I was gone yesterday but i found it last night when i got home.
So here goes. This is the Pumpkin Soup recipe i got from my friend. I don't know for sure where she got it..
Curried Pumpkin soup
1/2 stick butter
1/2 c chopped onion
1 garlic clove, mashed
2 cups pumpkin (i think she uses the plain canned)
4 cups chicken stock
pinch of sugar
1/3 teaspoon or more curry powder
pinch of nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Melt butter in saucepan, add onion and garlic, cook until soft. Add pumpkin and chicken stock. Stir well. Add sugar, curry, nutmeg. Bring to a boil. Simmer 30 minutes. Add pepper to taste. Add 2 cups half and half, simmer 15 minutes more. serve HOT.

For the squash soup that i wrote about before, i looked it up on some of the recipe sites, and found some ideas that i had not thought of, like mixing several kinds for flavor. So i mixed acorn with butternut. There was one suggestion to use the acorn as a bowl after scraping out a bit of the squash to make room and to use that as well in the soup.
All i really do is bake the squash of choice and mix it with chicken stock, maybe some water, and the spices, (you can decide if you want garlic or not, onion or not) but i would certainly use nutmeg, it's divine i used ginger. It's really a matter of personal taste--what you really like with your squash in general and how you like it. Do add some milk at the end to smooth it out. I use a stick blender to smooth it in the pot and it's great. it saves a lot of stirring and trouble and it's fast.
No two pots of soup are alike in my kitchen, so i can't give you exactly what i do, sorry
it's whatever seems good at the time. I make large pots of soup though because who ever heard of a small pot of soup?
Mice

I like to roast my squash for squash soup too, although if I'm in a hurry I'll nuke it in the microwave or cube it to cook in the stock. I like to use close to an equal amount of carrots for sweetness and in may family we never make soup without using onions and garlic (and my husband always asks me if I used garlic), and celery. I like to use cumin and coriander for my spices and I also puree it with a stick blender. If I remember to buy it ahead of time, I'll add some cream or half-and-half, otherwise we just eat it as is -- preferably with some crusty bread.

THANK YOU. Grace, Love and Prayers. God Bless.

my yummy yarn has arrived!! i'm hoping the lavender will be a comforting color, but maybe mourning has it's own colors, i don't know.. it's so hard to choose for someone else, you know?
it's a soft, blue sort of lavender with flecks.
just need to pick a needle size i like and i'm off! i think i'll use circs just to save ye olde wrists
love cumin love garlic love crusty bread. can i come to your house?
mice

just finished the shawl and it turned out better than i thought it would. i kept wondering as i was knitting if it was really the right pattern? the right yarn? and even the right knitter? but 64 inches later, yeah, it's just fine
now to tuck, block, photograph and deliver.
mice