"Pumpkings," Puppies and Tapestry Crochet

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. ― Mahatma Gandhi

It's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend here, which means everyone's cooking turkeys and eating pumpkin-related stuff and sitting around digesting all of it... except us. Since we had our turkey kinda by accident two weeks ago when we got a free turkey at the supermarket after a huge re-stock, we're having pasta tonight. It will have turkey in it because yeah, we're STILL working through the leftovers. That was one heckuva big bird.

But it is distinctly autumn, if not evidenced by the weather, then for sure by the ubiquitous presence of pumpkins everywhere. Whenever I try to type "pumpkins," my fingers type "pumpkings." I guess there's something rather regal about them... if not impressive. The local market had the yearly "Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin" contest. If that's not an impressive vegetable, I don't know what is:

I did come home with this cool squash, though. It's a turban squash. I showed it to a friend of mine, and she said it was "like it changed its mind halfway and tried to be a pumpkin instead." I have never cooked one of these, but I figure it will make a nice soup... if I ever figure out to chop it up, that is:

We've been blessed by some mild days over the weekend, chilly, but sunny, and perfect for lots of walks with Mr. Seymour. We took him for a long walk on the trails today and then stopped off at the dog park for Seymour to pay his respects. He was his usual dignified naughty self, barking his head off and wreaking havoc amongst the more respectable folk. If Seymour is anything, he is consistent:

Meanwhile, I've officially started my Rozeta CAL. It's been more challenging and humbling than I expected it to be. I wondered why we had a week to complete just fourteen rounds of crochet. During the fourth attempt at it, I sorta wish we had more time. This is my first time doing tapestry crochet, and it was a bit like rubbing my belly and tapping my head at the same time: so many things to think about! Carry the yarn at the back of the work, don’t forget to stitch it in, tension the work at each colour change, and for goodness sake, don’t forget to count! Seymour gave me the best moral support he could muster:

I struggled a lot with the colour changes and was really unhappy with the column of dots that were appearing at each change:

When I reached row fourteen, my perspective changed and it looked much better:

But the thing about this project is that I keep going to bed feeling satisfied and then waking up thinking that I need to start all over again. The measurement at the end of row fourteen was coming up an inch short and all I could think about was how I had fudged a couple of stitches in the last four rows... so I ripped them out and worked them again, counting carefully for each repeat. I thought that maybe if I got the stitch count exactly right, that would give me the right size.

Turns out it came out EXACTLY the same. It is curling a bit on the edges, which is a sign that I might be pulling the yarn a bit too tight at the colour changes, which is also a sign that I need to CALM THE EFF DOWN. It's FINE, stop STRESSING, it's a BLANKET, not a ROCKET LAUNCH:

I woke up yesterday morning thinking that I would rip it all out and start all over again, but you know what? It's FINE. And I can't wait for next Wednesday for the next set of instructions to come.

Meanwhile, I found a use for my Wee Wild Skein:

Since I had a sore finger from nearly chopping the tip of it off last week, I was out of commission for knitting. I had no idea that the yarn slid off my index finger so often during knitting, but it was definitely not helping the open wound on my finger. I wondered how I would explain it to the folks at urgent care when I finally would have to turn up for stitches... "I had a long purl row to do and it was all just too much..."

I realized that my finger was not all that much affected when I crochet, so I looked up "crochet stitches for variegated yarn" and came up with the crochet linen stitch. And it's working great so far. I am really enjoying how the colour is pooling through the work, and it's such a simple stitch that it's making for perfect evening work... brainless and interesting at the same time. My plan is to just keep working this strip until I'm near the end of the skein and then I'll decide if I'll join it for a circular cowl or just keep it as a straight scarf:

The weather is supposed to turn tomorrow and we'll be deep into the rain until we surface sometime in March. I'm off to cook some Thanksgiving pasta now... gobble gobble and all that. Have a great week!