October begins

I saw two new birds at the feeder today. That is surely a sign of seasonal change. One was a woodpecker, black and white. He didn’t belong at the feeder, but he was tapping around the edges of it, and soon flew away. The second one, moments later, was a white-breasted nuthatch. We have many red-breasted here, but this one looked distinctively different.

September was so crammed. I did a lot of walking for exercise and a few hikes. I went to the fair. Family members stayed at our camp at the beginning and end of the month. There were meetings of local government, and getting ready for the election (continuing into October). There was gardening (some). There were bookmaking classes. All contributing to a very full calendar. October may be the same. There is a family wedding coming up in the middle of the month. At times I yearn for a more spacious life. Or maybe just deep winter, if such a thing happens any more.

I’m learning that projects don’t get finished in a season. Or even a year, some of them. The Skylight quilt top is still going. I’m stitching some green/yellow strips around the perimeter. Next round will be some more checkerboards, I think. I’m planning to finish it with a border of contrast – white linen and indigo moons to balance out the center piece. Still not sure if it will be a squarish throw or a rectangular twin size. There’s time to consider.

Bookmaking – and boxmaking. My beloved bookmaking teacher Margo Klass teaches here in the late summer. I made four objects, two boxes and two books. I’ll show the boxes here. They require painstaking measurement and lots of gluing. One has a liner of marbled paper, the other a plain liner. One holds some loose cyanotypes from last summer, I think, and the other holds a fabric concertina I made in the spring of 2020, when the pandemic was just beginning.

I’d like to make two more like these, but adapted to be slipcases. I have two previous book projects to house, one with three (little) volumes and one with two. It is satisfying making something to protect them.

Knitting is consuming a lot of my spare time. It is easy to pick up. Well, maybe this project won’t be so easy. I’m ready for a fall challenge. This is a “shawlette” pattern with a cable border. I’ve never done cables before. And I’ve never used Nutiden yarn in a single strand. It’s so fragile. I’ve knit maybe 12 rows here.

Besides being about wrapping and protecting, all these projects have a similar color scheme. I know. Greeny-blue, aqua, light indigo colors that are speaking to me lately. Maybe there will be deeper colors as the weather gets chillier. And life gets quieter, maybe.