Warmth in the North

McCafferty

    This shawl is my new love.  It's warm, light, airy and so easy to wear.  I think it's the yarn, handspun by the lovely Jolene of Jobo Designs, that makes it so perfect.  The pattern is mostly garter stitch and Jolene's yarn really make the shawl special as opposed to plain.

    The edging took forever and a day but that's entirely my fault as I loath knitting on edging.  It just seems to take eons, while all the turning back and forth drives me nuts.  All that aside I do think it's rather pretty and the pattern was really easy to follow, even for the short row bits.

    I really, truly love the plums and purples running through the shawl.  They're so rich and remind me harvests and autumn rain showers, when the sky quickly gets dark in the mid afternoon.  McCafferty is my second entry into Celebrate Color for the month, it's simple and won't win any awards but for me it's what autumn is all about, rustic, warm and rich.

my abby tote

   

    Here's my new fall bag and one of my entries into Celebrate Color for September.  It's the Abby tote from V and Co with a few mods.  I've been wanting to make this bag for a while and when I saw this fabric from Joel Dewberry's Heirloom, I knew it would be mine. 

    Everyone was out of fusible fleece so I just used some leftover batting and added it to the outside fabric during the gathering stage.  The pattern doesn't call for any lining other than the second fabric but I wanted to add a bit of padding.  I also added some leftover interfacing to the top bands and the handles.  The last thing I changed was practical but a little bit sad... the wonderful bow has been shortened.  I'll never use it as a scarf and it was bound to come undone and go trailing in the mud and snow.
      It's wonderful that the tote is reversible although I'm in love with the Rose Bouquet in Gold so it might not get flipped inside out all that often.  The one downside to it being reversible is that there are no pockets.  I should have just added some anyway but didn't think of it while sewing.

    My Abby bag is already in use, carrying all my many things to work.  It easily fits my laptop, lunch and everything else that I feel compelled to drag everywhere. I really do love it and it's going to be coming along with me to the Sewing Summit in a few weeks. 

pfft

    All my knitting is in this exact state.  Almost done with some made up problem keeping me from spending a bit of time finishing it off.  At the moment I despise all the turning required to knit on this lace boarder and have gone on strike.  Hopefully my sanity will return and I'll get back to knitting because I really, really want to wear this.  Autumn is coming and my neck is going to be cold soon!

Celebrate Colour

    Have you heard about Celebrate Colour?  There are all sorts of categories, wearables, home dec, yarn, and needlepoint.  Almost everything is covered and you don't have to make something every month which is just my pace.  Plus as autumn has well and truly arrived here, it'll be nice to look on the good side of autumn as opposed to dreading the coming winter.

    I found these pictures in my Flickr! favorites and they're exactly what I miss about fall.  It's all brown and yellow up here but growing up everything was rich and vibrant.  Reds, purples and golden hues are everywhere in southern Ontario.  I'll be using those colours again over the next few months, as well as watching everyone else having fun with the colours of the season.