Etsy bloggers carnival Post

Scarf-wearing-weather is my favorite time of year. Except for when the days suddenly turn longer and longer and it's summer. But really, autumn is my favorite. My birthday is in November - so I am sure that helps. But there is something else... the air turns a different color, an exciting color! I am always inspired by fall.

I lived in Madison, Wisconsin for about 6 months once. I was there for the end of summer, fall, and some of winter. Madison was an amazing place to be during the fall - I remember walking down the street I lived on (east johnson, I think it was) and all at once there was this huge gust of wind, and suddenly I was walking in swirls and swirls of leaves, and that was it - all the leaves were off the trees and on the ground! That was the street with an art supply store, art galleries, coffee shops, and the pizza place that was open from "11am-late." I remember walking by one of the textile shops on that street and there was a lady sitting on the front steps knitting. Everywhere I went in Madison, there were people knitting. That was where I really learned how to knit. I had a friend who I stayed with part of the time I was out there whose mother used to own a yarn shop, and had basically been knitting since before she could walk. It was perfect - I'd knit, and when I messed up, instead of getting frustrated, I'd hand it to her, she'd fix it, and then say "okay, let me show you what I did."

I didn't have a car then, but when we could talk one of our pals into it, we'd head to one of the two most amazing yarn stores I've ever been to - one had a coffee shop attached to it, and we'd buy yarn, buy tea, and sit and knit for as long as we could. We also took the bus around the lake to the knitting guild once a month - 300 ladies and 1 sweater-making-machine-man. It was a good time for me and knitting. I wasn't working, so I could spend my time going to farmer's market, the library, the amazing feminist bookstore on state street, the coop..... I walked everywhere... wow, I am remembering things right now that I didn't even know I'd forgotten.

I started working on my first sweater in Wisconsin. It was going to be green tweed with a gray stripe. I bought tons of yarn. Never finished. Nosiree.

The first thing I ever knitted to completion was that fall was a shawl that I sent to my little sister for her birthday. I learned how to spin that fall also - bought 100% wisconsin roving and spun the yarn for a beanie, which I also knit. I remember working on it sitting on the steps of the capitol building, FREEZING, in october, during the "knit out."

Here in Southern California, where I've been for all the time I wasn't in Alaska or Wisconsin, we might not have dramatic seasons - and people might look ridiculous wearing scarves here - but it's still an exciting time that makes me crave pumpkin pie and sweaters and knitting knitting knitting!