Kitties, fall harvest and knitting*

The kitties have been closely watching the birds that are hopping around the backyard these days. There have been robins, flickers and assorted sparrows.

Claus & Teddy are quite the team. Always checking out what the other one is doing and then deciding if it is interesting enough to participate.

We've been having wonderful Indian Summer the last week or so. Temperatures in the 70s and even 80s yesterday and also for today. But there are signs that fall and the unavoidable winter is on it's way.

The county road crew has been getting ready for the winter snows.

They have shaved the roadsides down as close as a new Army recruit's first haircut.

The freezing temperatures from a couple weeks ago has turned the leaves yellow on the trees and killed the soybeans and corn.

In the next day or two the late fall harvest will start. We could have really used more time for maturation of those crops but Mother Nature can't be deterred from her plans.

The wheat harvest was bit disappointing. The amount of straw suggested a big crop but the amount of grain in the heads was a different story. And the quality wasn't the best either. This summer just wasn't the best for any of the crops. It was too many things. Too cold. Too hot. Too wet. Too humid. But farmers are basically eternal optimists. Next year will be a whole new chance to try again.

And I'm doing another Iceling Cardigan. This time it is for a niece's partner who is expecting a little boy in December. The yarn is acrylic which I'm not totally happy about and I'm not sure about the colors either but the new parents are inexperienced in the baby department and I thought it best not to burden them with a sweater that needs special care.

I hope to not wait quite so long to post next time!

*This post brought to you by a suggestion from Cookie! Thanks Cookie! :D

Why oh why??

The weather has turned. To fall. Overnight. We might get 50 for today's high. There's a killing freeze warning for tonight. It's windy, too. Brrr.

And I have a cozy, soft sweater that I could be wearing. Notice I said could.

If it wasn't missing a sleeve.

And only had part of a sleeve on this side.

And still needs it's hood and button bands. I'm knitting furiously so that by the next cold snap I'll be ready. But why oh why didn't I finish it last spring so it would have been ready to go NOW!

Interesting contruction

A few days ago I finally convinced DH to go through his sock drawer and get rid of the old ones. I could barely squeeze all of his socks that he owned into that drawer! No. They aren't hand knit ones. They are store-bought cotton ones.

Anyway, we came across these hand knit slippers made by DH's Gramma. We've had them for years and years but I'd never really looked at them very closely.

Side view.

Top view. They make me think of mukluks.

The interesting part to me is the seam down the bottom of the foot....

from the base of the toes....

to the heel and up the cuff. It looks maybe like it was knit flat and then seamed. The toe and heel construction are different than anything I've seen before, from my limited sock knitting knowledge.

But they are very special to us because they were knit by Gramma Stein who was an industrious little German from Russia with a big personality. She raised 7 girls and 2 boys and lived to have a 60th wedding anniversary with dear Granpa Stein.

Keepsakes.