Sock Weather

Octoberish things:

Enjoying the most beautiful walk through the countryside on Sunday afternoon with the kids and my Dad. I get a bit obsessed with getting to the woods during the autumn, especially these with the copper beech trees. It's been so wet, I am at work Monday to Friday...when it's dry enough for a walk, I pounce.

We've had so much rain that everything is still quite green, but give it a couple more weeks and it will be a different landscape.

I listened to the kids chat companionably with each other, teasing and laughing, and Angus asking my Dad a million questions about absolutely everything, as he does. Bella filmed Angus throwing leaves into the air in slow motion, I took photos of everything, soaked up all the autumn smells and feels. It did me good.

At home I banished all the baseball bats and raincoats from the peg rail to the hall cupboard, and gave it a bit of autumn love. I bought different types of squash for the kitchen table. Eventually they will be roasted and turned into soup, or possibly risotto.

I am rediscovering my love of reading. I do this every autumn, it's definitely to do with the nights drawing in and wanting to create a feeling of cosiness. My taste in literature at this time of year is usually crime fiction, especially if it's the English country house type plot. Fortunately my Dad also enjoys these kinds of mysteries and he always passes any he'dsread my way. (I'm currently reading Colour Scheme my Ngaio Marsh.)

 Autumn is also the time of year when I want to buy and read all the magazines. I can go most of the year without indulging, but show me the October and Christmas issues and I go weak at the knees. So far, all of these have impressed me. 91 is, as ever, worth every penny and packed with the most beautiful features and articles, Mindful Christmas has got a lot of good articles and original ideas for how to celebrate the season in a less consumerist, stressful way, and that issue of Mollie Makes (number 111) is their best in ages. There are a couple of excellent projects in there I really want to make including a Christmas jumper and some beautiful garlands.

And the second issue of South Coast Journal is now available. This is a free magazine local to the Chichester area and I write their food feature. It gives me such a thrill to be part of it, as I think they are doing something really special.

It's still not quite cold enough for a fire but we have started to chop and store wood in readiness, and I just finished, yesterday in fact, a pair of crocheted socks to keep my toes warm.

The pattern is Laverna socks by Vicki Brown and I chose Malabrigo sock yarn in Arco Iris. The colour is much darker than the photo on the website would have you believe, but I still like it. 

The bulk of the sock is made up of a pattern which alternates one slip stitch and one half treble, which creates a beautiful, diagonal weave shape. It took me a while to get the hang of though, as the slip stitches are impossible to get your hook into if you've worked them too tight. So part of sock one is a little tight and the rest a little loose, whereas in sock two my tension is fine overall. 

This has resulted in a pair of socks where one is marginally bigger than the other, but since my left foot is half a size bigger than my right, I'll pretend I planned it that way. The other socks I've crocheted have been bed socks, so I'm interested to see how wearable these actually are on a day to day basis.

That's all I have. Leaves, books and socks. Two more days until half term and I am clinging on for dear life.