fall has finally arrived!

at long last, we have finally had a frost! happened just the other day and it hit hard! lots of windy weather and a real drop in temperature, down into the 20's. brrrrrrr!!!! yesterday we had a winter storm warning which turned out to be be 'much ado about nothing'!

tuesday, i got busy out in the garden and cut my last bouquet of these for this season. boohoo!

actually, i can't be too sad as i've been lucky since our first frost was so late this year, my dahlias have rewarded me many times over with beautiful flowers in many hues. i've now put my dahlias to rest for the winter by cutting back and covering them with a nice blanket of straw! enjoy your nap my dear friends - see you in the spring!

on the knitting front, i've been busy! to get in the mood for the fall season, i knit a lot of these little cuties.

i downloaded this pattern from mochimochiland and knit them out of leftover blue moon fiber arts 'socks that rock' lightweight yarn. they made great little halloween trick or treats! no calorie keepsakes! yum! yum!

also coming off my needles was this scarf/shawl.

this is the 'gingko shawlette', knit in koigu premium merino. i call it 'scrambled eggs'! the yarn has been in my stash for many, many moons (i purchased it at the wonderful yarn shop 'lint' which has been closed for many years!) and the pattern has been on my "gonna' do someday" list for almost that long! at last, task complete!

also off the needles is this cute little number - 'shore hat'. i ended up knitting it twice, first in the yarn that i had planned to use, which turned out to be a disaster as it wasn't heavy enough, and for a second time in plain old lily sugar'n cream cotton yarn. the turned up edge was created by knitting an icord edging over some copper wire.

so, what about that yarn that didn't work? well, i knit a 'one skein cowl' designed by lorna misner for brown sheep company. i picked up this free pattern when i bought the yarn, which is brown sheep cotton fleece, a lovely blend of cotton and merino wool, in the colorway 'columbine blossom'. glad i grabbed the 'freebie' as it came in handy when i had to repurpose my yarn from its original mission!

the cowl is a variation of the 'feather and fan' pattern and is perfect for those days when you need just a little something to warm up your neck!