Deer Me

Yesterday was the first day in two weeks that it wasn't raining.

So Jesse and I went for a walk to check out the fall colours.

The colours are very late this year. We're only at about 30%. Most years in the past decade the colours have peaked the week before Thanksgiving (the real Thanksgiving ;o) ) and the trees have been bare for the long weekend. Not so this year.

Here we are nearing the crest of the knoll out back, and Jesse pauses for a photo op by the bright red dogwood.

From here we went to the top of the rise and turned right. I still had my camera turned on from the Jesse shot when,

I realize its not a great shot, but rare is the chance I get to take one of a deer. By the time I get my camera out of my pocket, and it goes beep, and Jesse goes bow-wow, the deer are long gone. (click to enlarge -its in the centre of the photo)

For some reason this time they (there were two but only one in the shot) just stood there and looked at me. Even when the camera beeped as I took the first photo. And Jesse just stood there and looked at them. Strange.

I saw 6 deer the afternoon before while driving down the hill nearest the farm, and 4 more that evening.

I love to eat deer, but I also like just watching them... beautiful creatures that they are.

Slip Stitches
A was asking what I mean by slip stitches in my size Medium knee socks.

It's just a skipped stitch - I take the needle out of the machine, as in mock ribbing. Hang the stitch from the needle you want to remove on its neighbour.

Normally I knit size medium on the 54 cylinder. For knee socks I need more stitches for the upper leg, which makes the ankle and foot to wide, even with a tighter tension. So I remove every 4th needle on the top half of the cylinder when I get to the pre-heel, and that snugs the fit up. You could also purl those stitches but then you'd have ribbing-ridges which could be a discomfort issue.

Yet another way to reduce the size for the foot would be to remove the sock from the 72 needle cylinder altogether when you get to the pre-heel, and rehang the work on the 54 cylinder, doubling up stitches as necessary during the rehang. (This is what I do for my Over the Knee Socks - I knit the top part of the sock on the 100 needle cylinder, and rehang on the 72 when I get to the part where a regular knee sock would begin.

Jon Michael Talbot
is one of my favourite composers of spiritual music. We do a lot of his music in choir and our accompanist does great arrangements for multi parts, applying a soft jazz influence.

Here's a clip of JMT in concert, performing a piece we sing often, Healer of my Soul.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all....