Hello Knitty

It’s fall in the South, although it doesn’t really feel like it. Leaves don’t change colors or drop off of the trees here. The temperature stays in the 70s and 80s, and flowers are still in bloom.

But there are signs that the seasons are changing. After a summer filled with 100+ degree days, the seemingly not-so-fall temps are leaving me chilled. Handknits are worn nearly every day and whenever I come near a Starbucks I have to force myself not to order a caramel apple cider, which is like a warm cup full of autumn.

Pumpkins have been carved.

And Halloween has come and gone.

Now is as good of a time as any to introduce you to another very important person in my life. You’ve met the Scientist, and this is his son, Charlie. I am privileged to call these two my family.

So if I talk about “we” in any of my posts, know that we is the three of us. It’s a good life, the three of us and our two sweet cats in an apartment full of wool and books and a whole lot of love. There is no doubt this Halloween was my best ever. I think my heart grew 10 sizes watching Charlie trick or treating in his snake costume.

And speaking of my heart, and people having an effect on it, I’m knitting the Scientist a pair of socks.

I’m a notoriously selfish knitter, but for him I make an exception. He mentions he’d like a new pair of socks, and a new pair appears on the needles. I actually have a small stash of sock yarn that is all his, colors either I know he’ll love or that he’s picked out himself.

Mention away. For you, and Charlie, I’ll do anything.

On Friday, November 22, 1963 at 12:30 p.m. President Kennedy was shot in the head on this spot.

On Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 12:36 p.m. I sat down on the spot where President Kennedy was shot in the head and continued my tradition of going to interesting places and knitting.

Maybe this sounds morbid, but I’ve wanted to go to Dealey Plaza since I was a kid. Presidential history is something I’ve loved my whole life. My boyfriend, the Scientist, is incredibly supportive of my interests, and since we had a rare child-free weekend he suggested we drive up to Dallas and take a mini assassination vacation.

In case you were wondering, this is the view from the X of the Texas School Book Depository. I circled the window Oswald shot out of. Not a difficult shot at all.

And continuing his tradition of being a bit of a nut, here’s the Scientist on the other X, the one closest to the depository, which marks where Kennedy was hit with the first bullet.

Again, here’s the view from that X of the Texas School Book Depository.

The Scientist took this picture of me (I think I was updating twitter) and you can sort of see what it was like – there are a lot of people around. Farther up on the grassy knoll several people had tables set up and were talking about their conspiracy theories, some saying they were there on the day Kennedy was shot.

The fence on the grassy knoll, where people claim there was a second gunman, is rebuilt a couple times a year. It’s sort of a make shift shrine, where people write their names and leave messages. The Scientist made a contribution. It, along with the fact that he took me to Dealey Plaza, may be the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.

Things I did not do last weekend: go to Rhinebeck.

Things I did do last weekend:

Received some gorgeous yarn in the mail from Hermosa Fiber Company. So excited to start knitting with it!

Worked on this cowl. I’ve run head-on into my perfectionism with this project. Five rows of the pink seems like too little. Six rows seems like too much. I’ve been knitting and ripping and reknitting for close to two weeks and although I’m actually making forward progress now, I’m still not 100% sure I’m happy with it. Might be one of those projects I’ll have to finish and block before I decide whether I like it and what changes I want to make for the next sample.

Cheered for these football teams. For all the reasons I love fall, the start of football seasons is certainly up near the top. My boyfriend and I very rarely watch TV but we both make an exception for football. We’ve adopted each others’ teams – he’s a fan of college football (his team is the University of Michigan Wolverines), and I like pro (I’ve been watching the Green Bay Packers since I was a little girl, thanks to my Dad, a Wisconsin native).

Read this book. Pretty much every evening lately is a countdown until I’m able to curl up with my book for an hour or two before bed. I finished my books on the Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley assassinations, and have started in on Kennedy. Which is especially fitting since it looks like this weekend I will be in Dallas, visiting Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository!

And spent all weekend with my two favorite people in the whole world. It might not have been Rhinebeck, but you know what? It was still totally awesome.