Back In the Swing of Things

There are pumpkins all around and the summer fruit is getting down right expensive. This can only mean one thing. It’s Fall. Fall is definitely one of my favorite seasons. But, now that I think about it – when it is Spring, that is my favorite season, and when it is summer, I love summer. Winter is the only season that I don’t have a love affair with. But Fall is all about that cozy warm feeling. I’m planning to make chili and tomorrow night will be crock pot macaroni and cheese. Comfort foods.

This weekend I packed up the pre-teen and the full fledged teenager, and ignoring their rants of unfair treatment, I went up north to my husband’s school-year home. Careful packing was in order for this trip, as I knew that it would rain and I would be unable to do any canoe trips on Saturday. Of course a day in the rain in a cottage by the lake can only mean one thing. SPIN! I packed the wheel carefully in the back of my Jetta Wagon and we were off, sulking girls included. Even the temptation of “up north” boyfriends did little to make my 13 year-old smile. It was the high school homecoming game, and anyone who was “anyone” was there. Even eighth graders, she told me. I told her that I guess we’re “no ones” and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
We stopped off at my local woolen mill (Hidden Valley Woolen Mill) and searched for the perfect color for me to make a shawl for myself. If you are a careful reader, you may remember the cashmere shawl that I started earlier in the year. You may be wondering what has become of it. Well… it is still on the needles and progressing very slowly. I decided that I deserved a finished product more quickly, so drafting, spinning, washing, and knitting would be the way to go, right? Of course, right.

I picked out a luscious roving in a “weathered barn” colorway. It was full of deep maroon, grey, a bit of black, and some light maroon. It was exactly the color of a weathered barn. We held it up to an apricot blush, and the two looked fabulous together. I got the weathered barn for now and saved the apricot blush for another day. Off we went to the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

It was a fantastic weekend. John had our favorite meal (his famous meatloaf.. he makes the BEST meatloaf) waiting on the table as we pulled up. After eating, we got busy watching movies and I began to spin. Saturday morning I spun and spun and spun throughout most of the day. It was gorgeous. The roving was easy to work with and I was getting a nice, fine, even yarn from it. I spent some time on the paddleboat with my daughter and my 13 year-old fished off of the pier, and looked for boys. This time there were none. Fish OR boys. I was in big trouble!

We spent the night in front of the fire, watching more movies and listening to the rain while I sat and spun and then knit. It was a great retreat. I packed up last night and headed for home, with two much happier girls. Turns out that they didn’t mind the lack of boys, but we can’t figure out where they went. On Labor Day weekend, the lake was crawling with eligible teen-age boys, but now, nothing. We are guessing that they were staying at the campground on the opposite side of the lake, or that they were just busy with sports stuff. The hunt will go on, I’m told.

On Sunday I started to get sick. My allergies couldn’t take all of the trees. My allergies and sinuses get a workout every year at this time, and this year it seemed that it would be a bit worse. I woke up Monday morning looking as pale as could be and I was barely able to breathe from the pounding in my head. I stayed home today, drank tea, and looked at my spinning. I wanted to spin some more, but lifting my head up from the pillow proved to be too much of an effort. Spinning may have to wait until my next trip up north, in about three weeks.

If you know the boys on the lake, could you tell them when we will be there? Thanks.