a showy moonday

I love that I didn't see it coming. I came out to the living room the other morning and lo and behold the Christmas cactus had become a Thanksgiving cactus. Best of all are its magenta blossoms combined with the colors in those handmade pillows -- downright showy.

Some other pillows around the house that I am crazy about -- the sunshine pillow reminds me of my parents who sang that song to us kids. And there's the sweetest little fragrant sleep pillow, a party favor, in front of the smile pillow on the bed. The word smile is a reminder for when I wake up in the morning, inspired by this. A lot of days, I don't notice it until I make the bed though. You'd think I really like to make the bed because I'm always smiling.

The colors of the knitted leaves I blocked this morning are bright and cheery -- hoping to make a bunting with them in time for Thanksgiving Day.

Today is a waxing moonday in Capricorn. Capricorn is task-oriented and we are influenced to be more organized and disciplined about getting things done. I always welcome a Capricorn moon, especially when there's a lot to do. And there is.

Wishing you a good start to the new week, it's going to be wonderful, yes?

no-vember's yes

 

Yes. Right when I needed it the most, I read (over at Dee Mallon and Cloth Company) about drawing inward at this time of seasonal change and putting the no in November. For me, November's no means yes on so many levels that it's going to become an annual ritual.

The woolly November mandala is stitched with a grape juice dyed moon on a Japanese indigo dyed background. This is #11 in my stitch & dye ritual, 13 moondalas. It's sort of Fair Isle-ish so that got me looking at Fair Isle patterns on Ravelry. I like this one but for today a little duplicate stitch on a hexipuff satisfies.

That's one of several jars of dye-bath from summer, rich with color and nearly opaque -- in just seconds it stained both the countertop and my hands dark purple. Out came Mr. Magic Eraser. The cloth is an unmordanted heavy cotton napkin, always hard to dye, but so far it looks like it may hold the color.

Two knits still in the making -- the Hitchhiker and the Stitch Sampler Shawl. Now that I have the hang of it, I'm liking the Hitchhiker a lot and the Stitch Sampler Shawl is some pretty adventurous knitting. I'm in an exciting part now, dropping yarnovers, I absolutely love the way it looks.

It is a waning moontime now -- I'm wishing you all the time you need to pull back and assess, to dream and plan . . . in the spirit of November.

moonday needle book

My little needle book -- cotton, linen, wool felt, an old button and vintage rickrack trim. Oh, how I loved making it.

Today is a waning moonday in the sign of Cancer. We may feel more sensitive and find ourselves not wanting to leave home now. Instead, we want to nest and cook and feed people. And grow things -- everything from plants to collections.

A change of weather blew in this morning and the temperature has been dropping all day. They say we may even have our first snowfall -- one of these days that forecast will be right.

Wishing you the happiest of weeks.

needle book moonday

It is cold and wet outside on this waxing moonday in Aries. There might even be a little snow tonight -- just when we were starting to believe that autumn would be nothing more than a continuation of late-summer. Only a week ago I picked the last of the green peppers while lots of late-planted dill is still blooming and a big clump of lemon grass awaits its harvest. The bees have been out foraging daily but the time has come to get them ready for winter.

Step-by-step, I'm stitching a Rumi-cloth patch for the front of a needle book. I've never used or even owned a needle book before but think I'm going to like it. Because something or someone steals my needles during the night. The same something or someone that tangles up the garden hose every night all summer long.

Our Aries moon has really great assertive energy for starting new things. The general feeling though is that projects begun during an Aries moon will need long-term planning to see them through to completion -- Aries is so fiery it just fizzles out completely sometimes. 

I like a good strong start, it almost has to be to withstand all the second-guessing I do at the beginning. 

And I'm wishing you a good start to your week, too.