Pumpkins and Yarn

I have a special love for fall. Cherry blossoms and daffodils are beautiful and yes, spring is nice after the long dark winter, but for me fall is the one and only winner. Maybe it’s because I was born in late fall, don’t know, but I have heard a theory that you lean toward the season you were born in, so maybe that’s why. In the autumn, I get to decorate my porch with pumpkins, and I for sure will, as soon as they appear outside of my grocery store. I start with princess pumpkins, and  knuckleheads, the ones that look like they have a pretty severe dermatologic condition. I scatter my living room, our entrance and my desk with small pumpkins and gourds. I love turning the fireplace on and lighting my special candle, the one I keep buying from Woodinville Whiskey Company.

By end of August, I will have grabbed my yarns from the garage. Yarns, and halfway completed projects that have been forgotten for the summer months, I grab them and start knitting again. I visit yarn stores, and spend way too much money on new yarns for socks, scarfs and mittens. For the love of fall, and knitting. I knitted my first potholder when I was 7 years old, and did not particularly enjoy making it. At school, my teacher laughed at my attempt of making those mandatory mittens as my needles kept falling on the floor, and I learned that knitting just wasn’t for me. I hated knitting until I fell in love with it in my twenties, and have been knitting ever since. Sweaters, socks, scarfs, blankets… every single fall and winter. For years knitting was something I did in the waiting rooms as Mia and the boys were doing their OT, PT, SLP, SS, ABA and the list goes on, and all the other autism moms in those waiting rooms started to know me as the knitting mom with twins. I recently happened to run into one of those moms. I didn’t recognize her, but she grabbed my sleeve and asked me if I was the knitting mom from the waiting room. Yes, I was, and guess what, I was at my son’s parkour class, watching and oh yes, knitting.

Fall is my thing. The smell of rotting leaves in the woods, the sound of rain when I’m about to fall asleep, not forgetting to mention all the awesome fall foods… who doesn’t love pumpkin pancakes, roast beef and potatoes and a hearty lentil soup! As I’m writing I seem to be creating this hard to resist craving for apple pie.

Fall is like a waltz. It starts from the turning leaves and pumpkins, circling through Halloween followed by Thanksgiving, ending with the grand finale of Christmas. Officially fall starts tomorrow as it’s the Autumnal Equinox, and the hours of daylight are roughly equal with the hours of darkness. Welcome to my favorite time of the year, grab your cozy sweater, light a candle and throw yourself on the couch, or if you’d rather pull on your rain jacket and wellies, and join Martha and I for a walk on the trails.