Autumn equinox

It’s the Autumn equinox today, the day when the astrological Autumn begins and the sun crosses the celestial equator.  It might feel as if it’s a bit late as meterological Autumn began on 1 September and if you are in the northern hemisphere, you might have noticed that the temperatures are already a little cooler, there’s that Autumn scent in the air and the leaves are starting to change colour.  The equinox refers to the day of the year (two days, actually, as there is a Spring equinox too) when the sun is directly overhead at noon and there are roughly equal hours of day and night before the days start to get shorter and the nights longer as we head into Winter so there is a significance in marking the equinox as from today, there will be a definite sign that Winter is on the way.

I posted photos last week of conkers and acorns that were underfoot when I was out with the dog, and I was wondering if it was all a bit earlier this year.  In the comments for last week’s post, Lucy told me that she had heard on the radio that an early Autumn had begun thanks to the Summer heatwave and we might get a “false Spring” as Nature corrects herself, and that makes perfect sense to me.

Last week, I also showed you not so small daughter’s socks which were progressing very well – they are knitted in DK yarn and it grows so quickly compared to 4ply!  I sat and finished them through The Queen’s funeral on Monday (there may be a few tears knitted in there too) and in no time at all, they were ready to be worn.

Here are the very same socks on their way to college yesterday morning …

Oh, she was very pleased with them!  “I had very toasty toes all day ,” was the declaration when she returned home and that’s exactly what I wanted 🙂  It was quite chilly here yesterday so it was a good opportunity to try the socks out and I’m happy that they’re going to get plenty of wear over the coming months.

In case you missed last week’s post with the yarn and pattern details, the yarn is Aire Valley DK from West Yorkshire Spinners in the colourway Sherbet Fizz, and both the colourway and the yarn are now discontinued although you may be able to still find some through an internet search if you’re lucky.  The pattern is my Basic 8ply (DK) Boot Socks pattern which is free here on the blog and you can use the Winwick Mum Sockalong tutorials if you are new to socks and need help.

I’ve got more sock news to tell you, but let me squeeze in a few more Autumn equinox photos first.  I took these early this morning as the sun was coming up.  (There are two photos of spider webs in these next photos so a heads up for those who aren’t keen on spiders – the spiders themselves were nowhere to be seen but in case the webs give you the shivers as well, I thought I’d mention it!)

I think this is my favourite view of the garden with the sun coming through the trees.  It was slightly misty this morning and you can just see it still behind the trees in the sunshine.

Look at that blue sky!  Oh, it was such a beautiful morning!

I took these whilst I was out with the dog.  It rained heavily yesterday and everywhere was still wet this morning.  Spider webs look so beautiful when they are holding droplets of water that look like jewels.

There were more jewels in the grass further along our walk.  I love that this photo is out of focus – you can see how many little tiny beads of dew there were sparkling in the sunshine.

The fields are looking bare now that everything has been harvested.  This is what this field looks like now and not long ago it was full of golden waving barley …

It’s just stalks now after the barley has been cut down …

or is it?

Actually, no, it’s not.  If you look closely, there are narrow furrows or drills in the ground and that’s where Winter wheat has been sown …

I noticed a tractor out in the fields the other day and this is what they were doing.  I’ve taken much more notice of the tractors being around this year, or perhaps we’ve been in the same fields at the same time so I’ve seen them around more – I think that farming seems like a stealth move sometimes; we never notice anything happening until suddenly – ta dah – there’s a field full of crops! 🙂

Further over in the blue flax field, the last of the crop has been harvested.  I was wondering why only part of the field had been harvested and it turned out to be because the field had been sown at different times and so the crop was ready to be harvested at different times too.

Ah, but even in this field, there’s something new growing …

There are the drill lines for the wheat again, and here are the tractor and combine in action, simultaneously harvesting and sowing whilst the weather is still good …

You can see how dusty the combining is – clouds of it!

Back home from our walk, I did some harvesting of my own and picked some raspberries from the garden to go into my morning smoothie.  Not just any old smoothie, this is the one recommended to me by the herbalist/nutritionist that I have been seeing since earlier this year and I’ve been drinking the combination of almond milk, tofu (you can’t taste it, honestly!), fruit and milled linseed (also known as flaxseed – who knows, a future smoothie may contain linseed from the fields of Winwick!) pretty much every day.

The fruit in my smoothie is usually frozen fruit – blueberries are my favourite – but today I threw in a few blackcurrants that also came from the garden earlier in the year which I put in the freezer (not many, as they aren’t very sweet) …

There’s also a banana in there, and along with the linseed I’ve started adding some green barley grass powder and my vitamins (I figured I might as well get everything in the one drink!) and it all gets together blitzed in the blender, there are no “bits” for me to get twitchy about and I’ve had one of my five a day plus all my vits!  I feel very healthy and virtuous drinking it 🙂

It’s not any hardship, to be honest, because it tastes really nice!

If you think this all sounds a bit too healthy, there is a reason why my herbalist recommended it, and it’s because both tofu and linseed are what’s known was phytoestrogens and having them in our diet can help those of us with fluctuating oestrogen levels and those not particularly fun perimenopausal symptoms that are the result.  Phytoestrogens occur naturally in certain foods and they act in a similar way to the hormone oestrogen with the cells in our body, but at a much lower and more consistent level than our out-of-control hormonal oestrogen, and that helps to calm everything down.  Now, I am neither a herbalist nor a nutritionist or I would not need to be seeing one myself, so if this sounds like something that would help you, then please do talk to a professional.

I mentioned in my earlier post about seeing the herbalist that I am not against conventional medical help for perimenopausal symptoms and there are choices for everyone.  My herbal remedy is really working for me, and being at the point where I feel so much better than I did at the beginning of the year (and probably quite a bit longer ago than that), I would urge anybody not to put up with those “time of life” changes but definitely seek help of some sort if they start to get unbearable.  It’s not easy to define that moment when you move from being reasonably OK to not being OK at all, but I think that the more we talk about it all, the easier it will be for us to be able to ask for help before things get to crisis point.

And public information announcement over, I’m going to talk about more socks! 🙂

This pair has been on the needles for a while and it’s good to have them finished and on my feet now.

They do make me feel a little bit guilty in that these were started after and finished before my Emergency socks, but it is how it is!  I might have to bring the Emergency Socks indoors from the car and get a few more rounds in … anyway these socks are knitted in the Twilight Rainbow colourway dyed by the talented Caroline at Yarn Unique.  I did find that the yarn was going to pool around the gusset (interestingly, Susan told me in the comments that she hadn’t had that problem when she knitted socks in the same yarn so perhaps the cast on number makes a difference) so I used the helical knitting technique that I talk about in this tutorial on avoiding colour pooling and flashing on sock gussets and I am very happy with the results.

Ooh, and the pattern is my Basic 4ply Socks pattern which you can find for free here.

I’ve got something else to ask you about sock patterns before I sign off for today and I know you’ll let me know what you think!

I mentioned a short while ago that not so small daughter is going to Japan with the Guides next year.  She has to pay for her trip herself through fundraising and I thought I might be able to help her out a little bit by designing a paid for sock pattern, the proceeds of which could go towards her total.

I’ve started the socks already and they are making me smile with every stitch.  The base is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply in Seascape (no surprise that it’s a Winwick Mum yarn!) with a small amount of colourwork thrown in … they’re a bit of fun and based on my Basic 4ply Socks pattern as usual.  There is a slight twist to the pattern if you choose to use the Seascape yarn like I have … but all will be revealed later!  Not so small daughter has already claimed the socks and I will be releasing the pattern as soon as it’s written and it’s been checked.

I’ve designed another sock pattern that I would also like to release as a paid for pattern, and I’d like to use these to make a donation to the Trussell Trust, the organisation behind food banks.

I think it’s heartbreaking that so many people – people who work hard, often at more than one job, who have families, people like you and me and often through no fault of their own – have to go to food banks to make sure that they have enough to eat.  It’s only going to get worse as the Winter goes on and the fuel bills rise and I would like to do more than drop off my bag of food and sanitary donations at the supermarket.

This pattern is designed as a snuggle pair to wear indoors – the yarn shown is West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK and although I think they might work very well as a no-nylon pair of socks, I like the idea of having a special pair of socks to snuggle up in.  We’ve all got those yarns that we know won’t last the day as “regular” socks but don’t want the yarn to spend eternity as house insulation – and this could be the perfect way to use it!

Now, here’s my question … two paid for patterns before Christmas?  Do you think that’s too many?  Obviously, no one is obliged to buy either but I am not used to releasing my own patterns so close together!

I will thank you in advance for your thoughts, and I will leave you now as I go and get on with a few more rounds of my socks – see you again soon! xx