and then there were cables

I played hooky today and skipped class, but I think my critics should deal with me lightly. Anyone who stayed indoors today, on such a gloriously fall day, at least in my neck of the woods, would have to be labeled an idiot.

Blue skies and falling leaves. This may be our last mild day before winter. The last day when the color is still in the leaves on the trees and not down in the gutter or being swept away by a cold November wind. We've already had snow this season in Minnesota, so my irresponsible behavior can only be called sanity.

And I don't think its strange at all that I took my camera and my half-way finished pair of socks with me on my wanderings. I kept finding similarities between the color on the trees and the color in the sky with the happy stripes in my socks. One red stripe in particular at the ankle matched perfectly the hue of one fallen leaf that skittered across my path. And another stripe, this one a golden-amber color, matched perfectly the flaming bough of a friendly maple tree. All these stripes set against a background of blue-gray-green that reminds me of the sky today.

The warm autumn sky before winter.

I chose to end these socks with a cabled rib. Something about this technique reminds me of the braided trunks of the maples and oaks, or maybe the twining stems of the ivy that climbs the brick walls of the buildings that march along the side of the path where I walk. Or perhaps the bobbing seed heads of the fancy grasses that also line this path. Have you ever studied one up close? The seeds fit against the stalk in a staggered pattern that calls to mind a braid.


Any description will work I guess.

I gathered a bouquet of dried grasses and slipped the stems into the jar that holds my pencils and brushes on my desk at studio.