Winter is Coming

WHILE on my early morning hydrangea hunt, I enjoyed a rare bit of alone time in the rain.
The dampness and the slight chill in the morning reminds me that winter is coming, and winter out here is an oddly beautiful thing.
Especially on misty days like this one, when the dampness clings to everything, turning the tree trunks black and the moss pale green, and my immediate thoughts are turning this natural beauty into something knitted.
Random ideas which may or may not become actual projects are below...


Wood chips on a neighbor's lawn. I love the contrast of topaz and grey in this one. If I were going to try to knit this one, I'd do something in entrelac with a selection of browns and a few random grey squares.
(Though every time I look at these colors, I hear Paolo Conte in my head singing about "chips, chips... dah-tee-doo-di-doo...")


Gorgeous dahlia. I can't wait until we can plant these in our own yard.
This one seems perfect for a classic Fair Isle pattern, done on a white background and pattern shading from light to dark and back again.


Ah, Oregon plums (snagged from a neighborhood tree). These have a shocking lime green rim and delicious, moist flesh that is almost the color of cantaloupe.
I think perhaps a deep purple top with a lace overlay would give the soft effect this brings to mind.


Here I tried (and failed miserably) to capture the deep garnet color of the leaves with the light coming through them. The jet blackness of the trunk clearly comes through, so I'll chalk that up to inexperience on my part. Again, to try to capture this, I'd try Fair Isle (red and black is a pretty classic combination) with a dash of palest green perhaps embroidered across the surface for the moss.


A Japanese maple from down the block. I am obsessed by the soft, feathery quality of the leaves, and am determined to acquire one of these for the yard as well.
I think intarsia would be appropriate to adequately capture the shape and shading of the leaves.