Abby and I went for our walk in the dark this evening. I didn't get out the door until a little later than usual but even if we'd gone out at 8:30 like we did on Friday it would have been too dark to walk on the path around the lake.

I was told on the weekend that we're losing about six minutes of light every day right now (I'm not sure if that's six minutes on either end or six minutes all together but it's very noticeable) and I realized as we were walking that from now on our days will be longer than our nights. A month from now we'll be going to work in the dark. Two months from now we'll only see the sun in our house when we're home at lunch time or on the weekends. And three months from now we will only see the sun for about four hours and fifty minutes in the middle of the day. We're having a nice fall and I'm looking forward to winter but I always miss the light.

With fall in full swing, and winter quickly approaching, I've been trying to work on my Hawthorn shawl. I'd really like to get to wear it before I have to switch to my warm coat and scarf. Unfortunately I can't seem to work the chart very well when Abby is awake and rambunctious or when I'm very tired so I've only really been working on it on the weekends when Abby tends to doze for the afternoons.

The cast-on was a bit of a marathon: 311 stitches. When I was finished I made some tea and took a break. I felt I deserved one.

The chart is pretty easy to follow and I've found that I can memorize whatever I'm doing for a particular row by the second or third repeat and can just continue without looking at the pattern. It sometimes takes me a while to rearrange my brain to work the wrong side rows from the chart and I find I do a lot of checking for the first few repeats. I'm far enough into the lace now that I can actually see a bit of the pattern.

The yarn in Sundara Yarns Aran Silky Merino and I've been wanting to use some of this stuff ever since I saw a shawl on Brooklyn Tweed in it a few years back. It's an incredible treat to work with but I find the silk makes it more difficult to photograph.