I am working hard. The designs for my new collection are in all in process, and I have spent the past few weeks writing patterns and knitting . . . lots of pattern writing, and lots and lots of knitting.
This sort of work requires the kind of concentrated focus I haven’t felt for quite a while, and I find myself in a place that is familiar from the experience of producing different kinds of book: holding the pieces of a gigantic puzzle and waiting for them all to slot neatly into place. So far the right things are slotting into the right places, which is pleasing. It is really rather nice to be working hard again. That said, at this stage of a project I am probably at my most antisocial and my hermit-ty tendencies are only exacerbated by the fact that I can’t, as yet, talk about the work I’m doing here. There is something of the season about this hermit-ty feeling, too. Everything has that blown-out, approaching-end-of-Summer look to it, and at this time of year I always find myself want to grasp things before they disappear, to just hurry up and do something before it is all over. I am doing my best.
Meanwhile, August is slipping away. I walk outside every day, and watch the wildflowers in the undergrowth change . . .
. . . and go to seed.
I’d better get a move on.
KDD & Co 
and lastly, the humble thistle, symbol of a great and mighty nation!
How I do love your posts. It certainly takes my mind off of the hot and tinder dry condition of my part of California right now. Thank you,dear Kate
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I’m thinking you have a new camera and/or lens. :) Can’t wait to see the new designs!
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Here in Canberra, Australia we are at the end of a very long, cold and frosty winter, a season with very little rain that does not augur well for the summer to come. Oh, for Spring and Autumn weather the year round :) Love your pics Kate and, like many others, look forward to seeing them reflected in your designs.
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Love your photos!
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Whenever I see your gorgeous nature photos, I wonder how the intricacies of the natural world are going to show up in your knitted designs.
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Having just had two days of higher temps than I was apparantly built for ( and for me no knitting at all ) I can barely imagine how you would want to hurry….
Good to hear it is pleasing and you are enjoying it, I’m very curious about the result !
The photo’s are lovely, and that little heap of yarn makes one even more curious… ;-)
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You have put that “end of summer” feeling into words exactly. The same thing is going on here, where the peak of the summer heat has passed, the nights are a little chilly, and the crickets are the dominant sound out of doors. I’m not yet melancholy, just a little wistful.
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Lovely post – I’m in the middle of a huge book-editing marathon myself, and you’ve reminded me that there is a world out there. Somewhere…
Looking forward to whatever it is you’re working on!
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Though I’ve been out of academia for many years now, I doubt I will ever lose the August feeling of needing to hurry up and get things done. Those “things” used to be fresh syllabi or lectures or research projects best undertaken when teaching wasn’t the main focus. Now those “things” are quite different, but I still associate August with a sense of urgency to get things done before September, the month of the “fresh start” arrives.
I’ll be quite giddy with excitement to see your latest patterns. Perhaps what I ought to attend to urgently are my Kate Davies Patterns wip’s!
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Lovely seed and flower photos, I see the seasons change in my flower shop as well. I don’t feel we’ve had our fair share of summer this year but I am strangely looking forward to starting new winter projects and looking forward to seeing your designs. Thankyou
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I never feel that urge to do something at the end of summer, but the first signs of Autumn have me cleaning the house and getting ready to ‘hunker down’ for Winter. Even though we have AC and a really mild cold season, my internal clock wants to get ready for hibernation.
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Poetry x
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Here in Melbourne, Australia, there is also a different “better get a move on” feel, different flowers coming, this time the heralds of Spring, and the waking up from a deep sleep! But somehow these thresholds at the ends of the “extreme” seasons have a similar mood…
It is also wonderful to feel anticipation about your upcoming work being unveiled.
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I always come to your page see if you have posted something. Love to read you and to look at your beautiful pictures. Also enjoy reading Bruce!! How wonderful that you are enjoying your work!!
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Great pictures. I feel the same way here in the U.S. the summer is winding down and temperatures are cooler at night. Thank you for posting and letting me know about your work. Just received the kit for the BMC cowl and I am excited to get started. Appreciate your work.
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“Better get a move on” is a good motto to put on my wall! Awaiting your next creations as summer turns cool.
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A “collection”? How enticing…
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Ooo, that pile of trimmed yarn ends looks very tantalising!
I love summer, but I hate getting sunburnt. I feel like we’ve all been cursing the rain, but now the sun’s here we’re all complaining it’s too hot… I picked rosehips today (to infuse into white run), and there’s a bush groaning with blueberries in the garden, so autumn will be here soon – probably before I finish knitting my linen lace scarf, which was meant to be for summer!
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Just in the last week the sun patterns have changed on our back terrace. The longer shadows hit the stones differently and there is a blue tinge to light and shadow that wasn’t there in the summer. I find it quite exciting. I love late summer and early autumn.
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Love those colors so I can’t wait to see what is being produced. We are in Edinburgh this weekend and are amazed by the beautiful weather (tonight’s rain storm, without jackets aside). We ate lunch in a nook of Keidler forest (not the water park!) on our way up and the green colors are amazing right now.
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Can’t wait for your new collection!
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Lovely post, Ms. Davies. Thank you for the change in seasons view.
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As always, I am giddy with anticipation. Also, I can relate about the ‘better get a move-on’ feeling. Very !
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Don’t you still feel that the real start of a new year is in September? January first is all well and good, but there is a far greater shift in the cosmos when summer wheels into fall and school is once again in session, whether or not WE are still in school!
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I love your photography, Katie. I’ve been reading and enjoying your posts right along but not responding, since my mom’s death it has been hard. I mourn the end of summer, in a way but since Autumn has always been my favorite season I look forward to it. I adore football, cool crisp weather, Halloween and Thanksgiving and most of all the colors of Autumn have always been my favorites besides I begin to knit more and sweater weather may arrive after this horrendously hot and dry summer. Keep working hard. It’s good for you!
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I love seeing the flowers from your neck of the woods and being able to look over your shoulder as you walk.
the snippets of yarn in orange and green are the colors I am capturing in my dye pots of native plants in my yard. This week I picked golden rod for bright yellows and cosmos for wonderful oranges and Queen Annes lace for bright greens.
At this time of year I am busy picking as I walk and then simmering the color in a pot over the fire outside so I will have bits of summer color to knit this winter.
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So happy for this post! Can’t wait to see what you are up to! There is a panic to August, isn’t there? I better get busy too! :)
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It’s wonderful to hear that your work is going well and is pleasing you.
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I love the flower photos, it’s very easy to get caught up in daily life and not actually “see” the amazing changes happening in the world around. And hints of new designs as well – what a great post :) Thankyou!!
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I am eagerly awaiting autumn. We’ve been under the assault of a brutal heat wave. The cooler weather will really kick start my creativity!
The wildflowers are georgeous, and I can’t wait for your new designs…
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Michelle, same here! As I’m in England, of course I’ve had no heat-wave to contend with, but that suits me just fine because I find the warm weather not conductive to clear-headed thinking, or even of thinking at all for all that matters.
Seeing Kate’s marvellous (very) early fall pics make my heart skip in my chest! This is my fav time of the year… approaching a new beginning and all that. As I was born on 01/09, I feel that I am ‘naturally’ a ‘natural’ at fall-winter things! And knitting goes so well with it! And nice warm foods! And brisk walks across copper fields! Oh my, I am getting excited to the point of TEARS! Ah yes, and Kate’s new designs too. Hurry up Kate! Hurry up autumn!
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Love your photos of flowers and things going to seed. I walk down the alleyways here in Canada and see the gladiolas in gardens, the flowers that mark summer’s end and feel that things are coming to a close too soon and I still have so much to do: preserving and canning, knitting, painting and drawing…
“And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” ~ William Shakespeare
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“I’d better get a move on”… I always feel like that! Sometimes hard graft can be a joyous thing though. And I’m glad you’ve had time to share some more fantastic photos!
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I love the way your snippets echo the colours of those fleeting/flitting flowers.
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Oh if only ‘it’, Autumn,would come sooner here…..heat, ugh! The wool bits of Orange and Green are my favourite colours, my bestest :) And my beloved thistles, ahhhhhhhh. Happy knitting and so glad concentration is working for you/us!!
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