Spinning through the Fall

The gold flame spirea bushes in the front yard are just beautiful this year. I cannot remember them ever being such a great mix of colors. I cut some branches for my desk at work as I know they won't last long outdoors now. In fact it is raining this evening and the wind is getting quite gusty so everything may look a lot more like the end of October by tomorrow morning.

The prep work is done on my next spinning project. This is a nice variegated purple, lavender, and grey wool that has been in my fiber stash for a long time. It has been on my list of projects to be completed so it feels good to get at it!

I was hoping to spin it directly from the locks as it is in the photo above. But after closer examination it proved to have too much plant material in it.

I spent several hours pulling the locks apart and gently opening them to release the little bits of grass and dirt. I usually work over a white cloth laying across my lap to catch the fallout and to give a light colored background that makes it easier to see the foreign matter. This is time consuming but very rewarding!

I now have a box full of this purple cloud-like wool! I am not going to card this or prep it any further so I will hopefully get a nicely textured yarn. This will make a single ply yarn that is not a bulky weight but a little heavier than a worsted. That is the plan. I will photograph the results and report later.

The last rose of summer!!!!

Yes, on Saturday, Oct.23 I photographed this rose blooming in our backyard! The serviceberry tree that it is leaning on has dropped all it's leaves and most of the plants around it are going dormant but this rose was fooled by the warm temperatures and has just kept growing.

Enjoy whatever fall weather you have left. There is the mention of snow flurries in our forecast for this week. Winter will come. . . . . . .