Filling fall with projects . . . . .

The feel of autumn is definitely in the air here this week.  Even the quality of the daylight seems different.  The days are getting shorter and it is dark now when I get up at 6 each morning.  All these signs of seasonal change bring little waves of apprehension, for as much as I love September and

October  the inevitable gray, cold days of November, December, January and February will have to follow.

I feel this dread of winter a bit more intensely each year.  I begin to understand the draw of sunny climes and the migration of Minnesota elder snow-birds to Florida or Arizona for the worst months of snowfall and sub-zero temperatures.  I am not ready to follow this pattern quite yet but here at our house we begin to speak of "a couple months in a warmer spot for January and February someday" - someday.  Maybe someday.

But for now I begin to cocoon.  The loom and the spinning wheel, the wool and all the yarn and fiber begin to pull me indoors.  The distraction of the vegetable garden and the flower beds will be all tucked away for the season soon.  The family room and weaving corner feels cozy and promising as a winter evening retreat.  This is angora from a goat named Madeline, a large bag of lovely softness waiting to be spun - a gift from my friend Betty.

I am still working away at my ever present sock knitting.  I do not really ever tire of producing these.

But I have promised myself a change of pace with a larger project for the early winter months.  I am searching for the perfect pullover sweater pattern.  I want something very simple, a casual look, probably wool yarn.  I will decide within the next couple of weeks so that I can get started and have a chance to wear the finished product this winter!

I have strung the loom with a warp for eight placemats, a simple plain weave, woven with this multi-strand yarn filler pictured above.  These will weave up quickly and then a warp of log cabin placemats is next.  My plan after that is for something a bit more complex and challenging.  I need that motivation to keep me from lapsing into hibernation mode as the snow looms ahead!

I am drawn to this draft for a halvdrall runner.  Havdrall is a Swedish supplementary-weft structure that works a lot like crackle.  It would definitely be a challenge.  I will let you know how this goes! 

Still on the loom!

Still on the loom!  That is the only sad report I can give on the progress of the denim coasters.  Sad and a bit embarrassing.  I have had no motivation to work consistently on these.  Three sets have been woven so enough warp for 5 or 6 coasters remains.  I decided to add a fat plied yarn to the last 2 sets just to vary the weaving.

This also gave me an excuse to ply 6 strands of bronze colored rayon chenille into a nice thick yarn.  I now hope to get two sets of coasters with this chenille alternating with the denim strips.  This should be a nice pop with this particular warp of blue, brown and bronze.

The socks that could never be finished are finally finished!  Honestly, I have forgotten when I started these but I have been knitting them forever.  The second sock took an especially long time.  I'm surprised that they match and that the first one hasn't faded while waiting in the knitting basket!

  

I started this new pair the very next evening.  I love the feel of these already.  I am using a 3 ply yarn that I made from 3 cones of yarn I found at a garage sale years ago - I believe it's acrylic, which is usually not my first choice, but I love the weight of the plied product, a little heavier than standard sock yarn and the knitted rib top has a nice hefty feel.  I guess it is an experiment to see how this yarn performs as a sock.  We'll see. 

I am considering my next project carefully, scouring magazines and books for inspiration,  I want to do a pattern that I haven't done before or adapt one I love to a new use. Celia set me on this quest when she suggested that I should weave something totally different!  Change is good. Celia will recognize this mantra - she evidently will use it to influence me now!

So, all right  . . . . . .   Change is good!

Fall fiber work . . . . .

I have been playing with a messy project on my old spinning wheel.  It should be a project for outdoors or at least the screen porch and that is where I started it.  But the screen porch is filled with the outdoor furniture, tucked away for the approaching winter and the spinning has to move indoors.  

I am spinning newspaper. This appeals to the recycle/reuse side of me and is an interesting experiment in readily available materials. 

The plan is to weave this into paper mats when the spinning is done.  Any suggestions for warp?  I am thinking a grey-brown colored linen would look good with the newspaper color . . . or a black linen.  Someone suggested crocheting baskets or freeform pieces, also very intriguing.

I cut these strips by hand, no measuring, as I don't mind a little thick and thin effect.  The colored portions of the paper have a nice look in the finished spun product, creating interest and adding some warmth.  It is not a soft yarn, definitely a little stiff and obviously will not be very durable.

There is a great deal of drag on the spinning wheel and because the yarn is very stiff, at times, it has to be "helped" onto the spindle.  It is also very dirty - grubby black fingers from the ink, so I am sure the wheel will need scrubbing when this project is done.  But all-in-all it is very satisfying to create something out of a throw-away material.  I will let you all know what this yarn inspires!  

I am starting another project on the table loom - denim coasters with a blue and brown warp, a nice fall into winter colorway!  These coaster sets will make their way to my Etsy shop.

So it is back to some evening fiber work.  I will miss the long days of summer but it feels good to snuggle in and get my hands back to work at the wheel and loom. 

. . . . . .and I do love the fall. 

Family Time

Maxi loves it when the kids are at home and our son, Joseph was in Minneapolis this weekend, visiting from New Haven, Ct. It was great to have him here although it is never enough time. I did take Friday off from work in order to spend a little more time with him. He was in town to play with the Minnesota Orchestra so we went to the concert on Friday evening and that was a treat as always!

We also had dinner with Joseph, our daughter Celia and her beau, Pat. We went to

Bar La Grasa and had a great time and delicious food. It was very special to have the whole family together. It just doesn't happen often enough.

I am in decision making mode about the next big project. I still have so many things in the works but I am drawn to starting something new. Does this happen to everyone? I haven't lost interest or given up on the things I am working on but I just feel this need to start the next thing!

So I keep looking at the materials in the cabinets and drawers and making lists of the new supplies that I might need for the next thing. But because there are other unfinished projects (several - alright more then several - lots!) I feel guilty about pursuing a new endeavor.

But, a girl can dream, and sketch, and handle all those fun tools and enjoy the feel of the many yarns calling out to her!!!

Yes, I am working on spinning the purple wool that I started this past week. I am working on the knitted cuffs that need embellishment. I am trying to keep up with the boxes with buttons that need to be stitched. I just folded 18 more paper cranes for my friend Anna.

But just look at that yarn. . . . . . . .can't you hear it calling? . . . . . . . . I won't resist for long . . . . . I am weak.

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. . . . . . .

Feeling like Fall

We still have some wonderful color in the flower gardens. But the chill of autumn is definitely

in the air and the quality of the daylight has that crisp look to it. The days are much shorter already and as they pass, it will be dark soon after I get home from work. More time for indoor work as the daylight hours and the gardens all fade.

I didn't spin as much as I hoped this summer but this white wool was a joy to spin.It certainly pulled me back under the spell of the spinning wheel and I plan to keep spinning as the days get cooler and the nights longer.

I always try to estimate an even amount of wool spun onto each spindle when I am spinning a 2- ply yarn. I weighed these as I spun the singles in the hope of being as close as possible to equal yardage on each.

The plying is so rewarding. The singles are slightly over-spun so they appear tight and rather hard looking. As they are plied, the yarns open and soften because they are spun in the opposite direction to form the 2-ply yarn.

My kniddy-knoddy is just the right size to count the yardage with each pass as you wind the yarn off the spindle. I got around 480 yards of yarn from this batch of wool.

Wow, it is such a creamy, soft yarn. I thought I would be dyeing this, but I do love the white wool! It would make a great winter white hat or a warm vest or a long, soft scarf or. . . . . .

Decisions to be made . . . . . what fun!

Summer spinning

I haven't spent any time at my spinning wheel in ages. I was reminded of this by the discovery of a large bag of wool fibers, found while reorganizing during our remodeling. I had not completely forgotten it was there but in the hub-bub of the project it was inaccessible. Out of sight, out of mind.

I spin on a Louet wheel and have been spinning since the late 1970's. I learned to spin before I had a loom. I took a class at a yarn store in the Old Market in Omaha, Nebraska and was hooked. I spun so much yarn that I knew I would eventually have to have a loom to use it all.

Now this wool fiber is on my project list which means I need a plan to get it all spun this summer. Some of the smaller quantities may be used in felting projects but most will become yarns for weaving. Summer is a good time to work through wool fiber as you can do some of the messier picking and carding outdoors.

This is my first spinning wheel. It is a handmade wheel based on an Ashford castle style. I still use this wheel occasionally but my Louet is so much more efficient that I stick with it most of the time.

This white wool is first on my list. The plan is for this to eventually be a two ply yarn and probably to be dyed some very luscious color. I will post photos of the results as available. . . . . . .

Learn something new everyday.....

This is such an exciting leap for me - to write about the favorite things in my life. I hope to share some thoughts about my family, weaving, spinning, all things fiber, gardening and my everyday life in general.

It all seems a little intimidating as I have a lot to learn about this new on-line process, so bear with me, please. I hope that you will share your thoughts with me and that I might inspire you in some small way.

Onward.......