Autumn is Coming

It has been one of those months, I can't get myself to get to anything.  We had our family camp-out for four days at the first of the month.  I did not even take any pictures.  I did enjoy the quiet and just sat and stared a lot.  I also took a couple of books to read.  I think we were all a little more subdued this year after the emotional fireworks last year.  (I thought my siblings had out grown that type of thing.)  I think this year we felt we were all walking on egg shells and afraid to cause more stress and tears.  But, I think last year's problems are weighing heavy on some of us and that is part of my "down" days.


I did re-sley the warp to get it back to the wide scarf size and I will put on another scarf series.

re-sley the dummy warp

These scarves will be for winter sales.  I got a notice about another Christmas Sale in the area, this is one that I used to get in all the time.  So I think I will apply this year.  That means that I will need to have product for both shows and I need to get weaving.

Pinwheel from alpaca scarves

I want to do the pinwheel that I did on the previous series of scarves.  These will be the wider and shorter version of scarves that I do.  I think I can get about seven out of the yarn I found in my stash.  This yarn is a wool and alpaca blend with some nylon and it feels so soft around the neck.

Yarn that I found

I am putting the white and gray as the warp, then I will have a couple pinwheels with white and gray and a couple with fawn and white...then whatever is left for the rest of the scarves.

I still haven't taken pictures of the commission, I need to get that done as they will be going out in the mail the first of next week.  We leave for Southern California next week and I have to ship these out before I leave.  

My classes have finished, and will not start again until after the trip.  I need to use this time to get my act together in the house.  I wake up with a list of 3 or 4 things to get done that day and end up at night with one or two done...not a good return.  

I know I should not be hard on myself, but I am experiencing a "down" time.  I'm close to tears a lot, and I don't know why.  I need to just sit and write feelings for a while and see what comes out on the page.  (That is sometimes helpful to me when I experience these days.)   I still have the good thoughts, smile when I see flowers, laugh at the funny things in life.  Yeah, I know, I just need to relax and enjoy my life.

I have been working on the rigid heddle scarf.  It is the Mermaid scarf from the cover of Handwoven.  Mine looks nothing like that one and I call mine the Woodland scarf because of the colors.  But it is progressing nicely.  I weave on it when I watch Netflix, I'm watching "West Wing"  and that show gives me a good feeling.

Woodland scarf

I love the colors.  The warp is a rust colored 3/2 pearl cotton with a tabby of 10/2 rust pearl cotton.  The pattern yarn is a slow color change yarn called "Poems".  The color right now is brown changing to dark brown.  I got tired of the browns, so I pulled out several yards of each color, so it would change faster.  Hopefully I will see some green showing up soon.

When I first started doing this scarf, I wanted to do some leaves in the pattern, but decided against it.  Now I may add some leaves to the scarf.  

Close-up of the pattern.

The picked up pattern is a free-form overshot like pattern.  I need to pick up warp threads to tie down the front face and the back face of the fabric.  In this picture, you can see the color change about in the middle of the picture...going from the lighter brown to the darker brown.  
I loved the scarf on the cover, it had a very water like shimmer to the pick up, but with my colors being so different I didn't do the wave look and instead have picked up the background in a very random way.  I don't know if that is better or if I like her method better.

We have a family wedding coming up next week and there is lots of things going on about that.  I need to get my Mom down here to the ceremony and have arranged for a different sister to drive her home that night.  I will also have her come over to my house between events so that she can rest some.  This is my younger sister's last child and so she is very involved in the planning and such.

I hope that I can get more done in my house, get ready for the trip, wind a warp and take pictures of the finished items that I just made...Is that too much to ask?