Autumn is here, my favorite time of the year! The fall colors are pretty, the bugs are disappearing, the temps have cooled off, it's a great time of the year.
Pretty sunsets, which happen all year, actually.
The last of the flowers in bloom, they make me happy every time I walk by here.
The onion harvest this year. Not a bad one at all. I made an onion pie last night and it was quite tasty!
And most exciting, I got a floor loom! A four-shaft older Leclerc Nilus. I am having fun exploring all the possibilities with it. This is my first sample. I got the loom at an estate sale, along with a rather substantial stash of yarn to go with it, plus some other fiber related items and books. Quite a haul! The loom hadn't been used in quite a few years, the woman had been dead for a good two years, and she hadn't been able to use it for a while before she died. It needed a good cleaning, and it was ready to go. In the yarn stash I found some already chained warps, so I decided to start with one of those, and use the tie-up she had on the treadles as is. Since I don't know what I'm doing on this yet, I decided that would be a good way to go. Turns out it was set up as a twill, and I really didn't warp the loom right. It has a sectional beam, and I didn't know that was done differently than a regular beam, so I didn't get enough of the threads on there to begin with. I was wondering why there were left over bundles, now I know. :-) But, by the time I figured that out, I was too far along to unwarp and start over, so I went with it. It's okay, but I know what to do a bit better for next time. It's a 15 yard warp, so I have lots of sampling to do with it yet! I think I will re-tie the treadles in a different way and see what happens. So much to learn!
This is from a person who said not too long ago, "I will never take up weaving, it doesn't interest me at all, the warping is way too hard". Ha! Never say never. It was strange, I went over to a friend's house that has a floor loom and was helping her tie up her treadles and get it ready for weaving, and the fear seemed to melt away and everything became an interesting challenge to figure out and do. So, here I am, with both a rigid heddle loom and a floor loom. Once I get a studio so I have room for everything, I will probably get a table loom, too! I'm going deep down the rabbit hole with this! Our little 765 square foot house has been taken over by my fiber things. We don't have a living room anymore, the looms have claimed that. Every room is half full of fiber related things. I think the kitchen is the only room that doesn't have something related to fiber in it at all times. I do wash fleeces and dye yarn in there, though. I just get everything cleaned out and up before I do any cooking of food. Anyway, I really, really need a fiber studio so I can everything in one place and we can have the house back!
It's looking like we are finally, after 24 years of living up here, going to get the puddle/pond in the driveway filled in and the driveway graveled!!!! No more lake to drive through in the spring! It won't be so dusty, either. The dirt around here turns to talcum powder when it's dry, so everything is thickly coated in dust. It turns to slime when it's wet, too. Gravel is way overdue! The one new neighbor is willing to pitch in to get it done, so away we go. Before this, nobody else wanted to spend the money to get it fixed, even though all our lives would be much better and easier with it done. Now finally someone besides us is willing to do it.
Anyway, happy fall to everyone!
