A Wool Gathering and Fall is in the Air

Nothing like warm sunshine to dry yarn and induce dog napping.

Tomorrow is the fall equinox, so after today there will be less hours of light than of darkness.  It is always hard to accept, but the fall weather usually makes up for it in other ways.  For now, our forecast is for higher than average temperatures (upper 80's) for the next week and no rain.  Maybe some of the green tomatoes we have still on the vines will ripen.  That would be nice.

This past weekend was the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs Ohio, which is about a 3 hour drive for me.  I love this festival, which I have seen grow a good bit since I first attended as a shopper several years ago and then as a vendor since 2011.  There is something wonderful about the atmosphere of the farm (which is really more of a tourist destination, though they do have a herd of Jersey cows) and the tents and all the fiber-y goodness.  And of course ice cream.  In addition to knitters and weavers and spinners, families with children and curious passers-by wander through the tents.  These non-fibery folk usually arrive later in the day and you can tell they aren't fiber enthusiasts because they pass by with hands in pockets instead of touching the offerings for sale.  I have decided that this was my last year to be a vendor here as I have no more fiber to be made into yarn and I plan to concentrate more on making finished items to sell, which will require a totally different type of sales venue.  I will miss this festival, however.  I have met lots of fun people there, who I see year after year.

I will still keep yarn for sale on line and the best way to see what I have is to visit my etsy shop at  
https://www.etsy.com/shop/straightfork and I hope to have finished items listed here eventually as well.

 The garden is also looking like fall.  I have several of these pumpkins which I posted about last time.  They were bright green and rather small 2 weeks ago and now are very large and dark green.  This variety is called Musque de Provence and will mature to about 20 pounds and look like the photo on the right instead of bright orange.  I am told they are excellent eating and look forward to trying them.  They keep well also.  

We also have several Sugar Pie pumpkins ripening up and a lot of butternut squash, even hanging on the fence.
I think some of my squash was pollinated by bees that had been in the sugarpie pumpkins because I seem to have several fruits that have the roundness of pumpkins but the coloring of the squash.  I just won't keep the seeds of those to plant next year.  I think they should taste just fine.

The new lettuce crop is getting large enough to distinguish from the weeds now, so this weekend I will clean that up a bit.

Far to the left is the lettuce we have been harvesting since late July, our second crop.  In the center is lettuce, which is easy to see.  There is kale between the new lettuce and the old and arugula to the right of the new lettuce and some romaine even farther to the right, though it doesn't seem to be doing as well, which has been true all summer.  The new crops will be covered before first frost and hopefully we will be able to enjoy fresh lettuce for some time to come.

This weird creature visited me last week as I sat outside spinning on the deck.  It crawled along the edge of the table for a long time.  It was only an inch or so long and I was fascinated by everything about it, especially its coloring.  I have no idea what it will become.  I hope not a stinkbug...


I got some good news on Rowdy yesterday.  He went in for bloodwork and we had his urine tested again.  He has been on 100% home made food and omega 3 and melatonin and holistic herbs now for 2 months.  His urine sample was almost normal!  His "specific gravity" had been closer to that of water, which is not good and now it is almost what it should be according to his vet.  I have noticed a decrease in the amount of water he has been drinking.  Now if we will get improved bloodwork results I will be even happier.  I find it sad that he seldom get his photo at the top of the page, but he is still with us and we are cherishing every day with him.

A week from tomorrow Grover and I will go to Columbus to attend just one day of a 3 day agility trial there.  That is Friday and on Sunday we are going to attend an agility seminar with a few of our fellow POTC club members just outside Columbus at Incredipaws, a very good training facility.  I am looking forward to getting back in the ring.  It has been over a month since our last trial (where we got 2 QQs).

 


I am getting ready to warp the small 8 shaft loom in my studio for some Christmas themed towels.  My plan is to take these to the Arts Center for sale in October.  The potholders are off the loom and awaiting finishing.  My rug loom is sitting empty currently.  I need to plan a project for that.  

I have finished a couple knitted items, one of which is a cowl or neck warmer and was used as a booth sample at the Wool Gathering. I knit it in my hand-dyed alpaca/cormo fingering weight yarn.  It really is blue not purple and I think I will wear it a lot in coming months.  

 


And I finished a light sweater that I just love.  It will also get some wear, but not this week!

I am starting to plan Christmas knitting.  I don't do a lot of holiday knitting, but it is time to get moving on it. 

Early morning mist

 


    

Summer Comes to a Close

I know it is really still summer since we have yet to pass the equinox, but I think most Americans equate Labor Day weekend with the end of summer.  And to be honest, it has really felt like fall outside for several days.  This Labor Day weekend was year #20 for us having a big family and friends get-together on Saturday.  This year was what I think of as our first real  rain-out.  Yes we still had lots of family (12 overnight Saturday) and a few friends and we still played cornhole (in the poly-shelter) and volleyball (in the agility field in the rain), but there was a steady, light rain pretty much all day

An overnight storm knocked down the volleyball net

on Saturday, which kept a lot of us inside.  

But we had plenty of food and drinks and a lot of laughter and fun.  Sunday was a beautiful day and we headed up to the pond for some zip-lining and swimming before some of the family had to leave and then the rest of us finished up the day with pizza followed by s'mores around a fire.

On Monday the last of our family guests departed for home and it got very quiet as it always does.  The temperatures have stayed cool, with the high for today forecast to be only in the mid 60's and an overnight temperature in the upper 40's.  We are supposed to stay cooler than average for the next several days. 

I still have tomatoes in the garden, but not many.  I planted a new crop of lettuce, arugula, and kale, some of which is coming up .

The pumpkins and squash are taking over the garden, which is usual for this time of year, though I will have a lot more pumpkin than I have had in the past.  There are a lot of them out there.

These are just a few of the many pumpkins on the vines.









 

Coming up next weekend is the Wool Gathering  Fiber Festival in Yellow Springs.  Since I last posted I have dyed a couple more colors of alpaca/wool yarn.

I plan to dye at least 2 more colors before next weekend.





 


I also finished my second Mother Bear charity knit for this summer and both have been mailed off.







And I have 4 woven pillows almost complete, I just need to do the final finishing of the last one.  Two are this light color and the other two are the same background color with a darker pattern color.  I am really pleased with how these have turned out. 

I am knitting a small project with some of my recent hand-dyed yarn which I plan to have finished to use as a sample in my booth next weekend.  It is a neck warmer/cowl pattern 
 called Midsummer Haze  and I am using the blue tonal yarn I showed in my previous post.  I think the pattern and yarn are working very well together.