October Glory

The first rain has fallen, leaving the dust settled, the air refreshed, and we've got a warm wind blowing from the south.  I had an order for 10 lb. of clean Coopworth wool, and managed to get it washed and dried in that warm wind just before the rains came.  Our constant Langlois wind is such a friend when you are in a hurry to dry heaps of clean wool, or skeins and skeins of yarns.  We hang them on the rails of our front porch that faces the highway, sometimes dull grey, but sometimes a rainbow of bright colors fluttering in the breeze. 

We've had the normal influx of people wanting to buy yarns and spinning wheels, it's as seasonal as the falling leaves here.  The first crisp day reminds everyone the holiday season is coming, and there are projects that need to be started, and we also have a steady flow of people who "know" about our weather patterns here and vacation in late September and early October, because that's the best weather.

Cranberry harvest is very late this year because of the cool summer, but we're beginning to also see the cranberry trucks on the highways, the beautiful deep red of the floating berries on the flooded cranberry beds, and of course the berries alongside the road, blown by the wind from the laden trucks.  In my yearly futile attempt to capture that deep garnet glow of floating cranberries in the afternoon sunshine, I've been dyeing combinations of magenta, purple, and deep orchid, throwing everything that's been laying around the shop into the dyepots.  The silks and mohairs ALMOST capture that beautiful color. 

May your fibers be plentiful and perform admirably!