Hello, friends!

While I stumble my way toward making this a weekly letter, I'm here with some much-needed updates and lots of photos!

But first, how are you? How was your September? Have you built or changed any crafting or life habits? What goals are you working toward? Have you satisfied one of your former goals? Has there been a shift in your focus with the season change?

Have you embraced the pumpkin spice?

Eggnog season is barrelling toward us, you know.

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I've largely been spinning, weaving, and thinking about weaving. I continue to marvel at how nice and easy-to-use the converted Louet Erica loom is, and it'll be fun going forward with some "I just want to weave" projects where I can play with warping and weaving techniques and compare the process on both looms.

I still can't believe I've only managed to finish a single project on the Erica. This will change soon!

Last weekend, I embarked on one of my "Finish All The Things" weekends. I finished the weaving, pulled the fabric off of both the Erica and the Artisat, and I'm pleased with both projects. The wool and bamboo fabric will become a wrap with fringe, and there's a little sample bit where I wove off the rest of the warp with some black rayon yarn I had in stash. That came out super silky and smooth.

After much hemming and hawing about tote bags and hand towels, the brown-pink gradient cotton fabric will be hemmed into a small rug. Unfortunately, it will not have any fringe, as I need to cut off a small portion of the pink end of the project, but it's a good excuse to use my sewing machine.

I also got around to washing two previously finished scarves...and I ruined one. Except maybe I didn't—it's starting to grow on me, and it's really soft!

What happened here is a story many knitters, crocheters, and weavers have experienced. I was under the impression that all three of the yarns I used in this scarf were superwash, but the solid yellow turned out not to be. Because of this, when I tossed it in the wash, I didn't use quite as gentle of a cycle and the non-superwash yarn felted a bit and puckered the fabric.

I really thought about throwing it away, but I almost want to display it once I'm vending. I get the feeling that it will be someone's cup of tea, even if it's not mine.

The other scarf that's now finished falls into the pride and joy category. As much as I lamented all the tiny stripes and color changes while weaving this project, it came out so beautifully that I'm already thinking about doing another one.

Lastly, I have three skeins of fully finished handspun yarn: "Candy Crush" from Wound Up Fiber Arts; "Rainbow? Sure, Bert" from Oink Pigments; and some creamy white alpaca from Crown Mountain Farms. There's more alpaca where this came from, as this is about half of the original 9 oz. These are all two-ply skeins, and the variegated yarns are both fractal spins.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I made a fair bit of progress as far as "Finish All The Things" goes! While I still have the other half of the alpaca to finish, and the "Ladybug" braid from Oink Pigments on the go, several things got knocked off the list.

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Right now, I've got nothing to promote. I'm not making any moves to open the web shop until I'm sure I have enough stock to make it worthwhile, and I'm also thinking ahead to vending in-person shows. My focus is in a couple places: continuously weaving and learning, and brainstorming small items I can stock in addition to larger pieces. I have yet to do a production run of small items, and it's on the radar. I'll get some practice with hemming this rug, and I can think about towels, mug rugs, table runners, etc. from there.

On a whim, I started winding a new rainbow warp from some handspun minis in my stash. I don't even know what weft yarn I'm going to use yet, but it's about to get warped onto the Artisat, and I'll go from there.

The Erica is currently bare (it was going to get the rainbow warp but the warp ended up wider than I expected), but I'm sure it'll be dressed again soon. Because it's portable, that loom would be super easy to hybrid direct warp, by sleying every other slot in the reed as you would with a rigid heddle loom, and then threading the heddles and re-sleying the reed after winding the warp onto the beam. I think I'm going to try it if my yarn allows!

In addition to crafting, I've been bitten by the autumn cooking bug and will be making chili as well as butternut squash soup, and possibly a kuri squash pasta sauce this long weekend.

It's nice to be excited about cooking.

I hope you're getting ready for a wonderful weekend, and as always I'd love to hear from you about your projects, your goals, and your attitude toward your creative life. Drop me a line, and/or forward this letter off to someone you think would enjoy it. 💌

Be well, take breaks, and always be learning.

Take care,

🎃 Liz

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