We are still in the aftermath of a very weakened hurricane Ernesto. It's rainy and very windy. The yard and deck are littered with sticks, branches and bits and pieces of leaves. I'm afraid there won't be very pretty foliage this year as most of the leaves have already fallen off the trees while they were still green.

Steve is certain that we are in for a bad winter. He is predicting that based on the fact that the acorns have been falling for several weeks already. Soon I have to think about getting a load or two of wood for the stove. I must remember to call the chimney sweep before we light our first fire.

I think Autumn is my favorite season. Summer is good, but most of the time it just too darn hot and humid for me. What's the fun of Summer if it must be spent in air conditioning? I love Autumn with the cool nights and mornings. We've already had to break out the sweatshirt and light jackets. The downside of Autumn is the shorter amount of daylight and the fact that winter with it's ice and snow (and oil bills!) is just a couple of months away.

Today, amidst all of the rain and wind, we have to finish packing the car and trailer and drive Ryan back up to college. It's about a three and a half hour drive in good weather without hauling the trailer. I hate to think how long(and how much gas!) it's going to take us today. As a returning student, he can't start his move in until 2:00pm. We might stay overnight up there and finish up in the morning. It's just too exhausting to try to do it all in one day, plus driving the 230+ miles each way. It's at times like this that I really wish he had gone to school locally.

Now that it's cooler, I'm thinking of knitting again. I have started, stopped and ripped out a countless number of projects this Summer. I could not get motivated. I just finished a simple, big, floppy winter hat for Rianne last night. It's made from very soft homespun yarn. I dyed it green with one of the Gaywools dyes and I also added a couple of orange stripes (Kool Aid dyed). It's the colors of the Irish flag and I know she will love it. She's attending a local community college this year and I wanted her to have a warm hat for the walk across the campus.

I have an idea percolating in my head for a knitted coat. I purchased all of that brilliantly colored roving at the NH show in the Spring. I'm thinking of the coat looking almost like a patchwork coat of many colors. The earliest ETA of it would be in the late Spring. I'm not going to set a deadline for myself. That's too much pressure as I still have to finish spinning the yarn.

Yes, I love color. And yes, I can be tacky at times with it. I still occasionally wear tie-dyed tee shirts. I think the fact that I worked in the field of banking/legal for 22 years has caused me to need bright colors now. All that time I had to spend in subdued grays and blues with the almost always present string of pearls around my neck. I can't remember the last time I wore those pearls.

Steve is still asking for his pullover too. I started one last year using a formula on circular needles that I thought I had calculated correctly. It was raglan but before I had reached the collar edge, the knitted mass was enormous. If I had kept up the same rate of decreases, it would have been large enough to use as a cover for our barbecue grill! I guess I had better use an actual pattern and not try to be clever and design it myself. We had a good laugh the night he slipped it over his head and the waist band was mid-thigh and the arm holes hung down near his hips.

I still haven't brought any new products for the business. I just have not been able to focus on it. I hope that once Ryan is all snug in his dorm room, life here will return to a more normal routine. I did bag up some fleece that is a Cormo X. It's a beautiful fleece. No, really! I bought the same one last year and kept it for myself. And with that one, I didn't even wash it before I started spinning. The fleece is just THAT clean! This year the farm contacted me and asked if I wanted to buy it again and I jumped on it. That purchase was my main reason for making the horrible trip up to the NH Sheep and Wool in that monsoon in the Spring.

I have a large Louet order due in next week. They are now offering drop spindle kits. I've had requests for those so I hope they will sell. Before we became vendors, I actually purchased a Louet bottom whorl spindle off of eBay. Honestly, it's my favorite bottom whorl spindle. It spins evenly and smoothly. I have spindles that I have purchased that are much more expensive, but I find myself returning to the Louet.

Well, it's just starting to get light outside now. The last load of laundry is in the dryer (I've been awake over 2 hours already). It's time to get going here and start the big move.