Warm

It's been a week of cool misty mornings clearing to sunny days and I've been taking advantage of the opportunity to walk as often as I can. My regular track follows a nearby creek--lots of trees but not many of them deciduous. Nevertheless the weather has me thinking of autumn colours. I spun these up this morning.

These are not so much the colours I see around me this autumn. Maybe I'm trying to capture some of the feel of autumn and the promise of warmth. Anyway I've got enough for another pair of wrist warmers.

Autumn Accessories

The calendar is signalling the change of seasons and the weather is following suit. I decided to brighten my life with a new hat.

I've made this style so often that I can pretty much do it without thinking. I would describe it as a baggy beret. I hand-dyed the wool years ago and it's been hanging around waiting for a project. I will block it to settle it into shape. That should see it out and about with me by next week--unless the weather changes again. This is Melbourne after all.

Colour Again

My Colour Theory folio is due in today. I spent some time yesterday tidying up all the little tasks we'd been given during the term. Thankfully it was only tidying up--I'd actually managed to stay pretty much up to date as we went along--yay! One exercise which we'd only spent a few minutes on caught my eye. The teacher handed out little squares of fabric and asked us to design a colour scheme to suit. The colour didn't impress me any--a warm neutral brown I guess you'd call it. The resulting colour scheme wasn't anything to get excited about either. Then I remembered this: It's a wall hanging I made years ago--after an autumn trip to the Adelaide hills. And there it is, a warm neutral brown that makes me happy. So now there's one extra picture in my Colour Theory folder.

Warm and Cool

It's officially Autumn in Melbourne now. In reality that means that temperatures range from 30 degrees Celcius to less than half that in the space of a day or two. I'm continuing my Colour Theory homework. This week we're playing with warm and cool colours--apt really. Here's a close up of one of my homework pieces: We were told to make a background of warm coloured fabrics and arrange five cool-coloured shapes on it. The pieces are to be held down with running stitch. It all sounded rather constrained when I read the task sheet, but it turned out to be fun. I've got two more pieces of stitching homework to do today, so I'd better get away from the keyboard and pick up a needle and thread!

Autumn Tones

Despite what my cold toes are telling me, it's not winter yet. We have two weeks of Autumn left.

I spun up this merino yarn last winter.It was easy spinning while my friend S was here to visit from Canberra--something that didn't require too much concentration. The variety of colours kept me interested. Then came the challenge of plying. The different colours are close enough that they would have been ok just as a two-ply yarn, but I decided to emphasise the colour variation by Navaho plying it. Then I wound the skein, washed it and put it aside. Somehow it never quite made it into a box, so last week I found it in the mass of stuff on my big table. Did I put it away? No, I thought I might have to do something with it. Now it's found its way onto my needles: a simple garter stitch to let the yarn do the talking. I'm enjoying watching the colours appear in turn: blending and contrasting. Meanwhile I'm hoping the weather will take its inspiration from my yarn and give me a bit of warmth and contrast. We've had several days of grey drizzle. I'm ready for a change.

Autumn Dress Rehearsal

So it's mid-April--definitely Autumn by the calendar. But the season itself is not so convincing. A week or two ago I was sure it was Autumn. We changed our clocks back from Daylight Saving on Easter Sunday. Suddenly the evenings were an hour shorter. We had a run of days with maximums around 19-20 degrees. There was snow in the Alpine Region. The last few days have been summery again. Fine weather and temperatures up in the high 20's--oh Centigrade by the way.

I've lived in Melbourne more than ten years now, I should be used to the weather, but the first cool days always catch me by surprise. Intellectually I know that summer comes to an end and t-shirts are superseded by long sleeves, jackets and scarves, but somehow I don't really accept the truth until it happens. Then I find myself unprepared. There have been cool weather clothes in the shops for a couple of months, but I haven't bought any.

On the other hand there is always plenty of wool in the house! I crocheted myself this little scarf on the first cold day:
It's hand-spun merino and dip-dyed by me. I'm really happy about how the colour patterning has turned out. Now I just need the Autumn weather to come back so I can wear it!