Autumn work & show report

Two years ago I found a recipe online for making apple butter in a crockpot. Apple butter was a favorite of my mom’s and therefore holds some nice childhood memories for me, but I was never willing to put in hours and hours over an open fire or constant attention in the oven. So crockpot apple butter? I had to try it. Turned out well, and SO easy.

Finished off my stash this summer, so when the farm stand put out their 1/2 peck baskets of drops this year, I knew I had to do it again. I ended up making 2 batches again this year (that’s what I’d made in 2017, too). For the first batch, on the left, I ran out of cinnamon, not having as much as I’d thought. I bought more for the second batch. The first batch tastes more like spicy applesauce, and the second may be spicier than some people like it, but it’s all good with me.

I’ve been picking tomatoes and raspberries off my vines until earlier this week. But they’re saying I might have up to a foot of snow tonight/tomorrow, so today was the day to pull those plants, regardless of the fact that both had plenty of unripe fruit on them. No, I didn’t pick and wrap green tomatoes, nor did I make fried green tomatoes or green tomato pickles. I just tossed them. I wish I could have a compost bin here, as the plants and fruits would have gone there, but I got pinged by the Town for my bin a few years ago after a neighbor complained and I had to get rid of it. 🙁

I did great at the Weavers’ Guild Holiday Sale. I sold 14 of my 18 pairs of socks, 17 of my 23 towels, 2 of 5 scarves/cowls, and 2 of 4 mobis/wraps. Pretty amazing, I think, especially considering there were 50+ Guild members submitting items this year. I’m looking forward to seeing the aggregated statistics when they come out in a few weeks, although I’ve heard that we had more visitors than ever and higher total $$ sales than ever, so a good sale for lots of people, I trust.

I’m not a person who takes many weaving classes – most things I see offered near me just don’t float my boat. But I jumped at the chance to take a class next week that the Guild is putting on. Molly McLaughlin is teaching 2.5 days of Painting with Fiber. Look at one of this woman’s pieces – CRAZY beautiful! Looks like amoeba under a microscope to me.

Also crazy, Molly prepared warps for each of the 17 people in the workshops. We each got 3 handpainted warps, each with 120 ends of 20/2 cotton. WOW – that’s a lot of prep work for the teacher! Here’s my warp, beamed and threaded on my Missouri loom, ready for the workshop.

I’m really looking forward to learning from Molly, and in learning how to do that technique that will provide such lovely curves and painterly finished product.