Changing seasons...the smell of Autumn

I've caught a whiff of Autumn the last few days.  It's still warm, but there's an indefinable smell in the air, an almost intangible chill in the mornings, and I feel as if I'm unfurling and waking up.  Like the sad garden around me, I am shaking the dry dust of summer off my Autumn raiment and I can smell moisture in the air, the promise of rain, that most potent green-maker.  Soon, small tendrils with tiny golden new-leaf wings will be poking their heads out of the dry soil, the dried up stalks of summer's victims will give way to green growing things.  And so I am optimistically pulling out my yarns and wools and making things to wear when the weather turns cold.  I love wintery fashions so much more than summer ones; boots and scarves and hats and gloves and snuggly shawls, and bright coloured socks and stockings.

I actually made these a couple of weeks ago, during a slightly cooler couple of days...I didn't really believe Autumn was on its way then, it was merely wishful thinking and inspiration from crafty bloggers in the northern hemisphere.  These are semi successful...they're not identical, but do the job.  I've never learnt how to follow a crochet pattern, I learnt from a friend's mum who showed me how to start a granny square, and off I went, discovering and adapting along the way.  So every crochet piece I make is made up as I go along, and I've never attempted anything before where I had to make two pieces the same.  So a lot of throws and scarves and shawls and hats.  Especially hats...I love hats!

I've made lots of long scarves before, but never a short scarflette, and I thought they seemed an excellently practical way of keeping warm without having to constantly rescue long dangling ends from dipping in your coffee, getting caught on door handles, and filling up your shoulder bag if it turned a bit warm and you needed to take it off.  The button is a seed pod, but I'm not sure what of!

See, I told you I love making hats.  I want to enjoy making as many as I can now because I know it's only a matter of time before mummy's hats are simply not 'cool' enough to be seen in public in...and then I'll have to wait 15 or 20 years for grandchildren before I can make more!  This is one of two, because of course, I have to make two of everything.  The 2nd one will be slightly different simply because there's no pattern, but that's part of the fun...I never know quite how it's going to look until it's finished!

I've just started another project, and so my family room floor looks like a half constructed tent at the moment.  Inspired by the magical textiles of Jude at Spirit Cloth, I'm attempting a larger textile piece, a sort of a mat come cloak if you like, because I enjoyed my small pieces so much.  Well that's the plan, but at the moment it exists only in the fertile possibilities of a large untidy pile of fabric and textile scraps, and my mind of course.