Somewhere in one of those memory compartments that I haven't opened for decades are images of the Kalavala, meteoric iron and autumn. This is a Finnish folklore poem that contains elements of the Michael and the dragon imagery.

It joggled back up to the surface today as I am in the process of turning some brilliant summer wool dyeing in to autumn colours with the aid of iron.. not meteoric alas just plain old homemade iron acetate (a future blog post!). Though I bet meteoric iron would work better! This treatment with iron which is known as saddening has to be done very carefully as iron if misused can damage wool. Anyone who knows me knows mistreating wool is not something of which I am capable.

Here you have some Poll Dorset that is dyed a light-fast yellow with weld. The skein on top is saddened.

This red is dyed with madder root and a touch of chestnut liquor, this combination with a tiny tiny drop of iron saddens to a warm autumnal red.

Both these saddened shades are featured in an exciting project which is taking shape on the other side of the pond, where I am told the autumn colours are breathtaking.

So if you feel that old sad dragon creeping up on you this autumn, just remember those autumn colours are in fact radiant shades strengthened with meteoric iron.