Today I’m playing in the kitchen, making stuffing from a whole wheat baguette, a loaf of raisin pumpernickel, turkey sausage, onions, celery, chestnuts, a few more raisins, and lots of thyme, and also making pie dough in which I’m tempted to substitute vodka for water (have you tried this?).
My kitchen counter is also strewn with several colors of Jaggerspun zephyr which I’m swatching for Pam Power’s lovely Devonshire sweater. Sigh…. Life is good.
It is the bittersweet change of season and here is the last rose from my garden, a David Austen “Heritage” (I don’t count the ever blooming shrub roses for some reason….).
I love the change of seasons. The days are warm, and the sun on my skin feels almost like summer, ‘though by late afternoon there is a chill in the air that clearly means summer is gone…long gone. Yesterday and today I stood for a while in a blizzard of yellow leaves swirling all around me.
Fall is festival time, and last weekend was “Lace Day” for the Metro Chapter of the Intenational Old Lacers. There were demonstrations, vendors and classes!
This group (of mostly, but not entirely, women) proves that lace making is not a dying art. Their knowledge is legendary: they can tell the difference between Torchon, Milanese, Honiton from 20 yards (not to mention about a dozen other types of laces), and they have strong preferences about bobbins: midlands, bayeaux, honiton…again, more names than I can keep track of… The vendors had some beautifully painted bobbins and other tools that were as pretty as the lace itself.
This is just a small portion of what was on display during the event, all made by members of this group.
Look at that fan.
These lace mavens do demonstrations all year long, at historic sites and local libraries. Somehow they manage to talk to people as they work. Impressive!
Making a lace border for a handkerchief has been my goal since my first lesson. Now I’m there!
I’m quite late posting about Rhinebeck. The internet abounds with images of what a beautiful weekend it was up in the Hudson Valley with the color just starting to turn and lots of promise for the weeks ahead. I love the one on Ravelry’s Homepage!
The drive was terrible! One hour, 30 minutes to the Kingston exit on the NYState Thruway, then another hour and a half to get across the Rhinecliff Bridge and crawl to the fairground! I’m not sure I can do this again next year….
Meanwhile, here are my treasures:
Alpaca/Wool/Mohair from Brooks Farm (Lancaster, TX) and buttons from Gita Maria
The Brooks Farm booth is always impossibly crowded, but I had an idea for a gift for a friend: a skein of luscious alpaca/wool/mohair with fund buttons from Gita Maria. The pattern is from Spin Off Magazine, Summer 2009.
And for me….
Rhinebeck Treasures
Eureka! I found buttons for my Einstein coat! …also from Gita Maria. She had baskets full of buttons, and they were all so pretty that I just dug through the lot until I found six that matched! I added to my Signature needles stash (usually one a year when I see them at a show so I can avoid shipping!). And I couldn’t resist the fun double pointed needles from knitpicks.
Handpainted 54s Corriedale Wool Top resting on a bed of Suri Alpaca/Silk
And although I am drowning in fiber, I cannot go to a wool festival without getting a little something…. look at that beautiful braid of handpainted Corriedale from “into the whirled”….sigh….resting on top of a cloud soft cushion of Suri Alpaca/Silk from Biltmore Wool Barn in Brewster, Mass…. bigger sigh….
This was a week when my dance card was over full, but how could I say no to so many wonderful opportunities?
My adult ed bobbin lace class has started again! I am on the last third of the edging for some hand towels, so I guess I’d better get busy weaving the towels! It’s wonderful to be back with these women again, who are very nurturing to me as a slow-learning beginner!
On Wednesday I rode with a friend up the Hudson River to Ghent, where she had arranged for us to have a one night farm stay at Kinderhook Farm, which is owned by old family friends and managed by two other friends. I had no idea what a treat we were in for. There are chickens with a delightful roosting house. (I did not know chickens roosted up in rafters and on high perches). There were lots of cows….I forgot to ask how many. And there were over 200 sheep!
This is the renovated barn you stay in for the ‘farm stay.’ It has two generous bedrooms with sitting areas that look out the large barn doors at the fields of cows and sheep, and a large kitchen in the center that separates the two bedroom/sitting rooms.
When we arrived the wind was howling and we had to close the large folding barn doors and insert beams to hold them closed!
View from the farm stay barn
This is the view of the sheep grazing from the the barn where we planned to stay!
Shortly afterward Lee came to suggest that we stay in the guest room of the main house since the night temperature was expected to be in the low 30s. We were disappointed to miss staying in this bucolic spot with its view of all the sheep grazing in the nearby fields….but in the middle of the night we were both very happy to be warm in the heated guest room!
Before going out to dinner we watched the managers and two helpers bring the sheep into the barn. In fact, we helped herd the sheep toward the barn. They have two guard dogs and a donkey, but no herding dogs.
Lee caught the two new babies for us to hold. He wants them to get used to being handled, but they were definitely not used to it yet! And the mother of the lamb I’m holding was not happy about it either!
The next day was my first Wednesday Group class in the new location right on the river in New Baltimore! Archie and Susan have a beautiful, renovated historic house overlooking the river. The enclosed porch which is now their studio is 40 feet long and has spectacular river views! The Clearwater motored down river, right in front of us, in the afternoon! Susan has filled their new house with many of her antiques, there is a 2nd floor wrap around porch for sitting outside, and the grounds go right down to the river. She will have a garden next year!
We drove home after my class on Thursday evening, and early Friday morning I headed out to Mendham for my 2-day workshop with Daryl Lancaster called “Weaving a Memory.” It’s been a fun two days, using the Theo Moorman technique to inlay silk habotai strips that were first ink jet printed with our personal photos. Daryl covered the Theo Moorman technique as well as photoshop manipulation of our images. You always get more than you can conceive of in a workshop with Daryl! I will write more on that next time! Meanwhile, check out what she has to say…
Who doesn’t love a fiber festival? I look forward to the NY State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck each October….and the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival each May! Three years ago a group of fiber loving women decided to try a small festival in Ridgewood, NJ, and it’s it’s been a success!
There were vendors with great stuff for sale; demonstrations by local guilds that include spinning, weaving, lace making, quilting, embroidery; and classes in knitting, crochet, rug hooking, felting, and natural dyeing. In hindsight, I wish I’d signed up for the workshop on rug hooking. The design for this class was a small sheep, and the beautifully dyed, lightly fulled, wool fabric was lovely. The little sheep was adorable! Although I couldn’t take the workshop (because I was too busy demonstrating for my weaving guild) I am ordering the kit from Foxview Needlepoing and Rug Hooking,and hope to figure it out on my own! This is another design that tempted me (well, the sheep anyway!).
It was great to spend the weekend with other local people who love the things I love!
