Fine Craft

As New England faces another big snowstorm today–the 3rd in only the first half of March!– Bob and I have been tied down in Martinique due to the sea state that results from storms in the North Atlantic.  That’s okay.  This is a beautiful island, so it’s not a bad place to be ‘stuck.’

This morning I saw in the NYTimes that Ethel Stein passed away at 100 years old.  What a wonderfully long, creative life she led.  What amazing influences from other artists she experienced in her long journey of creativity!  I visited her once with a group of weavers who, like me, lived along the Hudson Valley, just north of New York City.  She was probably about the age then that this photo was taken.  I was smitten with her beautiful surroundings in Croton-on-Hudson, by her draw loom which she adapted herself, and of course, by her woven pieces. I was with good friends that day, who remain good friends all these years later.

I can’t help thinking of the recent TED talk I saw about what it takes to live a long a life.  It’s not what we all expected–eating well, not smoking or using recreational drugs, drinking moderate alcohol if any, getting physical exercise.  No!  It turns out that while those things certainly help, it’s more important to have close relationships, to be engaged in the world, to be intellectually active.  Ethel certainly filled all these requirements.  My friend June did too, and although she did not make it to 100 years, she lived an active and vital 88 years.  In fact, she was on the short side to turning 89.

But back to our unintended extra time in Martinique.  We have been back in the islands for a week, and while we thought we’d be on our way to St. Lucia shortly after arriving back here, the weather has not cooperated.  And sometimes, that’s just what we need–a forced detour from the plan– to learn a bit more about things.  We rented a car on Saturday, our 2nd car rental during our long stay on Martinique, and we explored the northwestern part of the island.  Mt. Pelee, the big volcano on Martinique is in this part of the island, as well as a national park that has trails through the rainforest.  It was the highlight of our stay in Martinique, so we are both glad for the extra time here.

Mt. Pelee has been known to erupt every 100 – 150 years.  Since its last eruption was in 1902, when it wiped out the entire city of St. Pierre (only two people survived), it could gear up any time now for another event.  Nowadays there are ways of monitoring these things that were not even ideas the last time Mt. Pelee erupted, and at the moment the volcano is silent.  But if it continues as it has for previous eruptions, Mt. Pelee could wake up any year now.

All the volcanic islands in this part of the Caribbean are known as the “islands that kiss the clouds.”  They are certainly big mountains–Mt. Pelee is 4,000 ft high, and that does not take into account what lies below the surface of the sea.  I just asked Bob to check his charts on how deep the ocean is off the coast where Mt. Pelee sinks into the sea.  It’s about 8,000 feet there, so that makes Mt. Pelee 12,000 feet high.  I have come to think that these mountains attract the clouds down to them, wringing out moisture that nourishes the rainforests, rather than rising up to ‘kiss the clouds.’ I am using a photo from the internet because the day we drove around Mt. Pelee and up the winding road as far to the top as it went, there was far more cloud cover.  St. Pierre is shown in the foreground.

The rainforest we visited on Martinique is the most beautiful we’ve seen so far in our travels.  Here are a few photos.

There were so many trees that must be carrying their weight in other plants along their trunks and branches.  This trunk is covered in bromeliads.

I enjoyed watching Bob take photos.  Here he is crossing a small bridge over a crystal clear stream.

And here’s that stream–

Out in the gardens there were some broad vistas where perhaps you can see Mt. Pelee on a clear day, but  I’m not sure there are any clear days for the summit of that mountain.

Also, the entrance to the rainforest is a well designed museum with gardens to tour.  I loved the various displays in the museum and the gardens around it almost as much as the trail through the forest.  I loved this view through an opening in the museum building.

There were so many tree ferns, orchids, bromeliads, and vines growing deep in these woods.  It was breathtaking.  There is such a variety of life that I hardly ever think about unless I’m confronted by it!  Oddly, we only heard one bird call in these forests, a large, robin-sized songbird, with an orange/red breast and mostly black/brown body. Later on our walk we saw two light green parakeets take flight across one of the planned gardens outside the museum.  It was eerily silent in the forest, and  I saw no bugs, no snakes, and only two types of bird.  Yet there was so much flora to support what I bet is a multitude of creatures!

Bob took a photo that is calling for my attention.  I think it has great potential for a tapestry design.  I look forward to playing with it.  There is so much possibility for a limited color palette with lots of texture….and those tiny leaves!

On our way down from Mt. Pelee we took a different route in order to drive into St. Pierre to see the city that was destroyed in the 1902 volcano. Before that eruption, St. Pierre was known as “the Paris of the Caribbean.”

Along the our route we passed an historic rum distillery, and Bob can never pass up the chance to taste rum.   I am also glad we stopped because the original owner’s house and gardens have been well maintained over the centuries.

Giving in to my love of photographing windows surrounded by flowers, I think this might be the most opulent one I’ve ever encountered. It’s the north wing on the front of the house. I can’t stop thinking about throwing open those shutters early in the morning to watch the beaugainvillea bend in the breezes off the Caribbean while the sun rises at the back of the house–with a cafe au lait, of course!

This magnificent tree dominates the entrance to the house, near matching relfecting pools with fountains that flank the front walkway.

Here’s the view from the front north corner of the house.

The back of the house has nice views and gardens as well.  Not surprising.

The siting of this distillery has plenty of water to run the operation.  This is the spillway for the runoff on the day we were there.  That’s a lot of water over the bridge–or the road, so to speak.

All that rushing water runs this wheel–

Along with the well preserved history here, you can even have lunch here in a beautiful restaurant that overlooks the fields of sugar cane and out to the Caribbean Sea. The view is similar to the one from the front of the owner’s house.

I shamefully photographed my salad, and then became so engrossed in this exceptional meal that I forgot to take a photo of the main course, and believe me, it was a work of art and tasted as good as it looked!

So, after the extended visit to the Depaz Distillery, we headed into the center of St. Pierre. There are ruins of the 17th c. French fort still in the main part of the city, and the only currently inhabited buildings were built in the 20th c., after the last eruption.  The church dates back to 1659, although it was damaged on numerous occasions during the 17th and 18th c.’s, during battles between the French and English for naval supremacy of the Caribbean (and the world).  It was rebuilt in the mid-19th century and afterward changed from a neo-classical facade to its current Baroque facade.  It is a beauty!  Of course, I much preferred this view from the side, so you don’t even see the front facade.

St. Pierre is now a charming seaside town. The beaches along the water’s edge in St. Pierre are dark grey volcanic ash, which is somewhat visible in the photo.

This is the explosion (bad word choice perhaps) of bougainvillea on the balcony of the orange building in the previous photo.

We hope to leave for St. Lucia in the next day or so.  More seasoned cruisers to this part of the world have assured us that the further south we go, the more lush and beautiful the islands are.  We are looking to that and to seeing what mother nature throws in our path when she ties us down in other places.

**note–due to weak wifi I had a devil of time getting photos to load.  Some of the appear to have not loaded well, and when I have better internet I will fix these problems!  I hope you’ll check back here!

It has been quite a hiatus since my last post. A lot of water has gone under the keel since I met the mother/daughter weavers on Montserrat. We all know life can be full of curve balls, plunges down the roller coaster, and untimely surprises. That’s what’s been going on in my life lately, and I have been a little too shell shocked to write.

Along the way weaving and knitting lent a normalcy and calmness to surprises that popped up in my path–health issues while in a foreign country and the loss of a dear friend. Both weaving and knitting lend enough calm to deal with any roller coaster. I have better access to knitting while onboard than weaving, and the repetitive motion of making one stitch after another— dec right, YO, knit 5, YO, dec. left, etc., etc.—is a wonderful antidote to all kinds of ups and downs.

On the UPside, there has been some tremendously good news since I last checked in here. Our older son’s wife is expecting twins this summer! Yes, twins! They’ll arrive when our dear Tori Tiny Super Moon is only 18 months old, so that house will be full of chaos and magic. I hope I get to spend plenty of time there soaking it all up!

In preparation, I am knitting two baby blankets in the same pattern that I made for Tori , just a little over a year ago! And I’m thinking about matching Christmas sweaters, and a cute Christmas tunic for Tori…and… and…dare I think about lace?

This is Tori’s blanket being blocked back when I finished it, before the baby shower that was held in her honor.

We have just spent two weeks back in the US, and one of those weeks we spent visiting this growing family. Tori is getting cuter and cuter!   Communicating with her has become so much fun for me! She has a sign for ‘more’ which is really the sign for “again.” Isn’t that interesting? She doesn’t know it’s the sign for ‘again;’ it’s really her own invention. I am infatuated by that! She also has her own version of the sign for ‘please.’ She says ‘pay’ for ‘play,’ and she reaches for our iphones all the time while saying, “Pay! Pay!” She does lots of puzzles and has become shockingly good at them. Even though Mom brings home new ones all the time, it only takes her a few moments to figure them out. She does them so quickly, and then turns them upside down to send all the pieces scattering which makes her laugh. So her mother puts them away in a place that Tori cannot reach. So, when she says “puh” a few times, I will ask her if she wants to do a puzzle. When she nods yes vigorously, I ask her if she needs ‘help’ getting one down from the dining room sideboard. To this, she replies, “Hep! Hep! ”

I have to listen carefully for the difference between ‘buh’ (book) and ‘puh’ (puzzle). She loves to look at books. Puzzles and books are her favorite toys, followed closely by stuffed animals. Here she is sitting on her dad’s head, reading a book. Don’t ask—I have no idea why she likes this position for reading!

She is also quite good at pulling stickers off a sheet.  In this photo, she is has already finished off a sheet of stickers and has now decorated herself with all the background sticker bits–in case you’re wondering what’s on her shirt!

During our 6-day visit Bob took hundreds of photos of Tori. He took so many in burst mode that we have several sequences of photos that show her doing such adorable things. Doting grandparents!

While I haven’t done much weaving lately, I spent part of a day working on the ‘Text’ tapestry that is a line from a Robert Frost poem. It felt so good to be picking the warps and inserting the weft again, now sitting on my highest stool since the piece is growing ever so slowly. One more word and I’ll be advancing the warp around the copper frame. I also got the last piece of IKEA shelving unit (Kallax) for my herculean project of reorganization. Goodbye, big ugly bins that were caving under the weight of how many I had to stack against the wall in the room next to my studio. Now I have closed bins with labels to hold almost everything I need. The bins fit into a wooden shelving unit that keeps everything tidy. It looks so much calmer in this room now. I even decided to put my smallest loom in here. I still need a solution for my bins of fabric, so I have my thinking cap on about that. Ideas are greatly appreciated, if you have any please share! (They are sticking out from the counter top in the far right of the 3rd photo, looking quite unsightly in the midst of such great organization!)

From this beginning back in August….

….to this!  Finally!  IKEA was always out of stock on various pieces we needed to complete the project.

Just before our trip home I discovered that Laverne Waddington has a new instructional video on backstrap weaving. Take a look! I still believe this is the perfect loom to have on a boat. Well, that is if I can find a good way of tying myself fore and aft; last time I tried I could only find ways of tying up my loom port to starboard and that causes all kinds of trouble for anyone else trying to get anywhere while I’m weaving! Weaving on a backstrap loom can be as simple or challenging as I want, so it ought to keep me occupied and well engaged during the months without my floor looms. I have not had enough good internet to watch the whole video, but I’m sure I will learn a great deal from Laverne, and make some progress in tackling this technique!

Closer to home (New England) I’ve learned there is an exhibition of weavers’ work that includes Kate Barber, one of our guild members.

So I haven’t exactly given you fair warning to get to the opening reception, but there is plenty of time to get the exhibit if you are in the area.  Luckily I’ll be home in time to see this show.  You can see more of Kate’s work here.

And during my short stay in Connecticut, I found that a fellow fiber artist who works in paper has opened a studio right in the center of my little village. I first crossed paths with Ben Parker at a show of works in fiber a couple of years ago. After that I saw his work, and talked to him as well, at an open studio event for all kinds of artists in Hartford. I’ve been on his email list for notices of his upcoming shows and the workshops he has begun to teach. His studio is just that, a place where he works, rather than a gallery. He will be using this space to teach workshops, and I’d LOVE to get a group of weavers together to study with him this summer. Weavers, you know who you are, so let’s make a plan when I get home!

These are the things that make life so interesting and get us through the rough spots, aren’t they? My online guild from the UK is spending the month of March studying tapestry techniques under the guidance of Matty Smith. I can’t always get online down here in the Caribbean, but when I can, the ‘lessons’ will likely spark some good ideas for me.

I have gotten email notices that my local weavers have had to cancel meetings for two months in a row, due to the winter weather. And doesn’t the weather in early March often throw more at us New Englanders than the whole month of February can muster? On the one hand, a snowstorm in March never lasts long, but on the other hand, the power outages always last longer than the snow in March. Our house is currently without power, and most of my friends are in the same boat (bad pun!)—except they are living there right now.

Tomorrow is my older son’s birthday. He is the father of dear Tori and the soon-to-be father of the twins. He was born in the midst of a wild snowstorm 34 years ago. That snowstorm came with plenty of thunder and lightning. The delivery nurses were more interested in watching the storm out the window than paying attention to this brand new mom. A foot of snow fell in only a couple of hours that night. Over the years since then, Rob has had more snowy birthdays than not. So, I always enjoy a big March snowstorm. It heralds another birthday and makes me take a look at how much life changes as the decades slide past.

As you can see, I am clearly on a smooth path again—thanks in large part to knitting — and weaving.

We’ve had some whirlwind times since we returned from New Bedford — ten days on the West Coast, a week at home, and now a few days in Baltimore with our granddaughter.

Tori is quite interested in the Harrisville Potholder Pro loom that arrived in the mail just before we drove down here.  I decided to bring it with me.

She likes the colors and running her hand across the warp.  I think she’s got potential! Meanwhile, Bob is not so enthusiastic.  He burst out laughing when he saw the box.

The first words out of his mouth were, “Potholder PRO??? Is it possible to be a ‘pro’ at potholder making? Does it come with a wheelchair?”  Funny guy.  I have no idea why I’m attracted to this thing, but if it will give me some pleasure onboard or while visiting family, that’s no joke!  I’ve been wondering how I’d ever bring a loom to either of our son’s houses.  Well, this is a start!  I’m making one a bit like the one shown on the box, since it came with the purple, aqua, and lime green loopers.  I also bought a gigantic bag of loopers in ‘designer’ colors.  There’s a lot of potholder possibilities in those looper bags!

Anyway, before I went down this path, I had 10 days in San Francisco and points north with our younger son.  In San Francisco I visited two terrific shops– ImagiKnit and Britex Fabrics.  I can’t think of a more creative name for a knitting shop than ImagiKnit!  Their summer window display lived up to their name.  There were knitted ice cream bars on sticks, knitted cupcakes with elaborate frosting decorations, and a box of knitted donuts!  There was too much afternoon glare on the windows for me to get good photos, but you get the idea.

It’s a big store, with two long rooms divided by fiber.  One room holds yarns made from animal fiber and the other yarns made from plants fibers.  They’ve been around for about 15 years, and it looks like a successful venture!

Then there’s Britex in Union Square, another shop that is not to be missed on any trip to San Francisco!

Can you say ribbons and notions?  Oh my!

To say nothing of floors of fabric!  They have downsized a little (I think) since the last time I visited, more than 10 years ago.  They are downsizing more in November, when they will move to a smaller building, although they will still be in the Union Square area, and you can add on a visit to the Apple store while there.

I got lovely white linen for Tori’s christening gown that will be accented with the two bobbin laces I’ve made.  I also got a fine white cotton batiste for the inner slip and some tiny buttons for the back of her gown.  Sewing will commence soon….

During the week in between visiting the West Coast and now visiting Maryland, the first meeting of the year took place for the Connecticut guild.  The featured  speaker was Anastasia Azure.  I was lucky to get one of the last spots in her morning mini-workshop on weaving with paper.  She is known for her woven jewelry and larger woven pieces that are sculptural.  It turns out she knows how to have a lot of fun with paper too.  Check out the difference between her two renditions of the photograph below.

We had a great time making our own small paper weavings that can be mounted on a greeting card.  Anastasia’s afternoon presentation was about her jewelry and sculptural work.  You can learn a bit about her here.  I remembered her name from someplace, and by the end of our morning workshop, I realized she had been the juror for HGA’s gallery exhibition when Convergence was in Providence, where Anastasia now lives.  She was the juror who accepted my tapestry of “Sunset on Wilson Cove” into that show.

On the home front…. organization continues to be one my biggest struggles.  I am just not good at it.  I always have to rely on others to spark ideas for how I can organize my own space.  Recently I got just that when I visited a friend from both the weaving guild and lace guild.  Clare’s looms sit out in one of her living spaces, enhancing the room.  That could never happen in my house.  I asked her where all the ‘stuff’ was that you’d expect to be right near the loom.  She said she has converted one of her bedrooms into a stash room.  She then gave me a tour of the cabinets and shelving she uses to organize her stash.  Bingo!  I went right home and told Bob.  My stash is not yet under control but it’s a LOT closer!

First, I got rid of the bins in my stash room and bought a wall shelf unit from Ikea.  These two walls had floor to ceiling mismatched, plastic bins that were quite an eyesore.  And even worse, whatever I wanted to access always seemed to be in the bottom bin, so I had to UNstack everything to get what I needed.

Here are just a few of those bins piled up in the studio, waiting for the wall unit to be built!  You know the saying that to make things neater, you have to endure a much bigger mess.

Ikea packages everything so concisely.  It’s to imagine that there is wall of shelving in those two boxes.  Actually, it was four boxes.

Bob finished building this wall unit in less than an hour.  By the end of the day I had all the blue canvas baskets full of my stash.  I now have 25 canvas containers holding all the stash of wool, silk, cotton and novelty yarns that used to be in mismatched bins stacked to the ceiling.  My next purchase is going to be a flat file for all my shuttles and bobbins.  Thank you Clare for getting me motivated!

Well, I want to get back to that potholder!  Tori has had a nap and an afternoon outing, so it’s time for both of us to get back to it!

 

 

Wedged between two trips that Bob and I have planned for a while now, we took a lightning speed trip to New Bedford to see two interesting exhibitions that are right down the street from each other.

The first was “Plunge: Explorations from Above and Below” an exhibit of artworks inspired by the sea that was curated by the couple who make up Brown/Grotta Arts.  It’s on view at the New Bedford Art Museum. There were a number of pieces done in fiber techniques, which is what intrigued me to visit.  Foremost is Helena Hernmarck’s large tapestry “New York Bay, 1894,” and joined by quite a few other works in fiber.  There is a beautiful catalog for exhibition that you can buy here.

Helena Hernmarck’s “New York Bay, 1894”

The details are marvelous!

There are a number of works by Karyl Sisson, and I was drawn to all of them.  In three of them she has used miles of zipper tapes to create organic, aquatic shapes.

“Reaching Out”

Here’s a detail, so you can see the zipper tapes and more accurate color.

“Growth II”

“Opening Up,” made from cotton twill tape and wooden spring loaded clothespins.

“Long Lines” by Annette Bellamy is a hanging created with twine and ceramic hooks.  It dangles over a plexiglass plate and the gentlest breeze makes the entire piece move.  I know, I blew on it ever so lightly.

It worked well viewed with the piece behind it, and that was signature aspect of this exhibition.  Often the pieces enhanced the works around them.

Behind “Long Lines” is Gretha Wittrock’s (Denmark) “Artica” made of sailcloth that has been dyed with indigo and cut and shaped.

There were quite a few works in fiber.  There was a large hanging made up of many silk threads that were hand painted with dye.  There were three marvelous little boat shapes made of plant paper and willow by Jane Balsgaard (Brooklyn, NY).

The entire exhibition is beautifully displayed with spectacular pieces.  It is on view until October 8, so there’s time to get up there.  If you do, don’t miss a visit to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Right now there is a temporary exhibit about Clifford Ashley, the master of knots who wrote The Ashley Book of Knots, a book you’ll find down below on almost any blue water sailboat.  We’ve had our copy since the late 70s.  It covers knots used in other applications (I’ve used it for tying interesting knots with my kumihimo), but it’s a knot bible for sailors.

It turns out that Ashley had about 7,000 knots in a collection he made for the book.  His daughter now has that collection and loaned it to the museum for this exhibition.  Ashley was also a painter, and I enjoyed seeing what a good artist he was.  He studied with Howard Pyle in Brandywine during the same period that N.C. Wyeth studied with Pyle.  The exhibit has photos of Ashley’s family life, his paintings, and lots of knots.

Quite a clever title for the show…and great graphics.

Here’s the book.

A photograph of Ashley standing in front of one his paintings

Just a few knots….along with harpoon.

And I could not resist a photo of some lace bobbins, tatting shuttle and lovely ivory fid displayed on a piece of machine made lace.

Upstairs at the museum you can see a vast amount of ivory things. The walking canes alone must number in the hundreds!  There were no shortage of handwork tools and household items that men carved for their loved ones.  While I enjoyed looking at all the rolling pins and pastry cutters, I confined myself to photos of items for handwork.

A cabinet full of top shelf swifts!

The crown jewel of sewing accessories….pin cushions, spool holders and lots of little drawers for supplies.

My favorite– an ivory knitting basket, with ivory and ebony knitting needles.

Into our 36 hour trip we also crammed in a visit to the well known Nantucket basket supply store called DELS, where I purchased some of the missing items from a Nantucket purse I started about 7 years ago.  Maybe I’ll be carrying it by next summer.  I’ve always wanted to see this shop in person.  It is a treasure trove of basket temptations.

The counter display of ivory, bone, and acrylic decorations could have entertained for me for an entire day….

There were shelves and shelves of basket molds to choose from and all the cane and staves you need to weave.  And all the tiny finishing hardware necessary for these baskets.  I thought I should make a plan for my next basket while I had the attention of an expert (Melanie) to guide me.  I settled for a small, narrow tote.  They will gather up the necessary items and ship them to me in a couple of weeks.  I’ll put it on Pandora to weave this winter.  And then I’ll be just like the real McCoy!–making a Nantucket basket aboard a boat!

So here’s the shape of my tote.  Just imagine it without the salt and pepper grinders and the center divider, and with  short leather handles for carrying.  It’s going to be just the thing! I’m making mine with a cherry base, rim, and staves.

This trip came about because of one thing Bob had scheduled to do– a tour of the Coast Guard air station on Cape Cod.  We had a 12.30 appointment to meet one of the helicopter pilots–a female lieutenant.  We met her earlier in the summer when she spoke at Bob’s SSCA event and we arranged this visit.  She is still in her 20s and has been a pilot for four years already.  Impressive!

When we arrived at the air station we learned that all the planes except one helicopter and two planes had been called to Houston to deal with rescue efforts in hurricane Harvey.  There was a pilot left on the station to man the remaining helicopter, and he graciously gave us the tour.  We have incredible armed forces, and it was fascinating to learn a bit about the Coast Guard.  Bob and I have seen two presentations on how the CG goes about search and rescue.  Visiting the air station and getting to see the actual equipment was really the frosting on the cake.  These guys can keep a helicopter level in order to lower a cable and a basket onto a boat that might be rocking to and fro and rising and falling in 50 foot waves.  That helicopter is experiencing the same wild winds, and yet the crew know how to keep control of the rescue procedure during all the uncontrollable elements in a bad storm.  The men who handle the rescue operation know how to do things that seem far beyond humanly possible.  Honestly, I don’t know how they can do it.  And what a nice bunch of people to boot!  There are quite a few women at the air station, but most of them had been called to Texas.

Lieutenant Podmore is showing me the remaining M60T helicopter that he flies.

The hangars are ridiculously clean.  I’m not sure what this plane is…Bob and the Lt kept talking about C-130s…

The rescue swimmers work out every day….as you might imagine.  Hard to see, but some of these guys were doing things that I (again) did not think humanly possible!

It was a whirlwind trip–barely over 36 hours.  I have been worried about everyone down on the coast of Texas, but of course, worried about my own family most of all.  It was especially moving to me to meet these soldiers who have such an important role in the ongoing storm and will continue to help through the aftermath.  I don’t have a way to reach my relatives who live in Galveston, so it was very comforting to think that these soldiers are down there helping.  My relatives further east on that coast were managing at the end of the weekend, but have now just been hit by the 2nd landfall of Harvey, and again, I’m thankful to have seen first hand the kind of rescue and help that is down there.

 

A lot of water has rushed under the bridge and over the dam, since I returned home more than 6 weeks ago.  A whole bunch of wonderful things have happened that I should have written about already.

Bob has had a hard time sailing the long distances this year, both going south and returning north, but he managed to get home just a few days before this holiday weekend.  He had to leave Pandora in Hampton, Virginia, and drive the rest of the way home. Hopefully he’ll make the last few hundred miles back home in late June.  It’s terrific to have him back!

For now, I’ll write about this holiday weekend.

Since we’ve moved to Connecticut it has been our new tradition to take a drive through the beautiful Connecticut River Valley each spring as part of our Memorial weekend festivities.  Yesterday was a glorious day, one of the first days without rain in about a month.  I put together a picnic, and we headed out in our toy car to visit a sheep farm/dairy and a local winery.

Only a week before I learned about this sheep dairy from a friend who traveled with me to a long weekend lace conference.  On the other side of the Ct River there are three dairy farms that make cheese:  a cows’ milk dairy called Cato Farms, a goats’ milk dairy called Beltane Farm, and a sheep and cow dairy called Beaver Brook Farm.  Imagine that! All three right within a few miles of each other!

Here is bucolic Beaver Brook Farm, owned by the Sankows.  The farm has been in their family since the beginning of the last century, and they’ve been raising sheep and making cheese since the current generation bought their first sheep in 1984.  I found some newspaper articles tacked up on the walls of their farm market that date from the early 2000s.  These articles came from the New York Times, “Saveur” Magazine, and several local publications.

It was a stunning day for a visit.  First came looking at the new lambs.

Then we met Suzanne who gave us a tasting of fresh sheep’s milk cheese covered in herbs de Provence, feta, an aged cheese that she calls “Farmstead,” and even a fresh sheep’s milk cheese mixed with pesto.  All of it was delicious!

Here is Suzanne cutting some feta for us.

And here is a counter of aged Farmstead ready to be cut and packaged. It is a semi-firm cheese with a LOT of great flavor.

Suzanne gave us samples enough for a meal, and we enjoyed all of it.  Afterward we visited the small building next door called the Wool Shop.

Inside the shop is more of an idea in progress than a fully functioning shop.  They are just now branching out with the idea of making and selling things from the wool of their sheep. (Did I ask what breed these sheep are??  How could I neglect to do that?)  The raw fleeces are sent to a mill in Massachusetts to be washed, then sent south for spinning at a mill in in either North or South Carolina. Some of the yarn is used to weave fabric that becomes blankets or clothing items, like capes and vests and sweaters.  But look at all those piles of socks!

Recently Stan bought a sock knitting machine from China and is busily making hundreds of socks per machine knitting session.   Sometime back, I remember reading in the NY Times that there is one town in China that produces almost all the socks sold in the world.  Is that where Stan got his knitting machine?

It takes only 3 minutes for this machine to knit a sock.  There are lots of choices of sizes and designs for the socks.  When the sock is finished it shoots out into the blue plastic bucket in the foreground.  I burst out laughing when the sock came shooting out!–sans toe because Stan has the toes done elsewhere and also has the socks washed elsewhere which makes them much softer than what we are holding here.

Want one?  Here’s the info on that. The basic machine is about $6,000.  You’ll need to fork out more for all the design possibilities.

A sock in progress down in the center.  That plastic tube is where the sock will get shot out of the machine and into the bucket.

Just a head’s up for friends and family.  There will be sheep socks coming your way this Christmas.  How can I resist?

There are many to choose from!

Then we went to take a look at the sheep in the field.  What a bucolic setting….

The farm is in Lyme on Beaver Brook Rd, in Lyme.  Suzanne says they are open 7 days a week.  That’s hard for me to believe with all the chores that must keep them busy, but she says they always have time to greet visitors and give you a cheese tasting.  We went home with the fresh cheese covered in herbs de Provence, two hunks of feta and and some Farmstead.  Yum…

We capped off the day with a stop at Priam Vineyards in Colchester, just a bit north of Lyme, and a lovely drive too on a spring day in a very old MGA.  Cato Farm, where you can buy some wonderful cow’s milk cheese is just around the corner from them.

We sat on their shady terrace overlooking the vineyards and had a glass of  chardonnay with our picnic.

What a way to celebrate the beginning of summer in New England.  It is the best time of year for remembering and acknowledging how lucky we are to have such freedom and so many opportunities to enjoy life.