ArgoKnot – Page 64 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

I Love a Parade!!

June 17, 2013 | 1 Comment

Gosh! I can hear Ethel Merman singing this song, and it’s not a good thing to have stuck in my head! Still, who doesn’t love a parade?

Is all of New England like this? I just can’t believe how many parades there are up in this area and how enthusiastic everyone is about them! It sure makes me happy. So, this is how Bob and I spent a perfect Saturday in June.

It started with a ride on the Essex steam train, which took us up to Haddam for the start of the Haddam Bridge Centennial parade!

I’ve never seen a parade come across a bridge! It was great fun! I’ve now seen the Moodus Fife and Drum Corps at numerous parades in this area. They are terrific!…and they have a wide range of ages in the group, from what looks like high school students to retirees! ….men and women!

Next over the bridge was the oldest car in the area. This looks like a horse drawn carriage that was fitted with some kind of motor and a tiller for steering. There were about 30 antique cars in this parade, and they were all beautiful!

There was a ceremonial opening of the bridge, and isn’t it pretty with its fresh coat of paint?

When this bridge was built in 1913, it had one of the longest opening spans. On this June day in 2013, the river was very swollen with spring rains and the current was running hard. The local ferry at Chester was not running due to the high waters. The dock was under water, and the river currents were ripping by at more than 5 knots!

There were festivities all through the town of East Haddam, and we spent some time enjoying the views of the river and the Goodspeed Opera House, which is celebrating its 50th year. This is a postcard New England town, and when it’s decorated for a celebration it is just breathtaking!

We crossed the river and boarded the Becky Thatcher steamboat for the second half of this great trip.

It’s hard to believe that the banks of the Connecticut River are still so rural and undeveloped. In our area the river passes through hills called the Seven Sisters. At the summit of the Seventh Sister is Gillette Castle, an eccentric dwelling built in 1853, by the actor William Gillette who played the role of Sherlock Holmes on stage for many years.

On the western shore on top of another hill in Deep River, is the Mount St. John school for boys.

In Deep River we got back on the steam train for our return to Essex. I loved sitting in the parlour car with comfy swiveling wing chairs! I didn’t want to leave!

….and this was just the first half of our beautiful Saturday in June. We then drove across the Haddam Bridge on our own wheels to visit the Salem Herb Farm.

I met my friend Jody who works at the farm. She grows a large field of garlic at her own home, and now is the time of year when she cuts the scapes in order for the plants to use their energy toward making bigger garlic bulbs. The scapes are good used like chives, only with a powerful garlic flavor. Jody loves using scapes to make pesto, substituting scapes for basil. I thought that was a wonderful idea at a time of year when scapes are plentiful and basil is not quite yet! So last night’s dinner was scape pesto on linguine with a salad of local lettuce and hothouse tomatoes….a delicious way to end a beautiful weekend!

In Full Swing

June 12, 2013 | Leave a Comment

Everything seems in full swing now…. I am making progress on projects I missed all fall and winter, and at last (!!) I’ve connected with the interest groups in my new area: weavers, knitters, dyers, and lace makers! It’s all very exciting and inspiring to me.

Earlier this week I met my oldest friend at the Lyme Art Association while she was dropping of her sculpture “Daughter” that will be on display as part of the upcoming exhibit by the Hudson Valley Art Association. Right nearby was a bronze bust of Robert Frost done by Jose Bascaglia. Exciting works! My friend also has a piece in the National Sculpture Society’s exhibit that is traveling this summer (Lea Ann’s piece is “Virga,” the first image on the page).

It was a soft green drizzly day , and LeaAnn and I decided to walk through the grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum where the gardens were in soft focus.

On my daily walks I pass a certain fence that is about 100 feet long and bedecked in this lovely candy striped rose.

Later in the summer this same fence will serve as support for about a million sunflowers. The sunflower seedlings are already up! And to add to the ambience there is a huge lawn just beyond this fence border that is home to a beautiful yellow barn and two Weimaraners who are often out frolicking on the lawn. There is always something beautiful to see at this spot along my walk!

And in my own garden this summer I have a passion flower vine growing in a pot. The first flower opened this morning!

Surrounded by so many flowers, it’s no wonder I’m thinking about them for my next tapestry. I am halfway through the final pear in my ‘Trail of Pears,’ so I’ve been designing the next tapestry. I’m intrigued by a still life based on a woodcut of nasturtiums in a bowl.

I am enjoying taking this pot of nasturtiums and putting it into an environment….perhaps with a window behind and some curtains, the edge of a table…. we’ll see.

Mid-Spring

May 31, 2013 | 1 Comment

Is there anything with as much promise as mid-spring? My gardens, my projects, my whole world is all hope and possibility.

I’ve completed pear #4 in my ‘Trail of Pears.’ Each pear has brought harder color decisions, and #4 caused me to call on the advice of both my husband and younger son. I had every shade of gold in my yarn palette out and none of them worked. Chris helped me let go of my preconceived notion that the pear had to be in the yellow family. That pear is a tan that I would never have considered if not for Chris. Now it’s finished and soon the background around pear #5 (the final pear) will be finished as well, which will mean making the final pear color choice. I plan to be at my Wednesday Group class next week so I can get some input from all the weavers there. Whew!

When I’m not weaving the pears I’ve been spinning some silk. Does anyone remember Carol Weymar who called herself the silk worker. I can’t find her anymore! I used to buy her handpainted silk roving, so I have a little collection of them. I always wanted a bit more than 2 ounces from her, but she never had more than that of any given painted way. I took this as a challenge to me to learn to spin finer, hoping to get 1,000 yards out of that 2 oz. Well, I still can’t do it!

So, to the latest colorway which I will call ‘mid-spring’ (all the colors of a spring garden, except blue) I am adding a strand of luscious 50/50 merino/silk. The merino is a warm natural color, something I might call ‘almond,’ and the silk is a shimmering white. Spun together I’m getting a lovely shade of cream and I hope it will be stunning plied with the 100% painted silk from Carol. I’d like to start plying right now, but I will force myself to let the newly finished merino/silk set overnight. Boy, I can’t wait for tomorrow!

It’s 90 degrees outside today, one of those abnormally hot spring days we sometimes have. My basement studio is a cool respite on a day like this, and the view cool and green.

Have I mentioned that I live on the edge of a large nature preserve? May offers up so many beautiful sights there…. lady slippers are in bloom and we found a robin’s egg on the ground! There are dragon flies everywhere, and the hummingbirds arrived. I’ve seen eagles soaring above our house.

Yes, it’s all hope and promise around here.

Perfect May

May 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment

This wisteria vine is growing along the walk I take most days. This and the azaleas and the spring green of unfurling ferns are what lures me outside each day.

I will enjoy playing with these two images for a tapestry cartoon, even if I never actually weave them. Back at home I discovered a few mushrooms from the recent damp weather. I’ve cut them and brought them in for identification.

I think they are Agaricus arvensis which are very common gilled mushrooms. Part of identifying a mushroom involves getting a gill print on white paper (or black paper if the gill print is white). This gill print is a deep grey tinged with purple, very similar to the color of the gills themselves as you can see in the photo above.

This mushroom mostly gives tan, beige and grey in the dyebath; not too exciting since wool naturally comes in those colors. But if I mordant with tin (and yes, I do have that) I might get a golden brown. I’ve got 12 oz. of mushrooms, so it is a bit tempting…. and I actually remember where my dye pots are!

And there is news of Bob today. The wind continues quite favorable for sailing, and he is now in the Gulf Stream so that current is pushing Pandora to speeds over 10 knots. He is WAY offshore, but roughly the same latitude as the southern part of Georgia. That’s a lot of ground covered in 48 hours.

Getting Reacquainted with Bobbin Lace

May 19, 2013 | 1 Comment

It’s a drizzly Sunday, perfectly May weather, and I have set up my bobbin lace table in an east-facing window.

In this spot in my living room I have morning sun coming in over my shoulder. I am quite lost at the corner of my most recent handkerchief border, so I decided to revisit a pillow with an older project on it. It is a straight lace that I used on my linen top last summer. It only has 12 bobbins and has a sewing edge, central spider, and scallop edge.

A great way to spend a Sunday morning! I’ve heard from Bob via sideband radio that he has been able to sail at 7 knots for the past 24 hours. He is now off the coast of northern Florida, east of the Gulf Stream, about 150 miles north of the Abacos. If this kind of favorable wind keeps up he’ll be arriving home in one week!