And Now the Rest of the Story.....

Happy Monday Blog Fellows,

Walking Brooklyn Bridge

It's has been a whirlwind of a weaving week here in Shelburne Falls. But, I'll share a bit about that in a moment. First, I'll finish up on the week of Gary's visit and yes, he did indeed eat the fancy pastry in Times Square.

W1AW Building

After our wonderful three days in New York City we headed back to Massachusetts via the Amtrak and our parked car. I went to work Saturday and Gary drove to W1AW, the national Ham Radio station in Connecticut, which he knew was closed but wanted to see anyway and had small hopes that some hammer would be there to visit with him. All he got was a picture.
Sunday we left for the part of the trip I had planned and it all revolved around hands-on history villages. Does that sound like an elementary teacher or what? On Sunday we drove by way of Quabbin Reservoir to Old Sturbridge Village. 

Quabbin view

Quabbin was created in the 1920's-1930's to provide drinking water to Boston. Which was wonderful, unless you lived or were buried in the area to be flooded. Apparently all the decision making was done in Boston, so the locals from the three towns to be affected had very little representation as they couldn't attend the meetings. Over about a 15 year period the towns were relocated along with all people (dead and alive) and the valley was indeed flooded and still provides millions of people in Mass. with drinking water. Pretty interesting and very beautiful.

Old Sturbridge Village farm

Old Sturbridge Village is one of the country’s oldest and largest living history museums, depicting early New England life from 1790-1840 with historians in costume, antique buildings, water-powered mills, and a working farm. osv.org.  We spent about 4.5 hours there and saw most everything, but could have used more time another day to absorb more and read more. 

Publick House Historic Inn room

Because this was a history tour, I booked a room at The Publick House Historic Inn,  publickhouse, established in 1771. We had dinner in the pub (which has been added on but looked very realistic). We had one of the original handful of rooms. It was funny, literally, how crooked the floors were going up the stairs and down the hall to the room and in the room. It reminded us both of the Black Hills' Cosmos Mystery area, cosmosmysteryarea.

Thomas Oyster House

Schooner

Terry in Birthday sailor suit

On Monday we concluded our history tour at Connecticut's, Mystic Seaport,  mysticseaport . It is an 1800's seaport village with historic sea vessels, craft shops, demonstrations and a working ship restoration facility. We cruised the bay and walked and learned for about 4.5 hours. We decided that 4.5 hours must be our learning, walking, looking limit. We  found our simple modern motel and then tracked down a wonderful seafood restaurant on the wharf. 

Gary with tug boat :)

Tuesday morning, I took Gary to Hartford Airport and got to Vavstuga at 1:00. The sheep and looms were waiting for me.

Barbros daldrall

It was such a wonderful week of weaving. Tuesday we did some planning of projects for the upcoming week plus began talking about my incredible apprentice project. I assembled a new, fresh out of the box Glimakra loom and put on a project that was already beamed and ready to weave. This lovely red and white piece is called Barbro. It is an overshot in 32/2 cotton for the warp and tabby and 16/2 cotton for the pattern weft. I had a couple of setbacks and it really didn't feel like I had any rhythm until about 3/4 of the way through, but I am very happy with the finished piece and it was another wonderful learning experience. Additionally, this past week I made a cheerful plaid table cloth in 16/2 cotton with matching apron fabric, 16/2 warp with 8/2 weft. While it is simple plain weave, I really tried to work on a consistent beat, to avoid striping in the weave, and I also worked on techniques Becky shared to make color changes that are less noticeable. It was a fantastic two weeks of east coast sites and new weaving challenges. I'm eager for tomorrow, when I get to go out to the draw loom studio and begin weaving there for several days in preparation of the upcoming Drawloom Basics class. Have a great end of the month. Can you believe fall is nearly here? 

August 26th Bridge of Flowers over the Deerfield River

Off to The Big Apple

Hello Blog Fellows,    
 I have returned from a week of sightseeing and attending national tourist attractions. Last Monday I needed to pick Gary up at the Hartford airport in the evening, so I spent the day buying a new pair of comfortable, yet stylish shoes and walking for five hours at Historic Deerfield, a mid 1700's town with many buildings and museums open to the public. Guess what? Even though the shoes felt comfy, they shredded my feet just in time for five days of walking. New shoes will do that. 

I made sure to get to Hartford airport in time to pick up Gary and we stayed the night in nearby Windsor. Then, we caught an Amtrak train first thing in the morning to New York City. Here is the view from our hotel window right above Times Square.

We spent the first evening on a bay cruise that went all around Manhattan .

View from Empire State Building

The next day we toured the Empire State Building and then walked back to our hotel in the rain to clean up for our evening on Broadway. We went to the 7:00 showing of Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. We followed it up with a light dinner at a nearby pub and a yummy decadent pastry at an outdoor table in the middle of Times Square. 

Thursday we headed for a subway ride south, where we took a ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. After satisfying tours of both and a stop at a beer garden we walked on to the financial district, and the oldest wharf area in NYC, which now is shopping and restaurants, but there was some old cobblestone to walk on while getting into the nearest pub. We went to Ground Zero, but only saw the new towers under construction as you had to have tickets to get into the memorial. It didn't cost anything, but tickets were assigned in advance. Another time. Hopefully, the memorial will open up to the general public in the future when the towers are finished. 

Ship restoration project at the old wharf area.

Tune in later in the week to find out if he indeed ate the pastry. 

Swedish Rag Rug Making and More

Hello Everyone in Blogland,
I hope you are having a great August. It is hard to believe it's already the middle of the month and I'm starting my sixth week out here in Massachusetts.

This past week I was able to work on a lovely block weave runner in linen. It came out about five feet long. I need to hand hem it before it can be washed and fulled, for that I need a Swedish hemming lesson. I'll post a finished picture of it when that all happens. For now it is bedroom wall art of the finest kind!


Just one more of the quaint, lovely touches at the breakfast table.

Wednesday through Friday was a Swedish Rag Rug class which I was able to attend, loom and all. It was a blast. Talk about inspiration. So many beautiful colors to choose from and loads of books and rugs to use for ideas.

I selected a pattern  from a Swedish text which used plain weave and Rosepath, but made it in my own color palette. I was really pleased with how it came out. It too needs to be finished on the ends. I'm not sure if I'm going to tie fringe or make a tighter finish. I'll work on that part in a couple of weeks.

Gary is coming on Monday to spend a week. We plan to go see the sights in New York City for a few days and then spend time at tourist towns in Mass. and Connecticut. Next week, I'll write with pictures of our sightseeing adventures. No rugs to knot or runners to hem. Oh, I might work on my knit sweater and show you that, just to keep the fiber theme alive. For now enjoy another beauty from the Bridge of Flowers and me.

Missin' You

Hello Friends and Family,

I am so sorry it's been so many days since my last post. Three times when I had the opportunity to get on-line to post, connection wasn't good. I don't know why that happens. It has been very busy since last I shared. We had a class come and go last week, which let me get in several 14 hour days. I spent much time winding warp and threading heddles, hmm sound familiar :).

During our little lunch recess breaks I strolled the Bridge of Flowers to give you an update of the beautiful summer changes.  What an amazing selection of flowers in a small, unusual garden.

I did weave a lovely four foot long block weave runner on eight shafts which offered a bit of a challenge trying to weave the pattern without relying on the written pattern.I finally had it by the last few inches. I need to hem it yet, but I think it's lovely. This one is 20/2 cotton for warp and weft.

My field trip last Monday was to a local geological in-town tourist site called the Glacial Potholes. These are perfect circular holes carved into the stone during glacial melting millions of years ago. They are interesting and the patterned stone is beautiful, a natural work of art.

One warm afternoon as lunch was ending we looked out to see a local tour group taking water boards up the Deerfield river. These boarders made it look deceptively easy.

Speaking of lunchtime, here is a typical place setting at Vavstuga. Beautiful, charming, comfortable practicality.

In the evenings, one of my many projects has been to work on a bison rope. Here is the finished 55ft rope I'll be sending home with Gary in a couple of weeks. Well, I say it's finished, but in truth I may have to take it apart and add five feet. Argh! I don't have a reliable way to know my finished length. Too many variables on such a long piece.

I hope your summer is going well. I can't believe I am starting my fifth week out here. We have a rag rug class this week. I think I get to have my own  loom in this class. I'll post my rug next weekend.

Thinking of you - Terry