Inevitable Delays, Dinner, Fiber Twist

Good news: one of the two garbage bags of clothing to sort was already sorted last spring... all giveaway, and now all in the Planet Aid box down the block, along with another back of newly sorted out clothing. Yay!

Eh news: plastic still not up on windows, but hopefully by Monday. fitzw noted that the duct tape wasn't sticking too well in a few places, and that there were other window panes having problems, so he caulked all the panes with issues. So, still not done, but at least improving.

Future: talked about what to use for the passive solar heating, and fitzw suggested using a couple of 5-gal steel containers that we sometimes use for gathering sap in the spring. Just have to paint them black :) Also have an old metal carboy that should work well.

Dinner at Ruby Tuesday's went well. 10 people made it, including the guest of honor. Much chatting, and a bit of singing in the hall outside. Some plotting of possibility of something special for Yule. Birnam forest may come to Dunsinane yet...

Fiber Twist tomorrow. Sleep now!
g'night :)

Fiber Twist

Long day, but good. Wet and rainy most of the day, with some thunder and lightning briefly up in Shelburne. Total of six of us in the minivan - fitzw, me, ellid, lady_jade_01, D.Moiselle and her son L.

Went to the marketplace first, and ran into Kate there, one of the newer folks in the barony. She works weekends, so we don't get to see much of her; it was nice to chat for a bit.
( What we got at the marketplace )

fitzw talked shop here and there with various folks about spinning and weaving. Had some lunch there, then went to the museum next door and looked at the quilts, weaving and spinning equipment, and pretty much everything else in the building. There was a great miniature of an 18th c. house in one room. The person had handpainted the murals on the master bedroom's walls and doors, and there were rag rugs and other types of rugs in the rooms. Fancy rooms were viewable from one side and servants' quarters in the upper floors from the other side, as well as a ghost through a window into a storage room.

Next we went around the corner and down the road to Historic Deerfield proper, to the Bloody Brook Tavern/Pub behind Indian House. There they had several old looms set up and we all got to try them out. Young L was quite good at weaving, and I had fun with a couple of them too, managing to even out the width/tension on them. The barn loom was having some problems so fitzw took a look at it with the woman who was there, changed a few things and made some recommendations.

Then it was off to Becky's Vav Stuga (roughly, Swedish for "weaving cottage") in Shelburne. The final road was quite narrow, and a couple of our passengers were quite amazed at the wood bridge, before which we had to pull over to the side for the oncoming vehicle. Beautiful countryside, and the mist on the hills was quite magical. The studio is on the second floor of her house, and there were 8 or 9 looms set up, including a very narrow floor band/tape loom. It was wonderful looking at all the looms, the various patterns on all of the fabrics there, the tools, and spools of weaving fibers (mostly linen, with some cotolin and cotton, and what looked like some wool on the bottom shelves). fitzw picked up some "horses" for eventually adding a couple more harnesses to the barn loom, we got a couple of books, and I picked up some white linen and a spool of dark blue cotton, for when I'm ready to weave linen towels.

Then we all headed back to Greenfield for a bite to eat, and then dropped off D.Moiselle and L, before heading back to Holyoke. All were quite weary from the long day. We needed to stay at the house as we don't know when prince_hring will return from the wedding reception, and also fitzw was too tired to drive anymore. Thankfully ellid was able to give lady_jade_01 a ride home.

Hmm, time for some tea and/or hot chocolate...