Yesterday was a very nice day. Beautiful fall day. Worked in the garden, nice lunch, read a little, carded some wool, dinner with music and later, a little TV. Lazy and very relaxing.
Today was also beautiful but not so relaxing—back to work. I did get to update the image at the top of the page to one of pumpkins on our side porch. (View older header images.)
Philadelphia University where I teach had its second annual Day of Service today. Classes were canceled and students and faculty were expected to choose from a lengthy list of projects, a worthy cause they would work on. Some were quite organized and some were less so.
I joined a group who knit hats for premature infants to wear in the hospital. We were referred to a web site which had many patterns for hats, booties and other items infants could use and we showed up with our yarn and needles and knit away.
Students, faculty and staff all joined in creating a mother load of hats to be donated to an area hospital. I worked with a smaller splinter group and the picture shows some of our results.
I sold my loom! – To a weaver from NJ who belongs to the same Guild I did where it all started. The circle is complete!
That’s a great price for someone who wants one and I don’t weave anymore and want the space. If interested, comment here.
I have remove comments from this site due to the amount of spam it generates. If you are interested in this loom I can be reached at beth@emmott.com.
This past weekend we went to VA Beach to visit my Mom for Mother’s day.
We had a great time—seeing her, my brother Curt and his family. Curt and Mary got us to go to the Monster Trucks on the Beach show that was going on. I’d never heard of Monster Trucks—what fun—sort of like a circus and a rodeo combined.
That’s an entry for another time… what I want to talk about today is spinning.
I used to be a weaver. I was a founding member and past president of the South Jersey Guild of Spinners and Handweavers even though I lived “just over the bridge” in PA.
I was also a member of the Philadelphia Guild of Weavers. I stopped spinning and weaving when I started teaching at Philadelphia University—something had to go and I fed my fiber itch with knitting. My friend Jane is a wonderful knitter and she taught me in exchange for my creating her web site.
This winter I got the spinning bug again—perhaps because I expect my madder plants to mature enough to harvest the roots for dying (if Chris’s cats don’t ruin them). I got out my wheels, an Ashford and a Louet—cleaned them up, replaced the rotten leather bits and oiled them. I still have a trunk of fleece— some still very nice—I found my carders and set to work.
I have no romantic ideas of the “olden days” —I’m sure if I lived then I’d have hated to have had spinning as a chore. But it’s today and I like spinning—I even like the carding, piling up a number of rovings and then the act of spinning its self. Its very meditative, plus you get a skein of yarn in the end.
Back to our VA trip. My Mom moved to VA Beach at the end of last summer and we have made a number of trips, helping her settle in. The most direct route is down the Delmarva peninsula. We used to drive that route when Curt and Mary lived in the Outer Banks but haven’t for a number of years. I’ve always loved the Eastern Shore of VA. Its very beautiful in a quiet natural way. In the fall there are flocks and flocks of birds flying south and while one doesn’t see water as one drives route 13, it is never far away.
We discovered a small restaurant just a few miles off 13 in the historic town of Onancock, VA. It’s name is Mallards at the Wharf and its placed just right if we leave PA early in the am to hit for lunch. So…we stopped at Mallards last weekend. It’s located in an old General Store overlooking an inlet on the Bayside. Something new was added this year. Out side was a sign in the shape of a sheep that said “Handspun Yarn”. A spinner has rented space in the store for the summer.
Her name is Garland B. Harvie and her card identifies her as “Chief Spinner and Knitter” and says that all her wool comes from sheep raised on the Eastern Shore of VA. She spins very fast—I thought I did as I calm down from a busy day at work getting rid of aggressions—but she makes me look like a slow poke. Her yarns are thick and fluffy, many in natural sheep colors, whites, and tans and browns, but she also dyes fibers. She sells both the yarns and items knitted from them. She had a group of wonderful felted knit hats.
She stopped by our table and we talked—I told her of my renewed interest in spinning and the connection to my madder plants. Garland said she was part Cherokee and that the Cherokee believe in circles and that things in life come around. I found this idea wonderful.
So… if you are on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of VA, take about a 3 mile side trip to Onancock and stop for lunch at Mallards and meet a very interesting spinner and you could even buy some yarn.
12.30.07 – Stopped at Mallards in Onancock and Garland no longer has a shop here. Here’s wishing her well!
Loom Sold!
I want to sell my loom. I had a life as a handweaver and had to get “nirvana loom” in order to move on. I have moved on but it took awhile to admit I should sell my loom. Now I have to get serious about finding it a home so here goes!
It is an AVL production 16 harness dobby loom with a single box fly shuttle beater (not in picture). (It’s a pretty serious loom and anyone interested will know what all that means.)
If you are interested you may contact me by commenting here.
It’s a wonderful loom and has been used very little – perhaps half a dozen warps if that.
I have remove comments from this site due to the amount of spam it generates. If you are interested in this loom I can be reached at beth@emmott.com.