In search of a bar…

Or two or three…

Not that kind of bar silly…

The Verizon Wireless bars, you can’t get cell service when there are no bars…

It is hard for me describe how cut off I felt all week.  The only WiFi available was during class hours with a weak signal from the General Store across the street.  Since we worked most days until 6-7 in the evening, it wasn’t realistic to hang for another hour and post a blog. There was absolutely no signal from the cabin where I was living…

I was teaching all week at Harrisville, I blogged about them last year, Harrisville,  a quaint turn of a couple of centuries ago mill town in NH was like a step back in time, to a place where textiles were the engine that ran the town, and due to amazing preservation of historic structures, the center appears like it did in the late 1700’s.  I think, I don’t actually know since I wasn’t around back then…

i·dyl·lic/??dilik/

Adjective: (esp. of a time or place) Like an idyll; extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque: “an idyllic setting”

It was sort of fitting that there wouldn’t be cell service in this area, which means I couldn’t use my own MiFi, I couldn’t use all my sophisticated computer devices, online yoga classes, software tutorials, or access my blog, email, etc.  Phone calls from home were sketchy and lasted about 40 seconds, texts came in and out sporadically.

Still, for a brief week, I had to do without, in the evenings I read and knitted, and enjoyed the most idyllic views and scenery and gentle air and focused on my enthusiastic class as they made garments from their handwoven cloth.

The view from the deck of the cottage where I stayed provided hours of viewing, I knitted and drank wine and thought, life doesn’t get any better than this.  The village of Harrisville was like a postcard of old New England, and the classroom, huge, well lit, and comfortable with fans, was full of cheery hardworking students, and considering my last miserable teaching experience in Michigan, I felt like I died and went to teacher heaven.

Surrounded by yarn, and color, and textiles and looms, I helped five wonderful students find their path and make some remarkable jackets.  The great thing about this particular class, a five day sewing intensive, is the repeat students.  I’m doing another one at Sievers (in Wisconsin)next weekend.  For those who have never studied with me, I have an agenda where they make a jacket, from their handwoven or commercial fabric, and they learn everything I can cram into their heads and fingers in five days.  Repeat students are great because they challenge me to think outside my comfort and knowledge zones, and help them achieve success at whatever they planned to accomplish during the week.

Four of the five students had handwoven cloth, and the cloth was as different as the student’s personalities.  I’m really proud of all of them, and can’t wait to see final photos.  All left yesterday with hours of handwork ahead of them, but glowing with pride over their accomplishments.

So now, I’m sitting in another idyllic setting, at my sister’s cabin in the Catskill region of NY State.  My two sisters met me here yesterday afternoon, and we are enjoying cooking together, drinking together, rafting in the stream, and just being girlfriends.  I am so blessed to have two sisters whom I adore, and that I trust with my soul, and that can laugh with me and be brutally honest, and that no matter what I do, will love me unconditionally.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

I’ll eventually return home, and spend a crazy week getting ready for Sievers and the American Sewing Guild conference in Los Angeles right behind it, and then my daughter’s “heading off to college” experience, it will be a busy month, but the gift of sisters, wine, idyllic settings, and finally enough signal to get a blog post out, well I’m just as happy as they come…