Missing a week…

This time two weeks ago, I was just going through the last tour of the magnificent Hearst Castle in San Simeon California.  See previous post.  The vacation continued on for another three days, including some fantastic shots of the California coastline and the Monterey aquarium, but I haven’t had five minutes to even begin to look at the rest of the images, because…

I landed in Philadelphia (because my flight to Newark was cancelled) we rented a car, got in at 4am, and I have not stopped for five minutes other than to post the first three installments of Daryl and Kevin’s excellent California adventure…

We got in too late for me to attend my guild dye day, which I was soooo looking forward to, so I’ll just have to find a day and mix up dyes and dye all the skeins and warps I’ve had sitting around waiting for dye day…

We had social engagements the weekend we returned home, once in awhile we actual do that and shock all our friends by appearing in the same state at the same time…

We had tickets for a 6am launch for Sunday morning for the 30th annual Ballooning festival which I have never been to, and I will honestly say I was not happy with my husband, I was still on west coast time, we had gotten in at 4am the day before, and were out at a party for a friend late the night before and we had to drive an hour down to this festival and it was threatening severe thunderstorms.  But I am a good and dutiful wife and went along for the ride and I nearly cried with delight as I watched hundreds of balloons soar up into the sky early in the morning and was so thankful my husband dragged me along, even if I was a bit cranky, because this is one of those experiences that you just don’t get to do every day.

Exhausted I crawled home, took serious drugs, slept as well as could be expected, and spent the next day prepping for another dutiful day, I promised my daughter I’d come up to the girl scout camp where she had been working for six weeks, and teach weaving to a group of campers.  So I loaded up the car, set out Tuesday morning, that would be a week ago, and spent a delightful day with 16 wonderfully enthusiastic campers and their counselors, and drove home happy.  The trip up to the camp, north of High Point and Port Jervis in NY State, takes you through Hawk’s Nest, which is one of the most spectacular views of the Delaware River through a series of hairpin turns that make the California coastline up Route 1 look timid…  It was worth the trip and the day to spend time with my daughter in her element.

Exhausted I returned home, and started the serious task of prepping for my most adored and most dreaded class of all, the fiber boot camp class…

Monday morning, that would be yesterday, I started teaching my four day Fiber Boot Camp class at the Newark Museum, I love this class best of all, because I usually have a half dozen fiber newbies and I bring to them a world which I adore and have spent my life exploring and I feel like I pass on my passion to just a few more unsuspecting souls…

Yesterday we covered spinning on a drop spindle, learning all about fibers, and one of the things I love about a class like this, especially in diverse NJ, is there is always a student or two who has a cultural background not from the United States, one that is richly steeped in fiber traditions, and sure enough we have one in this class from Russia and it is wonderful to hear how many of the techniques relate to things she saw and did with her grandmother.  I’m still trying to wrap my head around her grandmother’s drop spindle that has no weighted whorl on either end…  She remembered her grandmother thigh spinning…

In the afternoon we explored kitchen color with the microwave, we dyed wool and fleece using food grade dyes, Kool-aid, Paas Easter Egg dyes, and soft drink mixes.  Since I’m teaching in one of the art studios at the museum, the most obvious drying rack was to use the painting easels.  Any port in a storm…

Today we covered felting.  Clearly the most loved technique I teach in this four day intensive, the students jumped in quickly and created some lovely flat felt, and then proceeded to make vessels using rocks or bottles or yogurt containers as resists.  Most held onto their drop spindles picking them up to practice spinning when they had some down time, and one resourceful student decided to let her feet do the rolling of the felt, while her hands kept practicing on her spindle.

The reason I dread this class is the prep.  The museum has almost none of the materials I need to teach this class, and so I fill up 3-4 large wheeled suitcases with everything I need for the day, wheel them all piggy backed up to the museum second floor from the parking lot, and wheel them all back down to unload each night, only to reload for the next day.

In the meantime, I’m prepping for an all day demonstration for Peters Valley at the NJ State Fair in Sussex County on Friday August 10th.  I’ll be demoing inkle loom weaving and will have looms for the public to try, which of course haven’t been warped yet, that’s on Brianna’s list, which is long since she is filling in for what I can’t get to…

The weekend takes us to Maryland for a family event, and I’m hoping dear readers to look at those last few hundred photos and recap my last days in California.  Because three days after we return from Maryland I fly to Houston for the American Sewing Guild conference…

I’m exhausted…  Too bad I’m all out of beer…  (and thank you to dear husband for providing delicious dinners the last two nights, since I am completely unavailable for such critical tasks…)

Stay tuned…