Daryl's Blog

When last we left our two adventurers, they were chugging along on a narrow gauge scenic railroad crisscrossing the New Mexico/Colorado border.  Thursday morning of the trip, brought a wonderful breakfast at the San Geronimo and then a quick load up of the car, and off to the Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs and Spa.

OK, I could have spent the entire trip here.  Forget the knitting.  We arrived in time for an 11:00am yoga class, I was told at the desk that the class was held in the yoga yurt.  I quickly found the yurt, across the parking lot, it isn’t hard to miss a yurt, and when I opened the door and entered I was surprised to find tables and students and what looked like a Navajo Weaving class.  One of the students approached me and told me the yoga class had moved to an adjacent building, but I was of course intrigued that I fell upon a weaving class.  Navajo weaver Pearl Sunrise was teaching a five day class in Navajo Weaving techniques, through the Taos Art School. Now I know what I want to do when I grow up, take weaving classes in a yurt at a mineral springs spa.  Could that be any closer to heaven?  I loved interacting with the weavers, we crossed paths at meals, and I was thrilled that the Taos Art School arranged something so spiritual in such a restful centering place.

My husband and I had scheduled massages, OMG…  We wandered in and out of all the different mineral pools, each featuring a different mineral content.  We sweated in the steam room and the sauna, and went back into the pools.  We even smeared ourselves and each other with mud, and baked until it was dry.  This was a seriously cool place to vacation.  Oh, and the yoga class was excellent!  After dark, my husband had booked a private pool, with a fireplace, and we bathed in the dark and watched the stars come out, one by one, until the entire night sky was filled with tiny points of twinkling light.  I don’t think I’ve every seen the Milky Way so vivid.  We certainly don’t get stars like that in New Jersey.

Friday we headed south, and met up with a river guide, and hopped onto a raft, in full protective gear, and had a wonderful trip down the Rio Grande, floating, drifting, and madly paddling through some class 2 and 3 white water rapids.  It was a blast.

We managed to make it to Bandelier National Monument before it closed to see the ruins of the Ancient Pueblo people’s cliff dwellings.  They were haunting, I felt like I was in a very sacred space, I wanted to whisper, and the cliffs whispered back.

Saturday we drove west of Albuquerque to see the Petroglyph National Monument.  OK, here’s the thing.  I have a couple of teens.  There are three of them around age 21 that live in my basement.  I can just picture them climbing up the cliffs, and hanging out smoking something having a few beers and scratching some graffiti on a bunch of rocks, like the old “Kilroy was here” or Class of 2010, or E.L loves J.G.  The ancient Puebloans had no written language.  They used symbols and story telling was an important part of their communication.  Can you just picture a bunch of teens around 1300, climbing up the basalt boulders and sitting around smoking something having the Puebloan equivalent of a Bud, and scratching images in the rocks?  I found it really hard not to snicker as I read signs talking about the sacred mysteries of the petroglyphs and their unknown meanings and the importance of the 20,000 documented images to the ancient Pueblo People.

We left the Petroglyph Monument and headed east to  Sandia Peak.  The world’s longest tram runs up to the peak, and there is some fantastic hiking and views that will take your breath away.  At the peak, you can see 11,000 square miles.  My husband did most of the hiking across the ridge.  I wandered through an inner trail through the woods, and decided that hiking at 10,600 feet with no water was not in my best interest, and turned back.  I happily hung out at the tram station and listened to my book on tape wishing I hadn’t left my knitting in the bag in the car at the base.  It was beautiful, and I know my husband had a wonderful hike, we could still send text messages, and that allowed me to keep abreast of his progress. About an hour and a half into his hike, he sent me this photo via text, swarms of hummingbirds, so tame they would land on your finger, allowed him to capture this amazing photograph.

And so we ended up Sunday morning at the Convention Center in Albuquerque to board a bus along with other Convergence attendees to head back to Santa Fe and a tour of Ghost Ranch.  Famed painter Georgia O’Keefe spent her summers at the ranch painting some of her most exquisite images, and the tour guide pointed out some of the subject matter along with reprints of some of her paintings.  It was all pretty spectacular.  We spent the night at the ranch, it is now a Presbyterian retreat center.  It has some wonderful hiking trails, and of course a labyrinth.  I want a labyrinth in my back yard.

On Tuesday, my wonderful husband volunteered himself to help move in the vendors for Convergence, he has had a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and was quickly named the “Dock Master”.  Meanwhile I boarded another bus to the Santa Fe opera house sitting next to my friend Ann from Michigan who is quite the expert at knitting socks, and she helped me work out the gusset so I could speed along on the foot of the sock.  By now the amazing views seem normal and I concentrated on my socks allowing those who haven’t already spent time in the state claim the window seats.

The bus first took us to three local handweavers’ studios, Jennifer Moore, James Koehler, and Rebecca Bluestone.  Of course their homes/studios were magazine perfect, in beautiful southwest architecture, with lovely gardens, and no clutter.  Each of the artists was most gracious, and welcoming, and shared some of their philosophy and creativity with us.  I was impressed by how focused each artist was in style and content of their work.  Their stashes represented only the materials they use for their very specific work, Jennifer owned two looms, Rebecca one, and James had a number of looms in his studio, but they were mostly for his numerous apprentice/students.  He demonstrated some tapestry techniques on his very large loom, it was big enough for the entire group to gather around.

The opera house was magnificent.  We did brisk walk thru’s of the costume and scene shops, the wig shop, and the accessories shop.  We spent a little more time in one of the climate controlled costume vaults. We found out that the more elaborate costumes were cleaned nightly with one part vodka to two parts water.  Who knew?  Of course no cameras were allowed, so I didn’t even bother to bring mine along.  I have to say, this is the first time I’ve ever been able to attend tours related to Convergence conferences, and these were really well planned with wonderful things to see, and my head was already exploding with ideas and inspiration and the conference hadn’t even started.

Stay tuned for my take on Convergence, it won’t have any photos, since photos aren’t allowed in any of the exhibits.

I’m going to have to do this post in installments.  I realize it has been over two weeks since my last post, but really, there was no way I could have found the time to write.

First let me say I had a fabulous two weeks in New Mexico.  The Land of Enchantment drew me in and I loved every minute of it.

My husband found so many things to photograph that I had to cull more than 2000 photos to find the key shots to represent the best of what we did.

The entire vacation was planned by my wonderful husband, and I contributed nothing.  May I say my husband has a second career ahead of him as a travel planner?  I am so very grateful for all his research and hard work, I was too busy preparing for Convergence, and I’m really grateful he allowed me that time.

I learned many things on this trip.

There are some things in life that just can’t be photographed.  They are too big, too vast, too fleeting, too mind bending to even wrap my brain around.  New Mexico is one of them.  The vistas, the gorges, the colors, the night skies, the rain in the distance, the rainbows that appeared drifting up from the desert floor.

That said, my photographer husband took more than 2000 photos and some of them are postcard quality.

We flew into Albuquerque on the 12th, rented a car, and immediately headed to Santa Fe.  We probably didn’t do justice to Santa Fe, we were there wandering around the plaza for a couple of hours, and ended up eating in an outdoor cafe/restaurant, listening to music on the square, and enjoying the dry desert heat. The restaurant was called the Anasazi, and we learned on the trip that Anasazi is actually a politically incorrect term for the ancient Pueblos.  Anasazi is actually

the Navajo term for ancient enemy.  Who knew…

Tuesday morning we made the trek to Taos.  I was enchanted with Taos.  Kevin had read about a church in Taos that had just been remudded, I wasn’t sure what that meant, but he found it and it was breathtaking. The Church was called the San Francisco de Asis, St. Francis of Assisi.

Kevin found a bed and breakfast called the San Geronimo Lodge.  It was really hidden, and it took us awhile to find it nestled back in the hills.  I loved the decor, the artwork, the fact that it wasn’t airconditioned, and that they had a spiritual walk, around the property that had fifteen stops for meditation, small sitting areas with words that made you reflect and meditate, and they led you into a final labyrinth.  I walked the entire thing.

We used this B&B as a base for a couple of days, and had some wonderful adventures.  We found the Rio Grande Gorge, Rt. 64 cuts west across the state from Taos and the vista is flat and unassuming until you suddenly come to a gorge with a sheer drop hundreds of feet down, and the road just continues right across the gorge as if nothing out of the ordinary has come to pass in the landscape.

I managed to walk part way across the bridge.  My husband sprinted ahead and took a few hundred photos of this spectacular hole in the ground.  After awhile, I crept back to the car, my vertigo issues starting to abate, and I happily sat and knitted my pair of socks and waited for him to return.  He even found some grazing long horn sheep at the river’s edge.  I was happy just looking at the photos afterward.  Did I mention I’m afraid of heights?

I’m going to interject here, just a bit of where I’m coming from on this trip.  I live in New Jersey.  A born and bred Jersey girl for more than 50 years.  OK, so I was actually born in Pennsylvania, but it was near the Jersey border around Philadelphia and we moved to Jersey when I was five.  I’ve always prided myself on living in one of the original thirteen colonies.  George Washington has slept in any building that is still standing from the 1700’s.  He crossed the Delaware here, we were a major play in the Revolutionary war, heck, the history of the US started here so to speak.  Or at least I thought so until we went to the Taos Pueblo.  It seems this amazing beautiful complex has been inhabited for more than a thousand years.  With a people who still live there, without electricity, without running water, who don’t take government handouts, and are really really proud of their heritage.  The ancient Pueblos have a history and a culture I can’t even begin to wrap my head around.  The structures came from the mud of the earth, with walls so thick upon entering you’d swear there was air conditioning.  A young Pueblo gentleman, about my son’s age was our guide.  He goes to the University in the fall/winter to study alternative medicine.  He is proud of his heritage.  I feel like an interloper.

Wednesday we got up early and headed north crossing the border into Colorado.  We boarded the Cumbres Toltec Scenic Railroad, in a Parlor Car which is sort of the equivalent of first class, this is the highest and longest narrow gauge scenic railroad in America.  I sat with my knitting needles and just wondered at how vast and how spectacular the American landscape can be.  This little train climbed through a series of switchbacks up thousands of feet, criss crossing the Colorado/New Mexico border something like eleven times.

We passed fields of beautiful colorful Indian Paintbrush, Lupines, and sagebrush.  We entered forests of Aspen. And we traveled along a three foot track hanging on the edges of the most beautiful cliffs, looking down into ancient gorges, rock formations, and never ending vistas. Can I say this was the perfect excursion for my husband and me?  He took photos for six hours straight, from the train station in Antonito, all the way to Osier and back, and I sat happily and watched the vistas pass before me and I knit.

All of this and it is only Wednesday.  Stay tuned for Kevin and Daryl’s excellent New Mexico adventure part 2…

My latest installment of my new column on Weavezine is up!  This is a two parter, so stay tuned…

Back to packing…

I think this week was probably up there with the most fun I’ve had teaching.  And to think it was close to home, which sometimes isn’t such a great thing since being close to home means coming home, dealing with things at home, but I really can’t complain this time, I chose to have my house painted and as exhausted as I was, it was kind of fun to come home and see the progress.  Larry and his son Andy are doing a wonderful job, and the house is looking fresh and alive, and welcoming.  I’m not even so stressed that everything is moved around and in a disarray.  This too shall pass.

Day three and day four of the Fiber Boot Camp at the Newark Museum was just as much fun as the first two days, watching the students interact so well, spend so much time laughing, and just bubble with ideas and possibilities.  I loved being able to say when asked if this or that was possible, “Try it and find out…”  Give creative spirits a little information and some fun raw materials and watch the fireworks!

What I also loved was how the students would come back the next day, eagerly showing me what they did when they got home the night before, not wanting the magic to end, some continued well into the night, dyeing additional materials they had laying around, embellishing things they did in class, like this amulet bag from Stephanie.  And Audrey was so excited by all the fleece we were using, turns out she owns 10 Shetland sheep and she brought in a couple of fleeces, dark and light, and shared them with all of us.

Day three the students warped inkle looms and made simple bands.  This was the first loom experience for most of the students, and one of the women, who had taken a weaving class previously, hadn’t had a good experience, so I think she felt a little more encouraged and actually bought an inkle loom.

In the afternoon, we all sat around solving life’s mysteries, and made braids on a kumihimo disk.  I had premeasured the yarn and made little kits, so it was very leisurely,  since everyone was showing signs of overload!  Still one more day to go.

Yesterday was the finale.  I brought in pre-warped tapestry frame looms, and they brought back some of their spun yarn and Kool-aid dyed roving.  It was fascinating seeing how each one selected a palette and materials and dove in covering the warp in a personal way.  I learned this method of “speed” weaving long ago, it works well with kids with short attention spans, covering the warp with roving, and then pushing it aside in places to add elements, textures and color.  I heard murmurs while they were working about how much they all wanted to return for a repeat class, maybe a Boot Camp II?  This was a particularly special group of women, two of them, after chatting next to each other for awhile, actually found out they were related.  Fiber does that.  It brings people together, much like our ancestors would spin together, or knit together, sharing life stories, kid raising, cooking and recipes, and hopes and dreams.  Someone even asked me where I saw myself five years from now.  I’m still thinking about how to answer that, and how special it is for someone to have asked.

I’m finished my packing for Convergence, except for the clothing. I’ve shipped what I could.  I got my final numbers last night, and went back to the printer and added more handouts.  I’m very tired, and also getting sick.  I do have to be grateful, I stayed healthy through all of my spring teaching events, and pushed myself really really hard, and I’m not surprised my body is saying, “Enough”, and if I have to be sick, with a  summer cold, I can’t complain that it is on the eve of my vacation, and that I will be able to relax and sleep some of it off.  My husband arrived home yesterday afternoon from Saudi Arabia, and we will be heading out to Albuquerque Monday morning.  My son and his army buddies, and of course the painters, will be holding down the fort while we are gone.  I’m looking forward to coming home and seeing a freshly painted house.

Albuquerque, here we come…

It is such a joy to watch a group of people get really really excited about that which you are passionate about.  My Fiber Boot Camp class at the museum plowed bravely forward into uncharted waters as we tackled felting.  Yesterday we learned about fiber, and how to make fibers into a usable thing like a piece of yarn.  And we made those yarns colorful.  Today we embarked on a mission to begin to interlace them.  Felting is very physical, and wet, but lots of fun, listening to five women chatting away while getting a major upper arm workout.  Even delays like a flat tire in this 100 degree heat wave didn’t prevent my class from enjoying themselves, and just having way too much fun.

We tackled wet felting, making sheets of felt, and wrapping wool around large flat river stones to make vessels or amulet bags.

We experimented with needle felting, both dimensional and flat, and embellishing cut up old jeans using the Clover felting tool.  And of course I brought in my Janome Expressions Needle Felting Machine.  There just wasn’t enough time.  I also gave a slide presentation showing all the possibilities from some of the best felters in the art world.

Late afternoon, we went on a completely different journey into the world of Plaiting.  We used newspaper strips and interlaced them into a vessel, some of the students had to leave a bit early, so they didn’t get to finish, but those that did, seemed quite proud of their little paper container.  Especially those who are art educators and are always looking for a way to keep little hands busy with no cost or raw materials.   The recycling aspect of old newspapers was especially appealing.

Tomorrow….  Inkle loom weaving and kumihimo…