European vacation, Part 5--Beer and chocolate!

Monday, May 9–Before setting out for the day, we stopped at the Belgian postoffice in town to mail the flax back home. No one there spoke English, we do not speak French. The best we could do was husband’s smattering of high school Spanish, which is at least similar to French. What an interesting 30 minutes THAT was!
We set off for Trier, Germany by way of Luxembourg. I knew that the Romans had expanded their empire through Europe but was unaware of just how much major construction they did. The Black Gate and ampitheater in Trier were humbling, especially to the engineer. We tend to think construction techniques were invented recently, but the Romans, Egyptians and Greeks were the experts!

Trier center and part of Black Gate

We followed the Our River north from Trier because Skip wanted to see Vianden, Luxembourg. What an incredible little town, perched on the sides of a steep valley with the castle looming overhead! We had dinner and local beer in the hotel situated on a hairpin turn near the top of the valley, where we could see down the valley and upwards to the town wall and tower defenses. I found it interesting that the towers were only half-round, protruding outwards from the wall and being flat on the inside of the wall.  

Vianden Castle

The half-tower on the city wall

  
Tuesday, May 10–This time, we decided to stay closer to home and visit Our Lady of Avioth Basilica. Built in the 13th century, the basilica is a little marvel of Gothic architecture with unique gargoyles and lacy stonework.

  From there, we drove over to Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval to tour the ruins from the fire of 1252 and taste the famous Trappist beer, which they’ve brewed since at least 1628. As the beer is not sold at the monastery, we decided on a late lunch of salad, cheese and beer in Florenville. Interestingly, we were turned out of the first restaurant because food was no longer being served–the lunch period was considered to be finished at 1:30! So we wandered across the street, where the owner was quite happy to converse with us in English and serve us plates of salad and cheese. One last stop down the street at Les Chocolats d'Edouard, considered to be one of the top ten chocolateries in the world. I had no trouble buying chocolate even though no one spoke English!
Last but not least, a few views of the countryside:

Next: I find one of my ancestral homes

European vacation, Part 4--Chateaus, castles and puppies

Saturday, May 7–I love the Saturday markets in Europe. They’re usually held in the town center square and have everything you could want–the fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, cheese, fish–just wonderful to see and smell! On the advice of our hostess, we drove to Sedan, FR for the market. Unfortunately it was a disappointment. Apparently you needed to arrive before dawn to find a parking spot, and the stalls we saw from a distance were not selling anything we were interested in or could easily transport back home in our luggage. However, we DID find the local chateau high on the hill behind town. So we found a parking space and took a walk around the chateau as it was not open for viewing.










Then we drove back to Bouillon for lunch (Skip found the steamed mussels to be delightful, while I had a veggie pizza). We walked back across the bridge (most town centers are closed to cars on Saturdays so people can enjoy shopping and lunch without having to dodge cars) and drove up the hill to the ‘castle’. This isn’t really a castle but more of a military outpost to defend the town, but it belonged to Godfrey, Lord of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and leader of the First Crusade. He sold his castle and all his lands to finance himself and others in the quest for the Holy Grail/Holy Land. Once the Crusaders took control of Jerusalem, Godfrey became the first ruler, eschewing the title ‘king’. It’s an amazing military outpost, and I don’t believe there was any way to approach the castle or surrounding lands without being spotted by the watchers high on the hill. (photos coming soon, they're still on husbeast's computer)

Sunday, May 8–After all the driving, visiting, and walking around the past week, we decided to spend the day in the garden, listening to birds (cuckoos!), reading (Skip), knitting (me) and playing with the dogs. Honcho (2 years old) loves to chase things and play; Einstein (7 years old) just sits back, lets the silly youngster chase things, and insists on being petted/rubbed/scratched as soon as Honcho leaves to chase the ball. Honcho, on the other hand, reinvents the game of chase every time–if you try to retrieve the ball from him, he moves it back in his mouth so you can’t get it; it you teach him to drop the ball, he’ll chase and retrieve it but only return halfway across the garden. He wants YOU to go after HIM for the ball! We ended up playing with them for a bit every night after dinner, and they looked for our car to return to the parking lot every day. I miss those two rascals.

Honcho taking a rest

Einstein--don't ya just love that face?

On the drive to Sedan, France

Farm field on the drive to Sedan, France

Next: Two more countries, chocolate and beer!

European vacation, Part 3--In which I buy yarn and acquire fiber!!!

Thursday, May 5–We drove to Hauwert to see Annie and Jan. Annie was sure I’d get lost as it’s difficult to remember exactly which left turn to make after passing “Whoville” (a housing development that looks exactly like something Dr. Suess would think up. Where WERE the architects brains that day?). We were only 2 minutes late! Annie treated us to fresh coffee and cake, a walk through Medemblijk with a stop for lunch (brie on crusty bread, sparkling iced tea). When I mentioned that I couldn’t find stroopwafels in the supermarket where we used to shop in 2007, they stopped at the local Deen supermarket where I cleaned out the shelves. I am the Stroopwafel Blackmarket Maven! Then we drove over to Hoorn to see our friend Wilbert who owns Shouten Handwerken–you’ll have to check Annie’s blog for pix. Somehow, 2 skeins of sock yarn jumped into my hands and went home with me? The purple/pink Trekking Handart sock was started in Belgium--I looove it.

Friday, May 6–While we were getting ready to leave Akersloot, the front desk called to say my friend was waiting out front for me. She had about 3 kilo of Belgian flax for me stuffed in her bicycle saddlebags! Since it's considered an agricultural product, we could not take it in our suitcase (and it's just too much to fit in there without leaving clothes behind). On Monday morning, we stopped at the Belgian post office and mailed the flax home after much hand-waving and sad attempts at saying "Customs declaration" with a French accent. It cost 25 Euro (about $36) to mail home and it arrived quickly, although the side of the box was completely destroyed by US Customs and then taped back up with 2 (ONLY TWO!) strips of tape.

flax fibers against a black Prismatic pencil to show fine-ness

We hopped in the car about 9:30am and drove south through the Netherlands, heading for Belgium via Maastricht. Arriving around 4 at the Hostellerie du Cerf, we unpacked, washed up and had a lovely gourmet dinner accompanied by a local white wine. This dinner was just the beginning of a week of yummy delights cooked up by our host/chef.

The garden, 'our' chairs

The back of the establishment

Next: piles of rocks, we are adopted by dogs

European vacation, Part 2--Bloemendags and tulip fields

Tuesday, May 3–On recommendation from both our Dutch friends, we drove over to Limmen to see the displays for Bloemendag ("flower day"). The residents use just the blooms from hyacinth and other spring flowers, pin them to backgrounds to make pictures, and leave them up for the week. Everyone rides/walks around to see the displays, which are sometimes political, sometimes sports related, sometimes whimsical.

Afterwards we drove over to Volendam for lunch at the St. Catherein where I love to sip beer and watch the ships, bought some tulip bulbs which we are assured don’t need a certificate because there’s less than 50 bulbs and they are clean, bought a couple of scarves because I just can’t resist them, and Skip bought a piece of painted porcelain HE couldn’t resist. Then we returned to the hotel to nap in the late afternoon because we were still suffering the effects of jumping ahead 6 hours, had dinner at the hotel, and spent the evening on the patio, knitting and watching the sunset.
 
Wednesday, May 4–Skip and I chose these dates for our vacation because we wanted to see the tulip fields. 

Two different pink tulips here

SO RED it hurts our eyes!

We also drove over to Anna Palowna for their Bloemendag displays and stopped at a little restaurant/deli on the corner for lunch.

In celebration of Mothers Day on May 8

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Gre’s again to have dinner with them. We thought, Fons wouldn’t be able to join us for a take-out Chinese dinner because the church choir was singing at the war memorial in Akersloot–May 4 is the Netherlands’ Remembrance of the Dead, the day they honor armed forces members and civilians who died in wars or in peace-keeping missions since the outbreak of WWII.Between this and the Queens Birthday on April 30, the entire country was swimming in orange!  However, the ceremony finished early and Fons was able to enjoy yummy hot Chinese food and good conversation with us again.

European vacation, Part 1--Wijk an Zee and Akersloot

Sunday, May 1–We landed at Schiphol Airport, picked up our rental car (an Opal Corsa) and drove to Wijk an Zee for a walk on the beach. While we were living in Heemskerk we used to drive over to the shore on nice days to enjoy the breezes and watch the inhabitants out flying kites and playing with their dogs.

I'd always wanted to stop in a little hotel just near the beach but they were closed for the season when we were living there. This time they were open and we had a lovely brunch. I just love the European habit of serving a biscuit (cookie) with coffee!

We drove the short distance to the Akersloot Valk hotel where they allowed us to check in early (I made sad eyes at the reception desk and told them we were sooo tired from the flight). We took a nap and decided to just sit in the evening sun and drink beer for a while before dinner and bed. There’s something about the Dutch love of the outdoors and sunshine! I called our friends to let them know we’d arrived safely and to set up get-togethers.

Monday, May 2–We drove over to Akersloot (just a few minutes drive but we’re lazy Americans who would rather drive than bike–actually, bike rental was too expensive for just the short trip) to visit with Gre and Fons. I consider Gre to be my "Dutch sister" because we have so much in common and just chatter like two magpies when we're together. I wish we could see each other more often--maybe I'll win the lottery and be able to buy a small house in North Holland?

We spent the day walking in the bird preserve which borders the Alkmaardermeer and were almost run down by the local artist artist on his bicycle, who then proceeded to talk our ears off. What an interesting man.

It was lovely to spend some some with our friends' grandson who we hadn't seen in 3 years and to meet their third daughter when she joined us for dinner (we'd met their other daughters on our previous visits) We had wonderful macaroni and cheese with sausage and homemade banana ice cream for dessert.

Next up--Bloemendags and tulip fields

Trip down south, new toy

I had a lovely time last weekend in Charlotte, NC. On Friday I drove a bit south to Pineville to visit the yarn/fiber shop. What a lovely well-stocked place. And their spinning teacher, Linda, is a delight. Having an appreciable stash at home, there's not usually much that I find I need to buy. However, they carry Mountain Colors dyed top and I just love the colors. So 2 bundles of Crazy Woman colorway followed me to my car. I plan to ply this with purple and knit myself a jacket--perhaps a sideways jacket to take advantage of the color changes. And on the way to the car, 2 skeins of sock yarn jumped off the shelf and asked to be adopted because their colors were so enticing. (Yes, yarn and fiber talk to me. Ask any fiberholic, it's a common occurance.)



On Saturday we headed for the mountains to see Blowing Rock and Grandfather Mountain. Knowing that the weather would change later in the day, we spent too much time wandering around near Blowing Rock, having a delicious lunch and hiking to Linville Falls. By the time we got to Grandfather Mountain the rain and lightening had arrived with us. The top of the mountain was closed as it's not smart to stand on a mountaintop when lightening is striking. So we headed down to dinner. Found Countryside BBQ in Marion, NC--OMG, what good bbq it was! Highly recommended!

View from Blowing Rock:

Linville Falls:


Before I leave, I'd like to introduce you to my newish toy.
I actually bought it a year ago, fooled around with it, stumbled on a class taught by the vendor (Eileen Hallman of New World Textiles) in January and I'm now having a blast spinning on my charka. It's got a 65:1 ratio so spinning cotton and other short staple fibers goes lightening-fast. And it makes this nice buzzing sound that I find quite relaxing.


L-to-R: Class skein playing with different tpi, class skein just getting accustomed to the wheel, 2-ply tricolor cotton top/recycled jeans. I'm still playing with different ways to handle the singles cotton before plying, and ways to ply efficiently (if you've spun high-twist fibers, you know how snarled they can become in the blink of an eye). And once I conquer cotton, there's always yak and cashmere to spin. Yep, the charka will require a LOT of spinning time!

I'm off adventuring again!

No posts this week other than to let folks know that I'm heading out on another adventure. And I'm hoping to visit a yarn/fiber shop during my travels so will take photos of interesting things to show you. Off to pack the last bits and try to fit all my less-than-three-ounce toiletries in a quart plastic bag, which is really the most difficult part of packing for a trip--knitting project was packed yesterday, of course.

Hat Contest Winner!!

Remember this hat and my mental block naming it? We have a hat name--Sea Anemones Hat! I think it's very appropriate. The little depressions are surrounded with bumps formed by purl stitches and they look exactly like a colony of sea anemones on a coral reef. Jennifer Green of Desert Garden Farms came up with the name and I'll be crediting her on the pattern. The pattern is out for test-knitting at the moment but should be up on Ravelry and my Etsy shop in the next month or so. Jennifer will also receive 20% off her purchase in my shop. This was such great fun, I should think about letting my peeps name ALL my patterns for me!

It's snowing sideways here but not sticking on the ground. Last storm of the season, I hope. But it's nice for drinking coffee, watching chick flicks and working on another hat pattern. I seem to be obsessed with hats this past year and have about 6 designs in the works. Hopefully, I'll be able to get them finished in time for cold weather/holiday knitting. I love spinning some yarn, playing with color and stitches and ending up with a garment--it seems like magic every time!

Storms, new spinning fiber and teaching venue

What a lovely spring surprise we had this week! Wednesday evening we had some severe storms pass through and a tornado touched down about 50 miles away, destroying/damaging about 90 homes and the local high school. Twice, the storms brought hail to my house and rain puddles in the lawn where they shouldn't be because the rain came so fast and hard that the ground couldn't absorb it all. Photos of the front yard and outside my kitchen porch:



Just before the storms hit, the mailman delivered my Phatfiber contributors box. (If you're not familiar with Phatfiber sample boxes, click here.) The theme this month was Sweet Shop and it looks like all the contributors are definitely sweets lovers! These are my contributions (clockwise starting in the upper left)--Cherry Divinity, Peppermint Twist, Licorice Cherry Swirl and Lollipop Lollipop




And last, but by far not the least important news, I'm teaching at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival this year! Spinning a Consistent Singles is scheduled for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we'll be working on Plying a Balanced Yarn. I love this show and have allowed myself time on Saturday morning to shop. Great vendors, lovely town, nice festival location, and really good lamb sandwiches! See you there?

Is it spring yet? And a hat-naming contest!

We've had warmer weather this week, with lots of rain in midweek. But the temperatures seem to be steadily inching up and the spring bulbs are pushing their first bits through the soil, so I'm wondering if we can really really declare that it's spring?

Yesterday was a truly lovely day, even if it was a bit breezy. I'd been trying to set up a date to photograph some small pieces I've been working on with the intention of writing up patterns if I liked them. Our younger son's girlfriend, who is a fantastic lady BTW, volunteered to stand outside in the shadow of our trees and model for me. It was challenging, especially with the neckwarmers, because the breeze would come along just as the shutter clicked. Meaning that either the edge of the neckwarmer would lift up in an unnatural way or her hair would stand on end--some otherwise nice photos ended up in the trash because of this! Here's a few that I've managed to edit and touch up this morning.



Hat-Naming Contest:
As far as names for the patterns, sometimes they come easy and sometimes I need a dictionary/thesaurus to find something I like. This hat pattern has completely eluded me though, and I could use some help with an appropriate name. Keep in mind that other knitters and spinners will come up with differently colored yarn for this pattern so it can't be based solely on my color selection. I'll take suggestions via blog comments until the end of March (midnight EDT March 31). All names will be given consideration and I'll choose the one I feel best fits the pattern. The winner will receive a credit line on the finished pattern AND 20% off their purchase in my Etsy shop (not including items already in the Sale category). Here's the hat in question:




Thanks in advance for your help with this problem hat. Let the contest begin!

Snow! In mid-March!

Along with the warmer weather we've had some rather weird weather too. Yesterday it started to rain, really heavy rain, and when the temperature dropped it turned to snow. There's a light coating of heavy wet snow on everything this morning and it's still coming down. I DO prefer new snow to the dirty older stuff but at least it's not enough for me to shovel myself out of the looong driveway, nor is it windy or very cold. So it's just pretty.......

The view from my bedroom at the front of the house. Typically you can see pretty far into the distance but it's all foggy with snow right now.

Taken from the window on the second floor landing. This is where the deer roam and cross into our yard to raid the corn on the squirrel feeders. It was an open field when I was little, and our mom sent us out there with a pot to gather berries for jelly and jam. We weren't allowed to return home until our pot was full!

This is part of the back yard, with the new deer and groundhog-proof fencing. The woods behind the old chicken coop (where we now store the lawn tractor and garden equipment) is where we kids built tree houses, played in the creek at the bottom of the hill and rode sleds in the winter. More than once I went so fast down the hill that I ended up in the creek!

Weaving in the near future?

I suppose you could call me a ‘lapsed’ weaver. Once upon a time I did a lot of weaving. In fact, I did it for a living, hiring myself out to local and not-so-local designers to weave yardage for their creations, and weaving items for sale and a few creations of my own to enter in shows. Along came a hefty dose of Real Life, and I had to get a job with medical and educational benefits for the boys. I sold the loom and all the accessories and left the weaving world for 20+ years.

One of my spinning students bought a loom years ago and asked me to teach her to set it up and weave. And I was bitten by the weaving bug again, found an old loom, bought it and brought it home back in 2005. This loom was built under Osma Todd Gallinger’s brand and somehow ended up stored in a hen house! It was rescued sometime later, used to weave rugs and passed on to a studio in eastern Pennsylvania. They sold it to help finance their troubled youth program and it came to live with me, all in pieces, with lots of notes, diagrams and photos to help in it’s re-assembly.

I finally found the time last week to clean it up (yep, found hen house straw in the oddest places!) with Murphy’s oil soap, give it a good coating of orange oil, and put it together. After Sunday’s marathon re-assembly, it really is surprising that hubby is still speaking to me!

So, here she is–42" weaving width, 8 harnesses, 14 treadles.




I still need to give the castle, warp drum and harnesses a good cleaning/oiling, figure out how the brake chain goes on, and buy Texsolv heddles and reeds. But I’m hoping to be weaving with my handspun yarn by some time this summer. I'm looking forward to re-acquainting myself with those complex twills! Yay!

Navaho, or large support, spindle spinning

Working away on my COE-Spinning skeins these days. I haven't done much spindling, and NO Navaho spindling for 25+ years. So I took out the Navaho spindle I'd purchased from a woodworker in Memphis, tried working with it and realized that I'd bought just that--a woodworkers spindle. NOT a spinners spindle! It was just too heavy and wouldn't hold a spin at all. Live and learn! I did a little research and decided on an Al Snipes Navaho spindle, available from Hillcreek Fiber Studio.

I started working with it in earnest yesterday and by last night had settled on the best technique and the best wool to use for this skein. This morning I finished most of the skein (had to break for lunch and a cup of coffee). I have to say, this spindle is just "the bees knees"! Lightweight, removeable whorl, easy to get spinning and holds a spin just as long as I need it to! I'm just lovin' this tool, and may have to make it one of my airline travel spindles (if the shaft will fit in my carry-on). It would be wonderful for spinning up some chunky (chunky for me is worsted weight--LOL) yarn or for plying yarn spun on another spindle.

Back to the studio before my coffee gets cold!

Thanksgiving dinner, a revisited adventure

Years ago, I was the one who hosted Thanksgiving dinner. In 1988 I had 38 people at my place, I used the neighbors oven to bake things and her refrigerator to store things that were overflowing in my house. Had the whole clan over (there's a BUNCH more of them now and we'd have to rent a hall to have dinner together now).

Then I married The Engineer 15 years ago, and his moms favorite holiday was Thanksgiving. She loved the colors, she loved the turkey, she loved having everyone around the table, she loved the laughter, she loved the shouting at the after-dinner football games--it was just her most favorite day! Last year she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was due for surgery right after Thanksgiving, so we shared the duties and I hosted. We made 2 small turkeys--one at my house and one at hers--because she still wanted to get her hands in that bird, she loved the day THAT much. (What a hoot, running over to her place the night before to pick up my share of the stuffing!)

This year, we're celebrating without her. And it's all up to me to try to remember how to time everything to be ready at the same time as the turkey. Y'see, I still haven't figured out the eccentricities of the new oven after a year, I've forgotten if the turkey is usually done a few minutes before or a few minutes after the suggested time. Then there's the letting-it-sit-for-15-minutes, and the time it takes The Engineer to carve (he has to share nibbles of turkey with the cat, and that lengthens carving time), all while I'm making gravy and trying to keep the mashed potatoes and extra stuffing warm and moist. Hmmmmm, maybe I need to start an Excel spreadsheet? But, I didn't used to do it that way, I used to know how to this as easily as I know how to spin yarn. Either I'm getting old and foggy in the brain or I've become accustomed to leaning too much on technology and expecting that cooking large dinners can be cataloged and/or kept to a firm schedule.

Either way, no one will turn down the turkey when it comes 'round on its serving platter, and no one will comment if the mashed potatoes are a little cool or the cat is sitting under the table staring at us with his laser eyes because he wants more nibbles. So, it's all good!

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone! And remember why we call it "thanks giving".

Forgive me, but I had to post this

And now we know why I don't do festivals/fairs anymore. Too old to hold my tongue!

Return of the prodigal

I've recently been reminded by a few folks that I've not posted anything for several months. Sorry about that but I needed to crawl into a cocoon for a bit. Having lost my mother-in-law/close friend, my favorite cat, my favorite brother, and my oldest brother within 9 months was overwhelming for me. I'm the sort of person who needs to draw inward when in trauma and that's where I've been--working around the yard, knitting, spinning and just being quiet so the internal upset would have a chance to settle.

I've also been moving forward on my COE-Spinning and now have several skeins and quite a bit of the written work finished. I try to work on it 20 hours a week but it's difficult to spin to regulation or work with equipment I don't enjoy when there's all those pretty colors of wool calling my name. I keep reminding myself that nothing worth having is easy to obtain. Heck, it took me 30 years to earn my Bachelors Degree!

I washed some skeins of handspun last night that had been hanging around my desk for a month. The red yarn which always bleeds slightly managed to bleed A LOT this time, and the nice sage/mint/beige/turquoise handspun now has permanent pink spots. There was no reason for this dye to adhere to the fiber, other than the heat of the water. Despite having done everything that I know to remove the dye, there's still pink on the wool. Any suggestions?