More travel fun

Part of our trip east was for a big family event in New Jersey--the b'nai mitzvah (plural of bar mitzvah) of twins. When the party and hoopla ended, we really enjoyed retreating to the quiet of the Seiff vacation home in West Virginia. Here's the professor, waving from the porch with my parents.

On our (long) drive back to Kentucky, we stopped at Penn Alps in Grantsville, MD. My initial goal had been to buy a rolling pin for ravioli (it stamps out the shapes of the pasta, it's really cool) but the shop had run out of those beautiful handmade pins. (made by an artist in Frostburg, MD.) So, instead, we stopped by Stanton mill for some flour and we met the current miller, John Childers. Gosh, I was so glad we did. John is from Hazard, in rural eastern Kentucky and his family was one of the last in Kentucky to spin yarn and weave traditional coverlets. His family's work is in the Smithsonian, and his coverlets are featured in several museums. We walked over to his house and got the "private" tour. No photos, but wow, John spins on a great wheel and his yarn is impressively even and exquisite. He has a shed out back for his barn loom (string heddles are the only way, he says) and as he sent us on our way, he handed us two boxes of homemade peanut brittle for the road! He's planning a move back to Kentucky to open a new mill in the fall.

I promised an accounting of the yarns I bought at Pocket Meadow Farm, and here it is: two skeins of Panda Cotton, two skeins (blue and red) of Bamboozled yarn and two skeins (white and natural black) of Shetland 2000. It doesn't sound exotic, does it? None of those luscious short run local fiber blends or hand-dyes? Here's why. I am working up ideas for my next book, and I need to use yarns that are readily available. Sadly, if I rely on those precious small lots of handmade yarns, I will do my readers a disservice--they won't be able to buy "exactly" what I used in the design. Since many knitters like to use the exact same yarn and shade, I want that to actually be an option. I encourage innovation and yarn substitution, of course, but availability is an issue, too.

One last photo--isn't this Leicester Longwool from Pocket Meadow Farm just gorgeous? Today is the professor's birthday, and I know he'd want to celebrate it with a big up close and personal encounter like I had with this sheep! If you get a chance, wish the professor a happy birthday, ok?

Psst. He reads the blog. Leave a comment!