Friday, August 05, 2005

To the Vav Stuga

What in the world is a Vav Stuga? It is a Swedish community weaving center. Becky runs one in Massachusetts and my friend Jan and I are going for a week of intensive weaving instruction. I bought a beautiful Glimakra floor loom a couple of years ago and don't even know how to warp it. I hope to set up at the new farm and weave some of my courser mohair and wool into rugs. I have never had a room big enough to dedicate to a huge loom, but with my studio in the hay mow that we are planning to build this fantasy is much closer to reality. Picture me and my loom, dogs all around me, wood stove burning, blizzard howling outside, critters below me in the barn, safe and sound, warming each other with their radiating heat. I like to think my Swedish grandmother wove on a loom like mine back in Sweden on their little farm.
I am much more a spinner and knitter, but the loom is calling me.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Spent the night on Maggie's Farm

Well, we signed the papers and hauled our little trailer to the new farm to set up housekeeping for the weekend. I walked my land and found bunny holes, an old apple orchard I will try to restart, and a lovely little pond with frogs chirping and dragon flies dancing. It was all so surreal and sublime. We got the trailer situated and decided against a fire, as the field was so dry and we didn't have a hose hooked up. We lit a half dozen of my soy candles and settled in for the night. I think I might have heard two cars on the road all night long, and two the next morning. It was quiet with gentle breezes blowing. We ate breakfast at the Beaver Dam Diner, a mile from my farm.

We packed up to go home, leaving the future home to the barn swallows and bunnies. Much work to be done...