The New England Blacksmith, Arts and Music Festival, September 29th, 2012 Photos
Posted on October 31, 2012
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Doll Bodies
Posted on August 10, 2012Beautiful evening last night at the Ashby Band Concert. Good music, nice people, delicious homemade donuts. While I was listening and knitting, I saw the only Swift I’ve seen this year silhouetted against an August twilight.
I love to knit while listening to music and at an outdoor concert I can knit as much as I like without disturbing other listeners. Generally, during a band concert, I can knit three Flower Fairy bodies. Last night I was little slow and number three is still minus a head.
Which brings me to a a current philosophical struggle I’m having as a blogger. Do I want to post in progress pictures of the fairies and animals I make. I haven’t posted any so far. On the one hand, as a person who makes things, I love seeing step by step pictures of a fellow makers process. On the other hand when I have taken pictures of the animals and fairies in progress, I find the pictures somewhat disturbing. Perhaps this is the lasting influence of a Doll teacher from my past who said that if you are making a doll or repairing one, you should be careful to do it when a child isn’t present because it is a violent thing for them to see a needle poking through an animal or figure that to them seems real. For everything I currently make, in the animal or figure line, there is a point at which the pieces stop being pieces and start to take on what to me feels like a personality. Perhaps I could photograph up to that point and then jump to a more finished step? I’ve been mulling this over for sometime now but haven’t reached a conclusion. With knitted hats, gloves, scarves, dish cloths, anything that isn’t an animal or a figure, I have no problem with in process photos. But animals and figures… I don’t know. What do you think?
And so I have no picture today, and I shall continue to ponder…
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Deep Summer
Posted on August 1, 2012
Today is August 1st and the deep summer Flower Fairies and Blue Berry Fairies are here. Black Eyed Susans, Zinnias, Marigolds, Daylilies, Phlox, Nasturtiums, Inpatients, which my grand mother always called Patient Lucys, Queen Anne’s Lace, Chicory and so many more. The little Fairies can hardly keep up. Time for a relaxing walk among the grass and clover.
This time of year when the nights are so full of the sounds of crickets and katydids, when full moons look extra full, when heavy morning dews leave sparkling water drops and there are fairy table cloths of dew on undisturbed grassy places, the flow of life seems so strong, so dancy and so magical I spend as much time outside as possible. With yarn of course.
In Ashby, the town next to us, my brother plays the bass in the Ashby town band at evening band concerts on Wednesday evenings. Hot dogs, homemade donuts with ice cream happy people listening to the music as the sun leaves the sky. In early July it’s still light as you drive home. By late August you need to remember to bring a sweater and it will be dark before you leave. We’ll be there tonight with Flower Fairies, Blue Berry Fairies and a few knitted geese that still need their feet.
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What’s been going on here
Posted on July 30, 2012Some summers are just crazier than others. I finally made potato salad for the first time this year, and I’m looking forward to a large helping of it with meat loaf tonight after Farmers’ Market. Our Farmers Market has settled into a good routine on Mondays from 4 – 6:30pm. I’m learning to set up a tent this year, no mean feat for those of us who are vertically challenged and I’m very grateful for the help of my fellow vendors. The North Country Sustainability Center is growing. Check us out at or if you live in the area, drop by, we’re across from the playground and the library, 12 Memorial Drive Ashburnham, MA 01430. On the knitting front, Michael Hartwell wrote a very nice article about my business for the local paper. Thanks, Michael. I’m working on a few new animals. I finished some geese yesterday and I’m almost done with a donkey. I also have some Blueberry Fairies. Can’t believe August 1st is almost here.
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Slow Start, but Coming
Posted on April 27, 2011We have had a little bit of everything over the past few days. Snow, rain, incredible fog, sun mist , racing clouds,temperatures varying from 20 to 78 degrees fahrenheit. But the daffodils and the forsythia have come into bloom. Last night, I shivered on the back step listening to the very loud peepers. This morning, around 5:40am when Moomie, the oldest of the cats, began her dawn chorus on my side of the bed; I also heard robins. Spring is moving on.
For the past two days I have been trying to work out a daffodil cap for the very small earth fairies I’m knitting. I finally decided to go with a suggestion of daffodil through color, because all my other attempts overwhelmed the fairy. One of the fun and sometimes frustrating things about working on these fairies is trying to keep the scale of the hats in proportion to the fairy. At the same time, I’m trying to evoke a feeling of both the appearance and the feeling of a particular flower or plant. And the little figures also have to look, to my eye at least, well, fairyish.
