I am just about ready for the Rhinebeck show in NY this weekend…the truck bed is already half full, the shed off my kitchen stuffed and the shed across the street has a small pile to pack. Dear Jack is in charge of packing it all in my truck on Friday AM. It is beyond my patience level to figure out how it will all fit! If I have forgotten anything, shame on me! If you need anything that Earthues has to offer; dyes, mordants, books, kits in various shapes and styles, beautiful sable and deerhide brushes for painting and much more I’ll have it with me, plus lots of dye visuals and inspiration. An SUV and trailer with Tunis on the plate passed through Keene this afternoon headed west…I suspect on their way to Rhinebeck to show sheep. It promises to be good weather and always a good show. See you there, perhaps!

I was vending this past Saturday in Newtown, CT at the Newtown Hooked Rug show and during the morning hours Rita Buchanan stopped by to say hello and wanted to be remembered to Michele Wipplinger, Earthues owner. Many of you know Rita for her fiber arts teaching over the past few decades in every pocket of the country. She has retired from all of that and took to rug hooking of late. Rita mentioned she had entered a couple of rugs in the show. I took a break and as I walked into the display area I was taken aback instantly knowing one of the rugs had to be Rita’s! Isn’t is spectacular! It was hooked with yarn that Rita, of course, chose raw, carded, dyed and spun and then created the rug from a photo of herself. It is entitled “Watching birds fly south, a self portrait”.

After the lecture and raffle later on, the announcement was made for the People’s Choice Award and sure enough it was Rita’s self portrait! As part of the award, next year’s postcard for the show will feature the winning rug. Some artists just excel, even in retirement!

I had some fun dyeing this past weekend using weld on different substrates and shades of fiber. Weld is just the greatest dye to work with; read more about weld at www.longridgefarm.com/dyetips.asp

I also dyed and untied my first shibori piece, the ties are bound with one connecting thread giving many evenly spaced spots that will resist the dye. The top photo is a bit blurry, but you can see the ties and where I have undone, the white pointed tips starting to show. Once the piece is dyed and dried completely, the ties are carefully undone by pulling the fabric away from itself. The result is beautiful, I think. I dyed it initially with weld and then overdyed with indigofera tinctoria one quick 5 second dip.

Left to right in the picture: silk strips in weld only, dark gray wool in weld only, white silk dyed in weld and overdyed with indigo, and silk strips in weld with an indigo overdye.

Wanda, this is good crabapple jelly as seen in the top picture (not shown on my crumpet, cause I ate it too fast!) I toasted a crumpet, put some butter on it and then the jelly and oh my, yummy. Sidney must have heard my thoughts as he came into the kitchen and so I did the true test of good fruit as he is an apple man. Hey Wanda, he likes it!

If anyone wants to know how we made these jellies just write me and we’ll share!

We have an abundant grapevine growing down by the big barn and I decided to see how they’d fare in jelly. I have never made jelly before, which sort of surprises me, now that I have! It’s fun.

I read a few cookbooks and took the expert advice of my friend, Wanda, who has made jelly so often she could tell me by memory. Good advice, Wanda! I didn’t crush the grapes in the initial simmer, although many of the recipes said to. The resulting jelly is dark purple and clear and the taste was fantastic prior to filling the jars. All the lids “popped” down after a half hour cooling and the jelly was firm in less that 4 hours!

A man came by the farm this morning to pick up some hay elevator parts he’d bought from us. He had come from Strafford, NH and in talking I told him I knew a couple from his town. He asked how I knew them and I told him they’d been good friends with my brother, Jamie. Small state for sure and that we all knew the same people, not that unusual. But today marks a year since my brother died and as I stood there this morning talking with George and his friend Ray, leaning over the bed of his pickup as is the custom, I thought this is a gift. George liked Jamie a lot and told stories of things they’d done together. He spoke kind words and it was as is if his death hadn’t happened for a brief moment. It was comforting.
Today is also my brother Kit’s birthday.

The top picture is Jamie, me and Kit back in the 50’s, the bottom, Jamie with his horses in the Deerfield, NH Old Home Day parade last summer.

I’ll forever miss him.