On Friday, Selma, Jay and I went to Cable, Wisconsin–a town about 30 miles north of our cottage. The yarn store there, Pine Needles had advertised a Navajo Weaving demonstration that Selma and I wanted to attend. We arrived early in Cable, a small northwoods town with an artsy feel. We took a peek at the Cable Natural History museum which is being renovated and is only exhibiting a small piece of their collection. Then we had lunch at a small café in town before heading over to the yarn store.

Pine Needles is a spacious shop with great light, and lots of room for classes and gatherings. When we arrived, the weaver, Laura Berlage had set up her looms and was beginning to talk about her work. She will be teaching classes at the shop in the fall, and the demonstration was a way to attract students as well as show her work.

Laura is 23 and has been weaving since she was 13. She prefers to weave Navajo-style, but also has some European-style looms like the one she made this tapestry on:

Selma asked why she prefers the Navajo style of weaving, and Laura explained that Navajo weaving is done linearly–a whole row at a time, whereas the European style is more like intarsia–you work blocks of color and go fill in other parts later, and at the end, you have slits where the color changes occur that need sewing up.

I asked her what kind of wool is best for rugs that will be walked on and she says, once she finishes a rug, she never wants to step on it, she hangs them on the wall intstead. Laura works with Navajo churro wool, and also with Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride. She designs her own patterns.

Laura is not only a weaver–she’s also a singer and has recorded an album, She owns and runs an organic farm with a 40 member CSA, farmer’s market stand and restaurant clients, she keeps bees and sheep, and she has a degree in creative writing.

I’m still en route to Alaska. We’ve stopped in Wisconsin to visit family and we’re spending a week at our family’s cottage in northern Wisconsin. We’ve had a wonderful convergence of family members–my brother and his family, and his wife Sara’s parents, my parents, my Aunt Carole, Uncle Jack and cousin Johanna.

If you’ve read the blog for a long time, you’ll remember Johanna. She was my intern in 2006 when she was completing her degree in textile design. Since then, she has been working in costume design and haberdashery primarily for the Kansas City opera, but has also had stints with the Rockettes and she recently co-designed a line of swimwear that debuted in a Kansas City fashion show.

Aunt Carole is an artist and former elementary art teacher. She also contributed an essay on color theory to my book The Color Book of Felted Crochet.

Yesterday afternoon, while much of our crowd was having cocktails on the screened in porch, Carole and Johanna decided to take advantage of the great light and do some painting. They invited Selma and me to join them, and while Selma worked on some watercolors, I wasn’t feeling like painting so I gave my new Goldings spindle a spin and tried out the Buffalo Gold fiber I picked up at TNNA. The fiber has a very short staple, so it was a little tricky to spin, it’s so soft, it’s worth the trouble. The spindle is one I ordered after a phone conversation with Mr. Golding himself where he answered lots of newbie spindle questions for me. It worked like a dream.

After a bit of spinning, I did a little drawing which made me feel like I need a bit of a refresher art course. Maybe I’ll find one in Alaska!

On Tuesday Jay, Selma and I left Takoma Park after a whirlwind of activity–mailing boxes of things that wouldn’t fit in our suitcases, lots of wonderful goodbyes and all of the stuff involved in getting out of a house. I’ve been so brain-dead, I haven’t been able to post, but I’ll try and recap now.

Tuesday July 1st was my birthday. The kids woke me with singing and kisses and I had a nice quiet day in the house we were house-sitting in, sitting on their screened-in porch and working on my computer. Miraculously, the seasonally humid Maryland weather had cleared and it was breezy and in the seventies.

Tuesday evening was my final visit to SSK–I had been looking forward to it for a week. I planned on taking lots of pictures and saying some fond goodbyes. When I got there, I was serenaded on entering with Happy Birthday started by Abraham and his parents Hannah and David:

and the party just continued. That’s Debbie in the foreground of the picture, above. She really does knit that fast!

Cici and Shelette–two knitting, blogging sisters that are not regulars at SSK, (but we love hanging out at events at my local yarn store, A Tangled Skein) made a special appearance to say goodbye (They promise they didn’t coordinate their outfits).

and they brought a wonderful birthday gift:

This cool box is made from recycled magazines and it’s filled with knitting goodies.

Jennifer had a great card and an address book that she got everyone to sign throughout the night.

At about 7:30, Heidi and Emily arrived with a great, big, bag…

Somehow, without me finding out, Emily had spent the last couple of months coordinating a secret project: The SSK knitters had been making squares for an amazing afghan and Emily gathered them and assembled them (not to mention making a few of her own squares). The blanket is so beautiful, and such a wonderful way to remember all the amazing people I’ve come to know and love in the group. (Later that night, the blanket covered me while I slept, and felt the wonderful energy of everyone’s hands and hearts). Everyone put their own stamp on their squares–from Martha’s yellow square with a stranded Bicycle to Lisa’s Thrummed square to Carol’s crocheted grannies, to Teresa’s stripes and Debbie’s intarsia rainbows and cake (!!), and Barbara’s celtic designs, Heidi’s signature laces stitch (Abraham even learned to purl for his square!), and more.

I think Emily was happy with the result:

Other not-so-frequent visitors to SSK came by too, Lisa Anderson, Junko, Elizabeth–it was great so see everyone.

By the way, I taught Junko to knit when I first arrived in Takoma Park three years ago, look what she just finished:

(We WON’T talk about how this is the second time Junko knit this shawl because the first time, she left it, half-bound-off, on the DC metro. She’s still waiting for someone to turn it in to lost and found…)

Rebecca, who is waiting on pins and needles for the word that she can fly to Vietnam and finalize the adoption of her little boy spent the day spinning then knitting this neck warmer for me so I won’t get too cold in Alaska:

Barbara and I love to trade books, and she brought in Knit One, Kill Two that she had just finished. (Barbara, I gave Rebecca Back on Blossom Street to give to you next time she sees you!)

Martha flew back from LA then rushed up to Adega with her husband Bruce in order to be there for my last time. Martha started SSK, and I started going as soon as I arrived in MD–it was originally held in a Starbucks by the Silver Spring metro. Martha has nurtured the group, and it has grown and thrived, she’s an amazing group leader and a great friend–thanks Martha, I’ll miss you!

Heidi knitted me a birthday card!

As evidence of the breadth of knitting that goes on at SSK, Lorraine, was working on (or just finished?) a uterus she knitted for a friend:

Emily didn’t stop with her afghan project. Emily is a recently graduated social worker. When things calmed down a bit after she unveiled the afghan, she began explaining that in school she was taught that patients sometimes need “transitional objects” to help with a big change, and so, for the rest of the group, she made:

Yeah. It’s an amigurumi, of me! (Or an AMY-gurumi?). We were all pretty floored. The glasses and the hair flying out of the bun are awesome details. I gave her a crochet hook. Some ladies gave her some wine:

We don’t think it will be long before we start knitting for her. Emily, you rock–you’re so creative and funny and smart and fun!

It was such a fun party–and at the same time it was typical of how great SSK is in general–warm and welcoming to the unsuspecting new arrival who came for the first time that night. I have loved being part of this group so much over the last three years, and it’s hard to imagine not being with this amazing group of friends every Tuesday night.

I’m sorry the site hadn’t been working for you over the last few posts. It seems the Twitter widget I installed in my sidebar made the blog crash in Internet Explorer. I’ve removed it. Stay tuned. I’ve got great pictures and stories from last night at SSK. I’ll leave you with a tiny sneak peek: