Another Two Bite The Dust

I am in school mode and will be spending the day tomorrow in my classroom.  Today I was there for a couple hours, got things unpacked and cleaned up…now need to work on my classroom library…I have LOTS of books in it…some of my fellow teachers have very small classroom libraries…I need a couple hours just to organize my library….

So it is with great sadness I tell you of two more brick and mortar yarn stores closing…I have mentioned one’s closing in passing.

The first is The Village Sheep.  She is going to remain as an online store.  I blogged about her store here…I bought my first knitting kit at this store and made my first knit…

 Ravelry link.

She has moved since I last visited her…I went again last Wednesday.

Also closing is a store that I visited on The Great Rhody Crawl, Sakonnet Purls.  I did not take pictures of this store on the crawl.  It was a big rambling house and had several rooms to poke around in filled with yarn and other goodies.  I bought a bag pattern and yarn here…

I am sad to see that these stores will be closing.  I feel for the Mom and Pop…The Hubs owned a Mom and Pop for about 10 years, but had managed it previously for many years….it sucks when something you had such hope for just does not provide you with what you need…or as many Mom and Pops, takes over your entire lives until you realize that something has got to give….good luck to them…

Wampanoag Homesite

At Plimoth Plantation they have a Wampanoag Homesite.  Unlike the Plimoth village, the people in the homesite DO NOT roleplay…..They are dressed in historically accurate clothing, but they talk to you from a modern perspective.  You are encouraged to ask lots of questions…Before you get to the homesite, there is a sign posting what not to do, such as greet them by saying, “How?” or war whooping….I wonder how many people stop to read this sign?

I learned that the Native people are the only fulltime, year round employees.  During the winter months, they work in one of the buildings on the exhibit, as they make everything in the Homesite.

He was burning out the canoe, just as they did historically..

She was weaving…

She was cooking and answered lots and lots of questions…Her two boys were with her…

Jade tried her hand at grinding with some help

Inside the wetu:

The mats were woven with reeds and dyed with berries and just beautiful!

I loved the ceiling:

We didn’t ask, but assumed this was a fishing net, it seemed to be made by tying knots…

It is “fashionable” now to have Native blood.  The family history is that we have some Mayan ancestry.  My great-great grandmother was born in Mexico, so there is that possibility…but there is no proof.  When I was younger we used to go every year to a local powwow.   We used to camp all weekend, dance and be involved in that culture.  I had a doeskin dress(which has sadly been lost through the years). Sadly, I have not been to one in years.  I went to a few as an adult, but it’s probably been 10 years. 

I have always tried to teach about the Native people, because there are so many misconceptions, and I once had a student tell me there were no more “Indians,” they were only in the past..and I refuse to teach the unit in November….

In honesty, it is the ONLY culture that I identify with, because of those memories from childhood.  I do not call myself Native, but am proud to think that I may have that heritage…

Plimouth Plantation

We have several “living-history” museums around here…I go to Old Sturbridge Village almost every year, as it’s only about an hour away.

But I’ve been wanting to visit Plimoth Plantation for a couple of years.  It’s about 3 hours away…so on Friday I met up with my friend Laura and her cutie-patootie daughter Jade. 

It is set in a beautiful area of Massachusetts…but it is not the original site..

 

You walk through the village…some of the houses are occupied, some are not…although most of the houses are one room, there were two or three with 2 rooms…obviously the wealthier inhabitants…

One room home

 

Two room home

 

This home had two rooms, plus two lofts…but the other room was crowed, so I did not get a picture..

Jade and Laura trying out a most uncomfortable bed…and one of the gardens

Tomorrow I’ll post the pictures from the Native Village….

An Ewok

This is my latest finish…I made him for my swap person.  It is a secret swap, so she does not know that I am sending her things, so I figured I could post them…I still suck at embroidering faces, but am getting better!

And Lina of photoknitdog.com commented on the addiction of sock knitting…I am already addicted…I bought sock knitting books BEFORE I even knew HOW to knit!  Today I bought a sparkly binder to keep all my sock knitting patterns and notes….Yep, I done been bit!

Yeah For Me!

 

My first pair of knitted socks!!

Pattern: It is the Knitmore Vanilla Sock 

Yarn: Online Supersocke 100, colorway: Florida

Loved using this yarn!  I still have almost 1/2 a skein left…We’ll see how they hold up…

Now to finish the Jaywalkers…I closed the toe on the first one, but have not cast on the second yet…The cast-on of 76 stitches is really too big for me…the first sock is too large, but I don’t know enough yet to change that number…so does anyone have any ideas how to make the first sock fit a bit better in the cuff?

It Was A Good Day!

Yesterday I had no idea what I wanted to do…usually I have a plan…after sitting around for a bit, we decided to head out to Washington Depot…

The Village Sheep is closing it’s brick and mortar store, so we decided to head out there…Then we were going to have lunch at GW Tavern. 

I didn’t get any yarn at the store, but did pick up some dpn’s (yep, sock knitting)

 

Then we found out that the tavern was closed for painting, so we just headed home.  First we stopped in Bantam, at an antiques store and I tried on a slew of hats:

 

 

 

My favorite:

 

I love hats!  We didn’t get anything, but we love poking around in old flea market/antique type stores…

One more stop at Nodine’s for beef jerky and a few other things…then headed home, where I finally got my burger at Buster’s.  Then home, where I found waiting for me:

Nerdy Girls Yarn Club: Jabberwocky

And a tshirt my Mom picked up for me at Disney’s Star Wars weekend:

Opened my gifts from the Hubs:

A new Namaste Bag: the Bitty Bag (this makes 6 I own), my own Roaming Gnome, a disappearing Tardis mug (so cool!),  peridot earrings (beautiful!) and 4 skeins of yarn! (2 Lorna’s Laces, 1 Shalimar Yarn and 1 Juniper Moon.) He done good!

He topped off the night with a Turtle Cheesecake from Supernatural, one of our favoritest places….

It was a good day…

WIP and Yarn Along

Today is my birthday…not sure what we are doing, except going to find a good hamburger…I’ve been craving one…maybe go to the movies…who knows…

I read Maus I and II this week…powerful! and Sweet Tooth….

All of these are graphic novels and the Hubs wants to know when I turned into a teenage boy…..Sweet Tooth, very interesting…I do want to read the rest of the series…

I just started the 4th Martin book…..I needed a break, so I’ve only read a couple of chapters..

I also took Spencer’s Mountain out of the library…I’ve been watching The Waltons all summer, so decided to read the book (I was reminded of it by Lazy)

I also went back to Borders this week and purchased

I’m gonna give toe-ups a try…and the colorwork in the other book is just pretty to look at!

All my projects shown are socks in various states…..my upcoming crochet project is a swap gift…

Yesterday I spent the day beading and made two earring and bracelet sets and a bunch of stitch markers for my swap partner….