Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts

06 September 2013

Visiting the Shakers

While in Maine we drove up to Sabbathday Lake to see the Village, which is the last active community in the world. Did you know that there are only three Shakers left? In the world? It makes sense, since it is a celibate religion, reliant upon conversion. Though they are often compared to the Amish, the Shakers embraced technology (all three Shakers have mobile phones). In fact the first circular saw in America was "invented" by a Shaker sister based on ... you guessed it, the spinning wheel!

Most of the village is now a museum, as well as a working farm. We took the tour and got to spend time in the meeting house, which also included living quarters for some of the elders and eldresses (their weaving and boot making tools were upstairs in the living quarters, too - I so wanted to take pictures!). Sadly, photographs were not allowed inside, so I can't show you the dark, lovely blue paint used on the built-in benches around the perimeter, nor the freestanding benches in their classic Shaker style. You can see a photo of the interior here. According to my notes this Shaker blue paint was only used in meeting houses and is a milk-based paint tinted with blueberries, sage, and indigo. Is it just me or is that delightful?!

But I can show you a couple of sheepy shots:
Untitled
Sheep in the barn

Untitled
Sheep in the field (look at the view!)
And the goodies that came home with me: Shaker 2-ply in Scotia, Rose Water, and Eldress Hester's Potpourri. Now, I am generally not a potpourri person, but there is some intriguing spiciness to this that makes me love it. Love it! I get a little boost when I walk into our room.
Untitled
Yarn, rose water, and delightful potpourri from the Shakers
I guess this yarn is actually close to that blueberry/sage/indigo color inside the Meeting House, though lightened up with its tweediness. Something lovely will come out of this!

If you find yourself in Maine, I highly recommend visiting the Shakers. And if you bring two little girls, you might get to visit the Candy Making Room. During the Depression, the Shaker women realized that the market for some of their goods had disappeared, so they took up candy making. As you can imagine they did quite well with it. As an amateur candy maker, I loved seeing their set-up. The Candy Room is no longer on the tour, but our guide thought the girls would get a kick out of it and showed it to us anyway.

But my favorite room was the Fancy Goods Room. I'm not even sure that is what they called it, but it was set up as something of a shop to display all the little baskets and needlecrafts the Shakers sold. Go look at this photograph. I'll wait. It was pretty much exactly the same, just in color. Actually, I think they have since turned it sideways, since the window was to the side of the large case, not behind it. Needle books, sewing cases, all sorts of other little velvet-lined containers for bits and bobs related to sewing. And that cloak! It is a lovely soft red, and that circular drawn portion at the back of the hood is just the best.

More adventures to catch you up on shortly. The kids finally start school next week, and once Penelope is eased into Kindergarten (Friday is her first full day), I'll be able to refocus on blogging, knitting, pattern writing, and so on. Until then ...

Happy knitting!

P.S. The Sabbathday Shakers have an Etsy shop! Only some maple syrup on there now, but they did sell some yarn there. I love Etsy, so maybe we should encourage them to sell more yarn there...

23 August 2013

Maine report, August 2013

I sailed a schooner in my Wavelette (pattern going out for tech editing when I recover from the loveliness that was our time in Maine). Actually, the captain let me steer for quite a while, since it was a beautiful day with a steady wind. If you ever get up to Boothbay and want to cruise the harbor, choose Eastwind Schooner. Lovely lovely boat and really nice people. You will not be disappointed. 

Foggy beach day

Wavelette photo shoot outtake - this sweater ended up being perfect for cooler summer weather. I wore it a lot, and not just to have my picture taken. 

I found the jetsam at the beach visually intriguing

Selfie with Isobel at the Seadogs game (we made it to two games - AA Red Sox affiliate, so a great place to see future stars)

We visited the Shakers at Sabbathday Lake. There are only three Shakers left in the world. 

They've got sheep! I brought home some yarn but haven't photographed it yet. Separate post on that to come. 

We left Maine briefly for the Fiber Revival in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Pretty much my favorite fiber festival - it's the only thing I will leave Maine for during our time up there. Proper post to come on that as well. 

The rosa rugosa at the beach not only look beautiful, but they smell divine. There weren't too many left, since most of them had matured into beach plums, but there were enough to perfume the path to the beach proper. 

I started a pi shawl whose design has been hibernating for three years. 

And this is how far I was at the start of day two. 

And the third day at the beach. The beginning of a pi shawl is very satisfying. Until you realize that you've messed up the lace pattern in the 288-stitch section and have to frog back. It's taken me almost a week to get back to this point, but now I'm forging ahead, though the knitting time isn't as glorious now that we've left Maine. 

Isobel sailed a kite (and boogied boarded and collected shells and read Harry Potter 3 & 4 and neglected her knitting but wanted a knitting bag and consumed a lot of cheese-based meals)

Penelope worked on her modeling career (and finally splashed around in the tide pools and jumped the waves and collected shells and took naps which made for some afternoon quiet time for everyone and turned five with birthday wishes on the Seadogs' scoreboard)

Stephen sounded the horn announcing our casting off in the Schooner Eastwind (and boogie boarded and played a wide variety of ball games and read so many books I can't keep track and played games with his sisters despite being a mature ten and bemoaned his bad luck at UNO)

Sunset at Reid

All in all it was pretty spectacular. Back to knitting and designing next week when the kids will still have two more weeks until school begins. Cross your needles for me :)