Getting Ready for Faire

[New Pants. Thanks, Wispr!]

Things are lining up for my trip. TJ is back with the MR2 so that Wonder and Vibrant can get away from the faire site on their days off.

Actually, that's a nice way to look at it. The reality is that they aren't allowed to stay on site during the week. I was granted special permission because I'm managing Annie's booth, but the show managers don't want a party atmosphere so groups of people aren't allowed to stay. It's just four weeks, and those guys really want to visit friends in the Bay Area and spend some time at the ocean. I think they'll have a blast and those four weeks will be gone in a flash. While they're off carousing in the two-seater, I'll be enjoying my days at the sewing table, making bags to sell this holiday season.

Anyhow, TJ is back home and working on the trailer. It should be all fixed up in a couple of days.

Wispr made me a new pair of pants while I got the loom ready for him to start weaving. They are beautiful! They're made from a durable piece of light canvas we found on the land, with a top strip of super comfortable brown denim. The bottom features a wide cuff that gathers the legs just above my boots so that I don't need to stuff cloth into them.

Wispr started weaving on the production loom yesterday and did a great job. It was fun to see someone else learning how to work the flyshuttle mechanism. He started out slow and clunky, with lots of underthrowing but rapidly got the hang of it. He wove three yards on his first day! (This is way better than I did when I was learning.) Today he'll learn the critical skill of winding bobbins and then it's just a matter of practice, practice, practice. He's got five days of practice before I leave for California. By then, I'm sure he'll be ready to weave on his own until I get back.

So there you have it! Four of us will be earning an income from my weaving project during the months of September and October, in preparation for Winter. This is the cottage industry that the organization has always talked about, supporting those of us who want to keep living on the land performing the important work of the organization. And we're doing it despite the obstacles being thrown in our way by people who have never had the experience of living here. I hope that, in the end, actions speak louder than words when we are all being held accountable for ourselves.