Cabin Crafted

Tag: teaching

  • Olio -9/18/2026

    I am the eldest of three, all now senior citizens. Today is the birthday of the “middle child,” my little sister. Happy birthday, Sis.

    This week has been one for the record. We have had 3 medical appointments between us, one a routine annual visit, one a follow up, and one for an upcoming procedure. Added to that, I taught a grown up version of the Herbal Medicine class that I did for summer camp to a bevy of ladies last night. As I was “teaching,” I have no photo, but we had a good time.

    The week began with soap making lessons for a couple that are friends of mine. I have been making their soap for a number of years and have asked repeatedly if they wanted to learn. This year it happened. Two batches were made with my instruction and supervision, but their hands on experience. They went home with one of the batches and the basic equipment to make more at home. The friend that taught me about a dozen years ago sent me home with a batch and some equipment and I have tried to continue paying it forward with the promise that once they are comfortable with the process and several successful batches, that they too will pay it forward. The second batch joined 3 other batches that I had previously made in the past couple of weeks for my SIL and our home use.

    It is curing in a back bedroom until it is ready for use.

    The week also started with me finishing the second Christmas stocking, one of which will go to the grandchild expected later this fall.

    Because they are stranded knitting in the round, the design is on both sides, requiring keeping the chart section of the pattern close at hand and well tracked. It also requires that the stocking be lined with fabric of some kind to prevent the carried strands of yarn on the inside from snagging. The linings are peeking out the top right now as the name needs to be duplicate stitched on the top before the lining can be hand sewn in place.

    The pumpkin vines and gourd vines are dying back now, so pumpkins have been cut. They are a smaller version for pies and baking, and after the ones in the photo were brought in, another was found. One grew through the chicken run fence and they ate it. Another grew close enough to the fence that they ate one side, and one I found had insect damage and was fed to them, so out of two vines, I got 8 pumpkins. It is possible that more will be found when the vines totally die off. The bottle gourds were the only gourd seed that germinated and they will be harvested soon.

    Here in Virginia, the drought has resulted in a state of emergency issued by the Governor as it has severly reduced the hay harvest both in the spring and now in the fall. Our fields produced only about half the usual amount and this week the fall hay was mowed, baled and taken to where it will be fed to cattle this winter. Neighbors that raise cattle are talking about possibly having to sell off some of their herds if they can’t locate hay to purchase. The lawn is brown and crispy, so no mowing is needed. We do have some rain in the forecast for the upcoming week, but if it is only isolated showers like we have had all summer, it won’t help.

    One section of the rails to trails paved area we walk for our daily walk has several Virginia marmots, aka groundhogs, woodchucks, whistlepig holes and tunnel some on the trail side of the fence, some on the airport side. This hefty fat guy was munching grass today and very unconcerned that I was taking his photo.

    Now to toot someone else’s horn. My husband just published his second book. It can be found on Amazon as a paperback or on Kindle as an e-book, the title is The Judas Priest, by James Stafford. He also has a blog with articles about the background and a sample on WordPress as JamesStaffordauthor. Go check him out.

  • An Educator

    This is teacher appeciation week. Thank a teacher for the impact they had on you or your child. For 43 years, I was an educator, retiring when I could begin to collect Social Security. For a few years after retirement, the only teaching I did was helping a local summer camp, teaching some spinning, weaving, and salve making. Then a friend who had been volunteering at a local museum couldn’t fulfill a day they needed a spinner and I connected with a volunteer activity that allowed me to demonstrate in a Colonial historical context, fiber arts. The program director at that museum moved to a different location, a little farther from our farm, but still under an hour to get there and I followed her, volunteering at events, and as she developed a program and relationship with the area school districts, as a teaching volunteer.

    Generally, I am in a 1769 log, 10 by 10 foot cabin that houses a great wheel and a barn loom.

    We have classes from second grade, fourth grade, and sixth grade that visit the museum at different times of the year. In my usual role, I am teaching about fiber production, processing, and clothing on the frontier. The village was chartered in 1810, so still very early in our country’s history, and through a period where trade was virtually stopped due to the Revolutionary War, and limited after the war due to the distance from the coastal trade ports.

    Today, a very rainy day, we had about 60 second graders visiting. And a different hat as one of our volunteers was unavailable, I was in the old separate kitchen talking about household life and how different it was then compared to what the kids experience today. The limitation of types of food, as most of what we eat now is imported or hybridized versions of what a local in western Virginia would have had available as well as the difficulty of storage, cooking on a fireplace, the soap making, candle making, fiber growth and processing, and how it was mostly a cashless society with bartering the most common form of trade.

    I may be a very senior citizen, but teaching is still in my blood and I love the volunteer opportunity that is there for me. I hope to be able to continue doing this for many more years.

  • A New Treasure

    I knit because I make yarn, but given the opportunity to just sell the yarn I make, I would just spin.

    Today, a friend that I started on spinning about a year ago came over with a bag of gorgeous Leicester Longwool lamb roving, and an entire Leicester Longwool lamb fleece in the raw. After she started spinning with a drop spindle I gave her, then a Turkish spindle I sold her, she bought several more spindles on her own, and then the travel wheel that I had tried her on. I had gotten a small Saxony wheel made by Kromski and previously owned by a good friend who passed away. The little Saxony is one I can take to retreats and to costumed demonstrations and the travel wheel was not being used. She has become quite a good spinner, but is having some difficulty with the travel wheel due to it’s size. She came over to discuss how to clean raw wool, to try my Kromski to see if it might be a wheel for her to seek out, and a lesson in using wool combs. We had a very nice afternoon playing with fiber and broadening her scope a bit.

    After she left, I anxiously dashed up to the mailbox as I was awaiting my newest spinning treasure, a Golding spindle that with it’s dark wood and black ring will be one I can take to demonstrations. Each Golding comes with a small sample of wool usually from Inglenook Fibers. I had just ordered some fiber from them and looked at the colorway that was sent as a sample. If I had just waited a few days, I not only would have bought that colorway, but would have gotten a discount from them. Maybe if I sell another pair of fingerless mitts or a hat, I will return to their online shop and purchase more of it.

    This spindle spins forever. I love my little Jenkins Turkish spindle, it is fun to use and to ply from but very limited in amount it will hold, but the Goldings are primo.