A Really Good Day

Yesterday was one of the best days! I received an email from a lady in Montana saying that she had just received her May/June Issue of Handwoven magazine and she saw me in it. Now that the issue is in circulation I can at last stop being a ‘secret squirrel’ about it – it was very, very hard not to say anything all these months! Later the same day I received the parcel from Handwoven returning the scarves along with a cheque and a lovely note from Madelyn Van Der Hoogt the editor; this day just keeps getting better! If you get Handwoven Magazine – yup that’s me on pages 46 and 47….and my article is titled ‘Spaced Warp with Leno’.

I wove these scarves last fall and submitted the idea to Handwoven and was thrilled when it was accepted. I wove two scarves for this article one in silk and one in bamboo. My idea was that you use a leno twist to hold the spaces in the warp and to prevent the warp threads from wandering– it sounds much more complicated than it is.

I wanted my first (and I hope not my only) submission to really look nice, so beading the fringe was essential. I’m really very happy with the way they turned out. Handwoven chose to feature the natural silk scarf, but personally the lilac bamboo was my favourite, its' the colour that really gets me and the beading was a little more flash.

Then, as the final cherry on top Michael and I went out and bought our tickets for our September holiday. We will be spending three weeks in France and I can’t believe how much I’m looking forward to the adventure. I feel that I’ve spent the last week online getting our accommodation and car organized, but it seems that the best airfare was eluding me, so off to the travel agent we went.We have booked an apartment in Paris for a week in the Montmartre a minute from the Moulon Rouge. I'm jumping the gun on this one a bit because I haven't confirmed the booking, but I'm pretty confident as the owner has agreed. Today the Paris apartment was confirmed - now I'm really getting excited!This is our gîte (a self-catering holiday home) in The Dordogne region, this one is confirmed and paid. It is in a tiny medeval village and we have it for a week.Then a few hours south east and we have our gîte in The Languedoc region for another week. This time we chose to be in the centre of a small town and right next door to the village church, it's going to be great! Then one night in a Paris hotel near the airport, then home on October 2. I can foresee some excellent wine and cheese in my future!

Now for the big question – are there any special weaving sights I should be sure to take in? If you have been to any of these regions and know of hidden fibre related gems, please, please let me know about them. We will have a car for the last two weeks and so we will be able to mosey along at our own speed and hopefully get a lovely feel for these regions of France.

Our weather continues to be unpleasant to say the least, we are having the coldest spring in fifty years according to the news and today there was 20 centimeters of wet snow dumped on the surrounding high hills. Fingers crossed for some warm weather!