Two years after I gave Whimsy & Tea room to tell me what it wanted, it let me know it was time for us to ...
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One spring morning when Asha was about six months old, we walked up what my friend Lynn calls Butt Hill (because you feel the climb ...
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I sit down at the loom and settle in to untangle threads. I’d designed new towels, but, after weaving a sample, was unhappy with the ...
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I sit in a circle of women in a cozy cottage on Nantucket, the sound of the ocean in the background. We have flown, driven, ...
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On our morning walk Asha runs down to a stream and I search for a stick to throw her. Instead I find small purple flowers ...
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I cut the red thread after sewing the cloth label onto the towel and exhale. I hold the towel up, fold it in thirds lengthwise, ...
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I learned a new word recently: deipnosophist. A few Saturdays ago, I was driving to meet my friend Sherri for a latte and turned on ...
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This morning Asha and I walked to the bridge over gentle waters. It was sunny and a pleasant 28°. No biting wind. I was in ...
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One overcast morning I was walking along a trail deep in thought – perhaps about how snow pants make such a difference on cold days ...
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On one of my let’s-see-where-this-trail-goes walks with Asha, we rounded a bend and came to a clearing of sorts with a wooden bridge over a ...
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My desk is covered with a few weaving books, samples I wove in a workshop on color, graph paper and my laptop as I work ...
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On a walk in the woods with my puppy Asha, a sentence I’d read recently popped into my head: A tidy house is a sign ...
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"Did you hear that?" I ask my friend Jody as we wind a warp onto her loom together. Jody stands at the front of the ...
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Sometimes weaving drives me crazy. I’m not talking about the many times threads have ended up in a tangled mess. Nor how hard it is ...
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I wonder where the geese went, I say to my puppy Asha who is also staring out at the beaver pond. I like to think ...
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One morning during a late-winter thaw my puppy Asha and I head up the dirt road, past the small cemetery and into the woods. Once ...
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I'm at my loom weaving towels with sustainably-grown, naturally-colored cotton. I’m in the familiar place of wanting to finish a collection of towels in time ...
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I walk in silence beside my mother. She’s listening to classical music on her iPod. I’m thinking about beauty, specifically how it doesn’t have to ...
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The winter solstice has come and gone, the light is gradually returning and a new year has started. I feel a cultural pressure to usher ...
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I have a project I want to weave: napkins to go with my Crisp Fall Day table runners. By “go with” I mean similar colors ...
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My heart is heavy. Weighed down by all the destruction and turmoil across this country. Homes lost. To fire. To water. To wind. I write ...
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Four sunflower heads floated in shallow plates of water on the dining table. Earlier that day they had lined the path at a wedding. Now ...
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I’m excited to be part of the inaugural Working Weavers Studio Trail here in western Massachusetts. On October 14 & 15, I’ll be one of ...
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Most mornings for the better part of 16 years, I’d get up and go for a walk with my yellow Labs, Molly and Codi. Many ...
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I had a particularly lovely, nourishing & sacred breakfast experience this morning because my new handcrafted textiles were hard at work bringing the spirit & ...
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Chicken noodle. French onion. Potato leek. Beet Cabbage Borscht. A bowl of warm soup hits the spot and offers comforting nourishment. And nourishment is so ...
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I watched the woman take a couple steps away from my booth, pause, and return. She stood quietly for a few moments, touching the gray ...
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It started with an opportune question. Do you use organic cotton? a well-dressed man asked one Saturday earlier this year at the Northampton Winter Farmers’ ...
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One Sunday after church, when I was a child, my family was invited to dinner at Rokeby, a guesthouse run by Methodist missionaries near my ...
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I was at a craft fair recently and over the course of three days, I heard several women comment, I’d wear that as a scarf, ...
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In the 1990s the crime rate in New York City fell suddenly. Violent crime decreased in cities across the country as the crack trade declined, ...
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People often ask me how long it takes to weave a towel. The short answer is: I don’t know. I don’t weave one towel from ...
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Touching the towel can serve as a silent meditation to be present. For me, it’s about connection. These quotations are from interviews with Caryn Cushman ...
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When I sit at the loom and throw the shuttle back and forth, I have plenty of time to think as the cloth grows. Today ...
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One day, a few years ago, when I was making a deposit at the bank, the teller, Cindy, asked me about my business name, “Whimsy ...
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In December, I invited you to join me in a unique project to bring beauty and hope to survivors of domestic violence. I wanted to ...
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The day after Claire’s boyfriend kicked her while she was holding their baby, he was nice to her. She knew then that he knew what ...
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Simplicity napkin Do you weave napkins? a woman asked me at a farmers’ market. I smiled and said, No. After I got this question the ...
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tubes of cotton for the Lazy Summer Day kitchen towels Four-year-old Isabelle looks up from drawing a flower to ask Jessica, her teacher, a question ...
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Like a Wildflower kitchen towels Each season has its particular joys. Before summer ends, I want to make time to ... Hang laundry on the ...
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I have a new towel design on the loom. I worked the design out on paper with the aid of my weaving software and did ...
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I Feel the Earth kitchen towels It’s 3:33 pm at my boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayas. The buzzer sounds, signaling the end ...
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Sunshine on my Shoulders kitchen towel Sun shining directly into my studio, filling the space with warm, inviting light layered with … Weaving, and specifically ...
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Happy 2015! Every week I try to declare one day a Weave-to-my-Heart’s-Content Day. On these days I give myself permission to let go of the ...
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My senior year in college my uncle came for a visit. After I cooked us a vegetarian dinner in my basement apartment, he kindly offered ...
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So many of you have responded to my email last week, asking how you use your Whimsy & Tea towels. A big thank you. I ...
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Earlier this year, I shared two interviews – one with Caryn, about the Whimsy & Tea towel she has been using in her kitchen and ...
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Over the past six months a friend has been writing me emails as she inches towards using one of her Whimsy & Tea towels. A ...
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The other day my friend Faith came over with a friend of hers visiting from Germany. Faith had asked if she could show her friend ...
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In June I had the pleasure of visiting a first grade class to demonstrate and talk about weaving. They had been reading stories featuring Anansi ...
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In March I shared my interview with Caryn, an elementary school teacher in Portland, OR, about the Whimsy & Tea towel she has been using ...
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Weaving is pattern and color. Pattern is my comfort zone.  I’m left-brained and enjoy logic, structure and order.  Numbers, formulas and equations make me happy.  On ...
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At the very end of December or beginning of January, I do inventory. I count and weigh tubes of cotton, dust the shelves before putting ...
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NOTE:  This is a guest post by Deb Davis.  Deb is a writer, artist and naturalist who works for the Forest Service in central Washington ...
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I have been interviewing a few customers about the towels, napkins and table runners they purchased from me. I am curious to know how they ...
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I am weaving a new towel design and exploring variations. In this design, vertical ivory stripes alternate with twill stripes in different pastels. After I’ve ...
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When I was preparing for an artist talk in conjunction with the recent exhibit, Serving Up Art, a friend and fellow fiber enthusiast sent me ...
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I enjoy hosting Thanksgiving. Growing up in India, Thanksgiving wasn’t a significant holiday in my life.  My sister and I would arrive home from boarding ...
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Last November my friends Amy Halko, Holly Jordan and I held a Clay Wood Cloth event at MIX Garden in Healdsburg, CA. We donated a ...
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There’s a store on the main street of Sebastopol, CA that sells great cooking and baking tools. Whenever I drive by, I think about how ...
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Some time ago my printer was printing red lines on everything.  I consulted my small manual and followed the appropriate troubleshooting suggestions.  The red lines ...
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Beyond sitting at the loom People often ask me how long it takes to weave a towel. Actually weaving the towel – sitting at the ...
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For many years I had shoulder-length straight brown hair, parted in the middle. It was a low maintenance “do”, requiring only an occasional trim. Although ...
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I have a new towel design on the loom and it isn’t weaving as smoothly as I would like. It’s been a while since I’ve ...
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When I was seven years old, I had a long cotton skirt that I loved.  I was fascinated by the three bands of calico fabric, ...
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In my recent college alum magazine, there’s an article about an alumnus who has been developing robots for security purposes. These robots can be sent ...
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“You must have a lot of patience” is a comment I hear frequently at craft shows where I sell my towels. I’ve grown used to it, ...
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In response to a newsletter, a customer wrote me about a conversation with a Japanese friend about ceremonies for daily use items. This idea intrigued ...
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As a child, I disliked my name. Too many comments about Marilyn Monroe and the dictionary, although not usually in the same breath. I identified ...
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When I'm driving, I pay attention to street names. I get curious about who named them and what they reveal about the town's history. For ...
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I am almost finished weaving a towel when I realize something is off. I'm not where I'm supposed to be in the pattern. I take ...
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One of my high school English teachers instructed us not to use the adjectives "nice" and "interesting." According to my teacher, to describe someone as ...
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I've been settling into my new more permanent home and running move-related errands: opening bank accounts, registering my car, finding a vet, getting a landline ...
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My recent move from northern California to western Maryland has me pondering the question: What makes a house a home? I’ve walked into houses and ...
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In preparation for my cross-country move, I've been sorting through my belongings. I'm not ready to pack yet, but over the years, I've learned that ...
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Some time ago I wove a few towels with five wide ivory stripes and six narrow spruce ones. I chose a very simple design and ...
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I’ve known for a while that my living and dining rooms as well as my home office need painting. The otherwise white walls and ceiling ...
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One afternoon while browsing the interior design section of my local bookstore, I came across a book entitled Altar Your Space. I picked it up, ...
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My friend Helena asked me what a world without beauty would look like. At first words like gray and bland came to mind. Then I ...
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At the grocery store the other day I came across some coconut almond hummus. I was intrigued. Reading the ingredients, I noticed that the last ...
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The other Sunday I had a lovely massage. As I sat in the waiting area with a warm neck wrap and a cup of mint ...
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Have you ever had something that didn’t work they way you wanted it to? I have. I recently made a list. It’s a long list ...
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If you’ve been reading my newsletters for the past few months, you know that I am passionate about using beautiful things in everyday life and ...
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Several years ago I traveled back to India, to the foothills of the Himalayas where I grew up. My class was having a reunion in ...
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I've been talking with friends about the ways they bring beauty into their everyday lives and have been moved by the depth of their responses ...
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Last month I wrote about an experiment that was inspired by removing clothes from my closet and what I learned about self-care from that experiment ...
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I have been conducting a little experiment. What I'm learning from this experiment is deepening my understanding of the importance of beauty in the everyday ...
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Once upon a time a girl wandered into the woods and came upon a house. She knocked and when there was no answer, she went ...
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"There once was a Velveteen Rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his ...
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