balls of yarn all dyed with natural materials

I know I have overloaded you with pictures of Golondrinas, but I have more! On June 19th & 20th was their Dances With Wool Festival. I tried to take pictures in very low light inside the museum, but I was not happy with any of the pictures. I don’t think we were allowed to use flash photography (even thou there were a few who were), eventually deciding against it for I don’t like any pictures that I do take with a flash.

freshly shorn churro wool

Inside the museum was a textile collection: rugs, robes, and colcha embroidery. Many of the rugs on display were on loan from the Todalena Trading Post (the reason why I went to the festival) and many of the robes were woven in the Rio Grande style indigenous to this region. At some point (I’m hoping for the fall) I would like to take a road trip to Todalena to view their rug collection. I did try to find the trading post when I was there last year and got terribly lost on the reservation. Thou a beautiful ride thru Diné (Navajo) country, my passengers kept falling asleep and  were not up for the adventure.

Miscellaneous weaving in progress in #6 Dispenza (Storage Room) in La Placita

Anyway, most of the colcha embroidery that I posted here was located in # 14 Sala de Fundadores (Founder’s Room) in La Placita. There were some newer and older pieces on exhibit, I did try to take pictures, but in the low light they did not come out as I had hoped.

Blurry, but still useful, were the few photographs I snapped of Eric Blinman’s presentation. This was also the biggest surprise, and most useful (for me) in learning about the origins of specific fibers.

a very blurry photo of eric blinman scraping yucca leaves to reveal the fiber strands inside

Eric Blinman is the Director of the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies. He did a presentation called: Before There Was Wool There Was Yucca…. Or, It’s More Than Just A Nice Shampoo. You gotta laugh! He had a great sense of humor! For those of you who may not know, the roots of the yucca plant make a great natural shampoo.

He went on to explain with slides that textiles/weavings were often made made solely with plant fibers and not wool. Clothing, blankets, sandals, etc, were made by friends or relatives, and were made with beauty. These items had meaning on many levels (something we don’t do very often now).

Yucca is at the top of list for fiber material in the southwest. Not only were the roots used for shampoo, the flowers and pods were a food source.

He made a very interesting point, while we were all oooohing and ahhhhing at the beauty of the items and how they were made, that before we were genetically the modern humans we are now, we would have undoubtedly learned this skill, it was part of every day survival. Interesting.

Other interesting facts: Yucca almost was the choice of fiber for military ropes, but hemp won out, being just a tad bit stronger, but mostly hemp can be cultivated practically anywhere as yucca can not. Yucca ropes were the foundation for rabbit and turkey feather blankets, turkey feathers being the cadillac of blankets for its heat retention. Pueblo people used to keep wild flocks of turkeys for this purpose.

singles plied into a 2 ply rope

I listened very carefully on how to process the yucca leaves (they needed to be “cooked” for 2 days) and then used immediately (or frozen – he does this so he can demonstrate – apparently they rot quickly and smell horrible). The outer tough skin is stripped away and the fibers are revealed. He then pre-drafted out the wet fibers, and put twist into two strands with his hand on his leg. He released the singles and they plied back onto themselves.

All I can say is, awesome!

I am going to try it as soon as I have a chance to go foraging for yucca (I see it in my neighbor’s yard, maybe I’ll ask for some leaves) and I will let you know how it goes.

Anyway, there were about a 100 other interesting facts from an archeology point of view. If he lectures next year, I will go back to ask more questions. I did ask him about the turkeys. Unfortunately, turkeys are pretty non-existent out here (unlike like the over abundance we had in the northeast).

I have been using some of my turkey feather stash for some completely different non-weaving related projects that will be in another post.

close up of colcha embroidery on a pair of leather chaps

Then I moved onto listen to a lecture by Nancy C. Benson, author of New Mexico Colcha Club: Spanish Colonial Embroidery & The Women Who Saved It. It was extremely interesting to learn about Spanish Colonial life here in New Mexico and how valuable items with colcha embroidery were worth.

Lastly, I got a snack of green chiles and freshly made bread, and trotted off to the vendor booths to visit Weaving Southwest. Their skeins of weaving yarn are to die for!

Just a few more non-wool-related pictures!

kettle - i think it's located somewhere around the blacksmith's

window - La Escuela de Raton (Raton Schoolhouse)

La Escuela de Raton (Raton Schoolhouse)

#41 La Herreria Manuel Apodaca (Manuel Apodaca Blacksmith Shop)

#41 La Herreria Manuel Apodaca (Manuel Apodaca Blacksmith Shop)

Despensa (Storage Room)

There was one area of El Rancho de las Golondrinas that I never seem to make it to for various reasons (usually my son, or the heat, or we were just to darn tired), and it’s not far by any means, but it is difficult to walk with some of our family members. Finding out that we could hitch a ride on the way back, we risked venturing there with my son and mom-in-law in tow.

Taller de Cuero (Leathering Working Shop 1 of 3)

Let me back-track a bit……. a few weeks back, I dreamed  the idea that it would be wonderful to go to the Spring Festival and have a picnic lunch. Until now, our time limit on doing anything with our son was about 1 hour. Determined to try, I packed blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, brie cheese, crackers, and left over stir-fry for our picnic, invited my mom-in-law, and set off to the ranch.

Talleur de Cuero (Leatherworking Shop 2 of 3)

And fate would have it, everyone did wonderfully. The heat (it was threatening to be 100+) was tolerable, and we all got to wander around the main village. Wyatt made a tortilla! We had our picnic, Wyatt actually sat without taking off every minute, and ate! It was amazing.

wagon

We watched demos on arrow making, leather working, sheep shearing (the man was a pro – using hand held shears!), samples homemade biscochitos  (New Mexico’s state cookie) and I snagged their recipe!

leather chaps

Everything went so great, we walked to the village section, quickly looked around, snapped some pictures, then headed back as the temperature was creeping up.

cooking vessel at the sierra village

Casa de la Abuelita (Grandmother's House) -This room was filled with the most amazing scent of freshly put up herbs to dry

El Molino Grande de Sapello

There were many things I did not take pictures of, but then, I am returning there in 2+ weeks for their Dances With Wool Festival. I know I sound like a broken record, but I love it there and I could go every weekend ( but my son would not like that )!

Oh, I found 2 posts about the ranch that I did last year, I know I did more in 2005/2006 but I am wondering if when I transferred from blogger to wordpress…. oh well. Click the links below if you so desire!

Fiber at El Rancho de las Golondrinas – 2009

Colcha Embroidery of New Mexico – 2009

just lovely..........

During the Festival Days and certain weekends at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, one of the most enjoyable parts is being treated to dancing. The music is wonderful, and the dress/costumes are beautiful.

lovely smiles........

got to love the bloomers.............

Althou I did not get pictures this time, the little girls who dance are just precious too!

twirling skirts............

the stage and the dancers............

More to come!

making tortillas

We’ve been waiting for the first official festival at El Rancho de las Golondrinas. This  weekend is their Children’s/Spring Festival (despite 100 degree weather looming) we packed up the car and headed north. Tomorrow and Monday I will post a few more pictures, but I had to post these pictures of Wyatt.

There were children’s activities about, but the only one Wyatt was interested in was the tortilla making.

rolling tortilla all by himself!

Wyatt is a tortilla maker at heart, helping me whenever we are at home. We rolled out the flour tortilla, and then placed it on fire (I didn’t get a good picture – actually Dave took these pictures!) and cooked it to perfection.

Then we slathered it in butter, and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar and Wyatt inhaled it in about 1 minute.

wyatt still won't hold anything if it is too warm to touch, but that didn't stop him from eating it!

More pictures to come, it is absolutely in my top list of places to go.

So this season, I actually decided to watch it. It was pretty clear from the very beginning who the winner will be, as she is in a singing group and has dance experience.

Monday night’s episode was the first one that blew me away. The woman (Nicole) and her partner did a Paso Doble that was out of this world! Their challenge was to make it a 1950’s style Paso Doble, which sounds totally weird, but they actually pulled it off.

Can’t believe I’m putting on my blog, it was really good!

FYI – Her aunt was in the audience last week (I think it was last week) and she also happens to have DS!

My allergies kicked in severely starting in February. And everyone in my household was sick too. We all took turns, and it is a real bummer, because when one of us is down, the other has to pick up the slack. We were exhausted. I did go to Urgent Care, but as I thought, the doctor told me I had a virus. The fact that I went to Urgent Care shows you just how lousy I was feeling, I will do almost anything to wiggle out of going to see the doctor.

Poor Wyatt was in Urgent Care 3 times. Mostly, it is the complications associated with his asthma, and we actually finally used the oxygen machine that we have. The third visit we finally flat out asked for antibiotics. After 6 years, I know my son, and althou we have really  been trying to let his cold/virus issues work themselves out, after 14 days of being ill, and 2 weeks of missed school, I don’t feel I’m pushing it by asking for antibiotics.

I think part of the reason Dave and I got so run down is staying up with Wyatt thru the night, taking turns sleeping in the recliner with him, with albuterol and oxygen, worrying about his breathing, and then his eating and fluid intake (who wants to eat while feeling lousy) all become major concerns. He was sneezing out so much junk we just switch to washcloths instead of kleenex.

On top of all this, we also care for my in-laws, who both have dementia. I have held back writing about this too, because I don’t want to invade their privacy, but at the same time, it has been excruciatingly difficult. Honestly, it is driving me crazy. It’s horrible. It’s worse than having all the stuff that comes with a child with disabilities. It makes us super cranky and tired, and it also makes my in-laws feel bad too – that is when they are having a good day. The repetitiveness of our day is just tiring. The arguing, the explaining, editing, tantrums, etc – are starting to take their toll.

So things started to improve just when our friends from Colorado arrived. We had a great time, and I wish they could have stayed longer. We got to play with Miss Molly, it was real nice having a dog around, Wyatt loved it.

Then we all got sick again, what we thought was allergies. Well, it starts off as allergies….

Then we bounced back just in time for my mom to visit. It was great having my mom around. We got a break from bathroom duties – Wyatt just loved doing potty time with Grandma. In fact, he asks for her still!

Mom and I got to do alot of things – we went to Gathering of Nations Powwow – something I seem to miss doing each year. This year they had it at the stadium because The Pit is under renovations.

We went to Santa Fe for Mom to do some sight seeing, and by chance in Albuquerque we happened onto and Earth Day Festival. We got to sample alot of local foods and goods, and in many ways it reminded of the town I grew up in. Earth Day has changed in so many ways. It used to be a sort of a hippies only thing, but now with the Green movement, it has FINALLY become an everyone thing. It’s about time!

While at the Earth Day Fest, I met a really cool woman named Morning Star from Australia. Long story short, I ended up taking a class with her. She is an incredible leather worker, and makes beautiful ceremonial items. I have now learned some things that I can utilize after years of toting around my leather hides!

Mom unfortunately returned to Florida, and well, you guessed it, I got really, really sick with a cold and allergies. I don’t think I every really got well. The allergies this year in ABQ have been horrendous, and after 2 more weeks of barely able to function, I made my last visit to Dr. for antibiotics. Can I tell you I feel a 100% better?! I think I should have paid more attention to myself earlier on, and suffering for three months.

So, remember when I said I had a goal of making 12 pairs or so of socks this year? I must have been hallucinating when I came up with that number. I have finished 3 pairs. Now with Spring, Summer, and Fall, there are way too many outdoor activities that we want to go to, I think I can realistically make 3 more pair of socks by year’s end.

The past 3 months I have barely done any crafts (which also makes me cranky). I closed out most of my facebook page and barely blogged ( losing my advertising privileges w/ BlogHer – which was fine, my choice, I could have just blogged about any ole thing, but I couldn’t hold my head up long enough to concentrate on a computer screen).

We also had a few bumps at school, mostly communication stuff, and thankfully it all got straightened out. I do plan on possibly blogging about strategies on how to ask effective questions that are  not emotionally based (we as parents have a had time separating that – well, I do) and that are fact based. This has helped me tremendously.

Oh, and yup, Wyatt has now what we think is Alopecia Totalis. And most likely, his hair will not grow back. I held it in until I got out to the parking lot, but once I was in the car, I bawled all the way home. There is no specific reason for why, but I’ve just got to let it go, or I will cry some more.

the "i swear i didn't know i was doing anything wrong" look

We are now happily looking ahead! Today Wyatt has an assembly with Special Olympics where they will be presenting to the school what they have learned. Opening Ceremonies are 2 weeks away, and I have been selected to give a short speech to the committee about how the Young Athletes Pilot Program has affected our lives! We have a zoo field trip at the end of the week, and the first week in June El Rancho De Las Golondrinas is finally open! We will be going for their Children’s/Spring Festival.

Hopefully, I will be back to blogging now!

miss molly's foxy ears - photo taken by aletta eagle

miss molly aka petite-molly

Miss Molly is visiting with her parents. She had to endure a very long car ride from Colorado thru a blizzard, but she she made it and is very happy!

miss molly

miss molly

miss molly

miss molly

old town albuquerque

old town - outdoor art

my favorite - i must weave or knit a shawl like this