Summer heat.  You have to love it.  And if you don’t, choices boil down to coping or changing hemispheres regularly.  Here’s survival techniques picked up during my years in Texas, Tunisia and Italy.
Schedule: Follow a Mediterranean rhythm; schedule your most strenuous activities and outdoor time in the early morning and late afternoon.  (Who would have [...]

Musing on the difference between needing caffeine or needing the coffee break itself, it occurs to me once again the importance of savouring the moment.
Learned about a very interesting U.S. lacemaking boom in  The Laces of Ipswich: The Art and Economics of an Early American Industry, 1750-1840
Anyone out there on Goodreads?  I’d love to see [...]

Sunday morning.  Good for sleeping in, right?  Waking refreshed and renewed.  Not me.  Not this Sunday.
Following the volcanic ash cloud and airport closures for more than a week, the final decision was made to cancel the 2010 Tuscan Textiles trip on Wednesday.  A decision not made lightly, as I know everyone in our small group [...]

It’s another rainy March Monday and I’m ready to be taken away….

I’m watching people while eating gelato along the “passeggiata.”  The afternoon sun is slowly giving way to the evening breezes that make the evenings so pleasant in the Castelli Romani.
From September 6 to 16, our Knit Romana will call Frascati home.  ”Capital” of the [...]

One of the great things about sending out the last newsletter was that I heard from many Tactile Travelers.
It was great to hear about and see photos of their latest projects.  Everyone was quick to also mention their list of unfinished projects…. ones started on the trip, fabric and yarn bought and not sewn up. [...]

Nicky Epstein shares her design inspiration for the 2009 book, “Knitting in Tuscany.”  What a design powerhouse!  She talks about her new releases, as well as Mary’s challenge to knit everything in “Knitting on top of the world.”  I am going crazy looking through these books. Listen to the podcast HERE

At the last Greater Boston Knitting Guild meeting, Adrienne Sloane shared a picture of this:
The 65 meter hand knitted “toilet paper pink” rabbit was created by the Austrian artist’s collective Gelitin.  It took five years to construct the rabbit, which was installed in September 2005.  Stuffed with hay and oozing knitted organs (the rabbit is dead and [...]

Introspective and calm moments characterized American Thanksgiving at our house last week.   Grey skies traveled with me on my long walk in a nearby nature preserve.  Grey helped me see beautiful tree funghi and lichens.  Grey was the perfect backdrop to highlight creams, light greens and orange growth along tree trunks, branches and granite. [...]

“And what will you do with that?”
Buying vegetables has never been the same since I left the Castelli Romani.  ”Madame Bulgari” as a friend fondly called her, was always curious about my purchases.  Her stand near the flower market was open late and even on Sunday mornings.  The produce was seasonal, fresh and expensive.  Thus, [...]

Incredible quantities of fiber fun spun through my world in the last six weeks.  While crud can sometimes clog up life, don’t forget:  the world is full of amazing places.  Passion, action and settings make marvelous moments.

In many cases, I just showed up with a bunch of other people ready to enjoy.  Tactile Travel groups [...]