My Blanket and Scarf making class is a popular one that has been enjoyed by a full house on a few occasions. This time I am changing up the payment structure in the hope of appealing to the more frugal among us.
Pay what you can to attend this workshop. It runs three days and is open to students for any one of the three days, any two days or for those with time on their hands, you can stay for all three days. Tuition begins at $50 per day and is ‘Pay What You Can’. The use of all tools is free. Organic vegan lunch will be served and costs $10. Materials will be affordably priced and available for purchase to all workshop attendees. Feel free to bring your own material (machine washed and dried wool sweaters and hand sewing yarn) if you would like.
Hours are from 11-5 each day. Pre-Registration and a $50 deposit are a must. Classes are limited to 10 students. )

It has been a long blog silence. For those of you who know me, you know that my husband and kids have been staying in my childhood home, in Stockbridge, MA since shortly before Thanksgiving when my dear friend and father got really sick with cancer. Sadly . . . . or beautifully, he passed over to the next plane of consciousness on January 22 at home with love all around. He had chosen to be home while he ailed. We filled his days with music, company, poetry, good food and lots of love. The whole process was more than magical to experience. I would not trade the time we spent together for anything! While sadness adds weight to my heart in fleeting moments of the day, mostly I feel blessed to have had my dad as a dad. He did a great job of parenting through all the stages of my life. We had adventures, got up to mischief and experienced a bond and connection held by few it seems.
Chris, the kids, and I are preparing to head home to Pittsfield this weekend. It is only 12 miles away and I am excited to get back into a routine of walking for transportation and healthy eating.
Stay tuned for more frequent entries here and thank you for all the prayers, cards, kind words, and heartfelt hugs through what could have been a terrible transition but is actually a graceful passing without much suffering. The blessings are notable in my everyday. The universe provides.

I am not crazy about new year’s celebrations but do like the idea of a fresh start and evaluation of what direction to choose for the coming year. Retro/intro/inspection leads me to focus on my family first and secondly continue my work with Alchemy Initiative, Teaching and Making. The fact that my dad is very sick helped me clarify my focus and see this as the beginning of a journey into successful handling of inevitable changes. May I see the inevitable changes with a clear focus and positive acceptance that flows over to the changes I choose, and guide me to choose well.

So far I like the sweatshirts.

Festivities begin on Friday December 4th at 5pm when we open the doors, on both floors of the church, for the Handmade Holiday Festival Preview Party. It is a fundraiser so a $25 door charge supports Alchemy Initiative. Traveling minstrels are on deck for the whole weekend! There are really GOOD goody bags for the first 50 guests, taste treats provided by a handful of our best downtown eating establishments (and a few further flung – like The Dream Away Lodge). Merriment is a promise with mulled wine, hot cider, eggnog with or without a nice shot rum from of our ‘hometown’ Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Inc.

The festival continues on Saturday December 5th 10-6pm and Sunday 12-4. Admission $2
There are nearly 40 of us vendors hocking wares from fine jewelry, pottery, leather work, and lovely clothing to holiday cookies, trees and wreaths. Have lunch and take a horse drawn carriage ride!

Now is crunch time to get ready for the event. You should see the studio! A huge jumble of overflowing bins of sweaters, scraps flying. If it doesn’t get finished today it won’t be for sale at the event. Next week the studio will be tidied and cleaned from top to bottom

George Bona and I went to school together. Remember him as far back as third grade where he had spent a year before I got there and then became one of us the year I was there. Mrs. Angelini was our teacher. She ranked high in my favorites for years and the history she and I share will be a story for another day.

Since then George has spent time in and out of jail and has 10 months left before he gets his driver’s license back after a 10 year hiatus due to one or another illicit behavior pattern. In light of all his unsavory past and seemingly rough present there is something endearing about Georgie. He always asks about my parents and sends kind regards along. He is surely a folk hero of sorts.

I picked up George hitchhiking on Friday. He was chilled to the bone and heading to Stockbridge where I was going to pick my dad up for a doctor’s appointment. We cranked up the heat and chatted. My girls were with me and very intrigued with the conversation around the goings-ons with our mutual acquaintances. Surgery here, cancer there, this one does bad things so we don’t talk, etc. (His sister got my sister kicked out of a nursing home for smoking pot – another good story for another day.) As we drove, roofs were pointed out that had been repaired by George. Here are his hands to prove it. Real hard work, knocks, and a few other interesting stories have passed through these ones.

One of the things I have been doing to ‘walk my talk’ is just that – walking, instead of driving. My car did not warrant expensive repairs back around labor day and ever since I have been either riding my bicycle, walking, or taking the bus for transportation. My husband has a truck and we really don’t need two vehicles, they are expensive in so many ways!

Here is the billboard I pass on my way back from dropping off my girls at their babysitter’s farm. My life has been all about Handmade Holiday Festival preparations for more than a month. The Festival has grown and become a lot more organized this year. I hope you can come! December 4 is our fundraiser preview party from 5-8pm. $25 at door to support The Alchemy Initiative. Email me, or leave a comment here if you are interested in sponsorship opportunities – we will be eternally grateful for any amount of support.

The Handmade Holiday Festival continues on December 5 from 10-6pm and Sunday the 6 from 12-4. In addition to Christmas Trees, Wreaths, Roping, amazing baked goods, lunch, and our regions best and most interesting crafters, there will be horse drawn carriage rides from 12-4 on both Saturday and Sunday. Admission to the sale on the weekend is $2 – kids under full grown are free. Horse drawn carriage rides are $3 per person.

Please come visit!

Last month I taught a workshop at Kripalu, which I feel blessed to have near-by.  This was the view overlooking Lake Mahkeenac (we always called it The Stockbridge Bowl growing up but I prefer to use its native name – so much prettier!)  Living in this place is quite magical – surrounded by so much natural beauty.  Since I gave up my car I realize what a luxury it is to have time to spend outdoors in nature.  Most urban dwellers have to make a big effort to get off the pavement and onto soft ground.

Working here has many rewards too – while my work keeps me indoors most of the time, I love what I do and am excited with the consistently exuberant response to my workshops.  I have posted my 2010 workshop schedule on my site calendar.  To make it easier at a glance click here for the full year on a page.

Workshops are $150 per day, at the end of which, students have a completed product and the skill to make more!  Days begin at 11am and finish at 5pm and include the use of all tools and materials as well as a healthy lunch.

In addition to the scheduled workshops – held in my studio in Pittsfield, MA, I am available to come to you to teach.  For this my fee is $1500 per day plus travel expenses.  Your group can be up to 10 students and subject matter can be individualized for the setting and group.  Please email me to discuss your interests.

Gift Certificates are available for giving – you can buy them from my shop.

Since my book, The Sweater Chop Shop, was released in August, and all manner of crafty people have been inspired to make with sweaters I have been working on the next big thing.  As any of you who have been scouring your local thrift shops know, wool sweaters are not that easy to find.  While the studio here is still chock full of nearly 10,000lbs of wool, I am inspired to make with t-shirts.  Here is the FIRST shirt I made – The Dickies Theme will be appreciated most by my Kripalu workshop students.  We all got belly laughing about dickies and now here the theme chases us!  Funny thing is that I didn’t even dig deep into the pile to find the emblem – sitting right on top begging to be incorporated!

You can see this one and a few others of my brand new offerings along with the tried and true favs this weekend at Twist in Northampton.  Check this link for directions and hours.  Last year it was a bunch of fun – party atmosphere with a room full of mostly young talented creators.

Stacked wool scraps for flowers in preparation for a filling a big order for a Bar Mitzvah floral table arrangements.

My life has been even busier than usual for the last month or so – In order to prioritize things I will list them here.  Maybe this will help me move through the list effectively diminishing the sense of overwhelm I am feeling.

- Handmade Holiday Festival planning and preparations, 40 vendors (we have a few spaces left for our areas premium, most creative makers – spread the word.)  Christmas trees, cookies and outstanding chocolates to hoola hoops, jewelry, pottery, hand-screened calendars, recycled wool of my creation and lots more.

- Nudging (I feels more like pushing uphill today!) forward motion with our HUGE renovation of the church that houses my studio and Urban Farmhouse next door (former rectory).  Learn more at AlchemyInitiative.org

- Taught off site workshop at Kripalu Yoga Center, Lenox, MA – that was a PLEASURE!  A vacation while working, took me away from my routine (that I love) for four days.  I’d do it again in a heartbeat and have since been invited to teach in CA and NC!

- Marketing my newly released book The Sweater Chop Shop,  Book signing events planned for January in Vermont and Great Barrington MA.  Check my calendar for all the deets and come see me if you can!

- Making product to sell at three fabulous retail venues in the next three weeks – YIKES!  Thankfully I have the best of the best helping get this going on!  I’ll post pictures of our tight knit crew of mischief and recycled wool makers soon.

Here are the places I will be selling:

Live and Let’s Give this weekend at The Lichtenstein Center for The Arts, Pittsfield, MA

Twist Fair November 13 and 14 at The Northampton Center for The Arts

Handmade Holiday Festival – December 4, 5, and 6^th at Alchemy Initiative (our Church) Pittsfield, MA

- Cleaning out the studio and garage to continue the path toward less stuff, more space, better organization

- Parenting my three kids and being a good wife to my good hubs – that is really what I love the best!  I am absolutely BLESSED with a truly LOVING family all around.

- Living without a car – this decision helps me feel like I am part of the solution rather than the problem but it does mean that errands take a little longer and time is such a hot commodity for me.  Not hot enough to get a car however.

- Shipping calendars and running The Dolphin Studio with my sister as my parents pass the baton that is in Stockbridge, MA which is a 12 mile drive (if you have a car).

- Supporting my 81-year-old dad by taking him to his Doctors’ appointments as he deals with the spread of prostate cancer to his bones and beyond.  Wouldn’t be so hard if he wasn’t such a great friend.

- Trying to figure out where we can conjure up money to pay all the bills for this amazing property we own and the renovation underway

- Working on marketing my workshops better to fill them for 2010 – you can buy gift certificates for all your holiday gifts!  There is a post on this subject exclusively in the works.

- Moved screen printing shop into my studio in preparation for the 2011 Dolphin Studio Calendar production.

- Leading the forward motion of Alchemy Initiative with the best group of Initiators ever.  Being part of that group of five is empowering to us all.   It is a huge relief to be working on this giant project with partners in mischief – high-jinx guaranteed!

- Sitting on The Board of Directors at The Berkshire Coop Market and The Artscape Committee (that places public art in the city of Pitty)

So now I realize why I am feeling overwhelmed.

Not a lot of time for posting here – this process has been helpful though, so I think you will see more new entries soon.  If not you’ll understand why.

Storey Publishing sponsored my participation in the hands-on workshop held at the Williamstown Elementary School yesterday.  It was a great day, well planned with the focus around the international day of climate action.  We made the banner above, the number is significant – you can learn all about it at 350.org.  Many parents and children contributed to the LOVELY outcome.