I’ve been away this week.
Away on the road.
Several roads actually, as that’s what it took to get to my niece’s wedding.
A wedding about eight hours away in the beautiful Willamette Valley.
A valley bathed by the moon where I slept in this charming wee hut.
A hut beside an enchanted garden.
A garden made for sipping coffee and drawing in the early solstice sun.1
Sun that illuminated everything.
Everything—yes— not least the wondrous wedding in a clearing in the woods.
Woods that made it all perfect and which set the right tone for the 35 year old dress I’d decided to wear.
A dress I’d made as a nuptial muslin.2
A substantial muslin (more substantial, in truth, than the cloth I ultimately wove).3
Substantial enough, at any rate, to be worthy of Carolyn Doe’s delicious embellishment4 —embellishment with leaves and frog and the ubiquitous green that helped me define who I was (or wanted to be at the time).5
Who I wanted to be and maybe in part became—at least in so far as the leaves and the yarn and the ever attentive heeler (back then the magnificent Scarface and now our own lovely Beryl).
Beloved Beryl who did not get to come on this trip—to both of our dismay.
A dismay that vanished (thank goodness), in the joy of reunion and the subsequent walk where we met a dog-hating yak.
A yak named Georgette with fierce dancing hooves—a thoroughly awesome creature.
Almost as awesome as the riveting wildlife in our own rampant garden.6
A garden right here with messy allure for plain, sweet, beguiling days.
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Other people’s gardens, all beautifully weeded before one arrives, are especially magical. Other people’s weddings too—because of course that weekend was not quite so languid for my amazing in-laws who made it all happen (thanks dearies :-)
I needed the muslin to test the pattern for fit and so I’d know how much fabric to weave (and yarn to order) for the actual wedding dress.
The final gauzy wedding dress was woven with “crammed silk” stripes: Silk and Merino for the warp, Merino for the weft. I no longer remember the sett or the sizes of silk and wool (it was all mill spun), though highly recommend the weave structure. Our wedding was in Vermont in July and one might not think wool would be appropriate, but the cloth was deliciously open, airy and comfortable—so translucent that even with all the pleats I needed to wear a slip and the bodice of the dress and Dan’s vest were both necessarily lined.
Carolyn Doe’s attentive eye shows up in whatever media she puts her hands to: oils, watercolors, knitting, spinning, nature printing, mixed media, or the batik on silk that remains central to her practice.
Carolyn was the teaching assistant in my very first weaving class (the wedding dress fabric was my fifth or sixth project that semester), and her work has never ceased to delight and amaze me.
Not that Georgette is wild. She is apparently thoroughly charming and an absolute dear with everyone except those of the canine persuasion.
It's a beautiful dress and you still fit in it! Bravo.
That lettuce .... as see-through as the muslin. A splendid post, thank you!