Weekend whirlwind
May. 22nd, 2024 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeSaturday morning, I got up nice and early and headed to the train station. NYC bound! I went to see this exhibit on Andean weaving and to see my sister. I got to NYC around 10, thoroughly enjoying my train ride. I spindle spun cotton the whole way and it was just lovely. I was also on the river side and got to enjoy the view.
I got to the city and did a little walk down to a bakery that I've gotten delicious south american breads from (gluten free!) and nommed them while I waited for my sister. My train was early and she was running a little late, but I had bread so I was happy.
After she got there, we took the subway up to the Met. The security people were unimpressed by me bringing my travel bag with me, but they looked through it and begrudgingly let me through. They didn't like my spindle and almost took it away but thankfully they didn't. Coat check took our bags and we went looking for the exhibit. It was buried in the back of the contemporary art rooms, actually relatively difficult to find.
The Andean textiles were INCREDIBLE. They were so beautifully made, the yarn was so beautifully spun and fine, the weaving was so precise and so well done. It was amazing. Here's a photo of one, where the yarns and weaving combined for 300 picks per inch. I didn't take a picture of the plackard, but I think it was from 1200 or so.
A lot of the textiles were from camelid, llamas and alpacas, which surprised me. I was expecting more cotton and there was some, but a ton of camelid fibers. Some of the textiles were from 100 BCE and they were incredibly vibrant in color and in pretty good shape. I had a little beef with some of the interpretations of the textiles with some claiming to be weft faced, when it didn't make sense with the "warp" used, but maybe actual experts looked at them and me looking through the glass wasn't quite enough. Most of the textiles were singles, of fineness that I could manage but would take a long time to spin. There was one scarf or headwrap that used two ply yarns. Many of the textiles were double woven, so two sets of warp threads that are woven together or up through. Very cool.
The modern weaving I was a little less impressed with. I had gotten the impression that it was contemporary Andean weavers. It was not. It was three American and one Columbian artists who worked together and were "inspired" by Andean textiles. And some of them were relatively close, but others really had no connection other than being weaving. They were much less interesting, definitely firmly in the art category. Some were beautifully woven but I couldn't see as much of the connection between the ancient textiles and the contemporary ones as the curator probably thought.
After that, we wandered over to this exhibit which was very cool and interesting. It was really neat to see all the beautiful pieces in it and the viewing was cool because there was little plexiglass openings in the walls to see different objects from different angles. I wish the text had been a better contrast to the wall color. And it was a pass through room to another area, but the isles were a little narrow, so people were squeezing by as we tried to see the exhibit which was a little annoying. Well worth it though.
Then we went to the Pueblo Pottery exhibit which was amazing! Not only was the pottery beautiful but it had been curated by members of the community and most of them had included a little paragraph on why they had chosen the pottery to be exhibited and it was just a series of beautiful paragraphs about connection to family, to community and to the people of the past who were so close that you could hold the same objects they did. Really, really well done.
After that, we went back to Z's place in Brooklyn because both of our feet hurt and we were tired. We stopped at a gluten free bakery and got more snacks because we were hungry. It was well into the afternoon by the time we got to Z's place. We ordered delivery Indian food relatively early in the evening, ate delicious delicious food. I DJ'd some music on the tv which was a delightful bit of fun and then we went to bed. Z had stuff to do before her thing on Sunday, so was printing and doing some things.
I slept on the couch which I left as a couch, much more comfortable than putting the back down and sleeping on a lump. I slept right through the night and had cake for breakfast. Z is a late riser, so I read a book (Martha Well's first book of the Fall of Ill-Rien WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER, I mean, my friend lent me the books and said they good but aaaaahhhh, the wizards have guns, come on!) and spun for a bit.
Z had a sound job that afternoon and I was tired, so we just went and got second breakfast (for me) when she got up at 10 ish and I sat around the apartment, while she got her audio equipment around. She called an uber to take us back to (north? middle? I don't know how this works) Manhatten (reasoning is that if something happens on the subway with sound equipment, then the whole shoot is delayed and even more money is wasted than the relatively expensive ride). We got dropped off, I hugged her and headed for the subway, she went off to her job.
I took the A train which was an express and someone was busking ON THE SUBWAY CAR which was enraging. I was also hot, sweaty and hungry again by that point, so I was very irritated. But they got off after one stop and the train only had a few more to go. I got to Penn Station, found a food place with fast gluten free option (Fresh and Co) and got some turkey chili which was solidly tasty, if put over a bed of kale which I didn't like much. But I sat on the stairs at Moynihan and cooled off, ate my food, became less full of rage at the world.
Hopped on my train and had a nice time spinning on the way home, finished all of the fiber I had brought. Got home a little after 8 and went straight to bed.
Monday I immediately had to drive to C's for work, spent the day spreading hay in a high tunnel on shallot bulbs. It was 85F, humid and I got ice cream on the way home. It's hot hot this week, going to hit 90F today. I'm working from home today, which is nice. I recently got access to a fleet car but found out on Monday that the AC in the car doesn't work, so I got it scheduled for maintenance next week, so I'm trying to get all my solo work done in the early mornings before it gets hot. I installed the AC in my bedroom window the other day, but haven't needed it a ton, I've been opening the house at night and closing it up in the morning. Between the north facing slope and the tree cover, the house will stay pretty cool.
I'm in the field again tomorrow, but it's only supposed to be 85F and I'm shearing Friday. I was supposed to have former-roommate J come in for a visit but she forgot to buy train tickets and given the holiday weekend, they're now all sold out. Probably for the best given how tired I'll be. I'm just going to hang out with B at some point and do some house work.
I got to the city and did a little walk down to a bakery that I've gotten delicious south american breads from (gluten free!) and nommed them while I waited for my sister. My train was early and she was running a little late, but I had bread so I was happy.
After she got there, we took the subway up to the Met. The security people were unimpressed by me bringing my travel bag with me, but they looked through it and begrudgingly let me through. They didn't like my spindle and almost took it away but thankfully they didn't. Coat check took our bags and we went looking for the exhibit. It was buried in the back of the contemporary art rooms, actually relatively difficult to find.
The Andean textiles were INCREDIBLE. They were so beautifully made, the yarn was so beautifully spun and fine, the weaving was so precise and so well done. It was amazing. Here's a photo of one, where the yarns and weaving combined for 300 picks per inch. I didn't take a picture of the plackard, but I think it was from 1200 or so.
A lot of the textiles were from camelid, llamas and alpacas, which surprised me. I was expecting more cotton and there was some, but a ton of camelid fibers. Some of the textiles were from 100 BCE and they were incredibly vibrant in color and in pretty good shape. I had a little beef with some of the interpretations of the textiles with some claiming to be weft faced, when it didn't make sense with the "warp" used, but maybe actual experts looked at them and me looking through the glass wasn't quite enough. Most of the textiles were singles, of fineness that I could manage but would take a long time to spin. There was one scarf or headwrap that used two ply yarns. Many of the textiles were double woven, so two sets of warp threads that are woven together or up through. Very cool.
The modern weaving I was a little less impressed with. I had gotten the impression that it was contemporary Andean weavers. It was not. It was three American and one Columbian artists who worked together and were "inspired" by Andean textiles. And some of them were relatively close, but others really had no connection other than being weaving. They were much less interesting, definitely firmly in the art category. Some were beautifully woven but I couldn't see as much of the connection between the ancient textiles and the contemporary ones as the curator probably thought.
After that, we wandered over to this exhibit which was very cool and interesting. It was really neat to see all the beautiful pieces in it and the viewing was cool because there was little plexiglass openings in the walls to see different objects from different angles. I wish the text had been a better contrast to the wall color. And it was a pass through room to another area, but the isles were a little narrow, so people were squeezing by as we tried to see the exhibit which was a little annoying. Well worth it though.
Then we went to the Pueblo Pottery exhibit which was amazing! Not only was the pottery beautiful but it had been curated by members of the community and most of them had included a little paragraph on why they had chosen the pottery to be exhibited and it was just a series of beautiful paragraphs about connection to family, to community and to the people of the past who were so close that you could hold the same objects they did. Really, really well done.
After that, we went back to Z's place in Brooklyn because both of our feet hurt and we were tired. We stopped at a gluten free bakery and got more snacks because we were hungry. It was well into the afternoon by the time we got to Z's place. We ordered delivery Indian food relatively early in the evening, ate delicious delicious food. I DJ'd some music on the tv which was a delightful bit of fun and then we went to bed. Z had stuff to do before her thing on Sunday, so was printing and doing some things.
I slept on the couch which I left as a couch, much more comfortable than putting the back down and sleeping on a lump. I slept right through the night and had cake for breakfast. Z is a late riser, so I read a book (Martha Well's first book of the Fall of Ill-Rien WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER, I mean, my friend lent me the books and said they good but aaaaahhhh, the wizards have guns, come on!) and spun for a bit.
Z had a sound job that afternoon and I was tired, so we just went and got second breakfast (for me) when she got up at 10 ish and I sat around the apartment, while she got her audio equipment around. She called an uber to take us back to (north? middle? I don't know how this works) Manhatten (reasoning is that if something happens on the subway with sound equipment, then the whole shoot is delayed and even more money is wasted than the relatively expensive ride). We got dropped off, I hugged her and headed for the subway, she went off to her job.
I took the A train which was an express and someone was busking ON THE SUBWAY CAR which was enraging. I was also hot, sweaty and hungry again by that point, so I was very irritated. But they got off after one stop and the train only had a few more to go. I got to Penn Station, found a food place with fast gluten free option (Fresh and Co) and got some turkey chili which was solidly tasty, if put over a bed of kale which I didn't like much. But I sat on the stairs at Moynihan and cooled off, ate my food, became less full of rage at the world.
Hopped on my train and had a nice time spinning on the way home, finished all of the fiber I had brought. Got home a little after 8 and went straight to bed.
Monday I immediately had to drive to C's for work, spent the day spreading hay in a high tunnel on shallot bulbs. It was 85F, humid and I got ice cream on the way home. It's hot hot this week, going to hit 90F today. I'm working from home today, which is nice. I recently got access to a fleet car but found out on Monday that the AC in the car doesn't work, so I got it scheduled for maintenance next week, so I'm trying to get all my solo work done in the early mornings before it gets hot. I installed the AC in my bedroom window the other day, but haven't needed it a ton, I've been opening the house at night and closing it up in the morning. Between the north facing slope and the tree cover, the house will stay pretty cool.
I'm in the field again tomorrow, but it's only supposed to be 85F and I'm shearing Friday. I was supposed to have former-roommate J come in for a visit but she forgot to buy train tickets and given the holiday weekend, they're now all sold out. Probably for the best given how tired I'll be. I'm just going to hang out with B at some point and do some house work.
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Date: 2024-05-22 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-05-22 02:36 pm (UTC)Hope the week goes well.
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Date: 2024-05-22 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-22 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-23 03:45 pm (UTC)