chicken update

The ladies are growing so fast, it’s amazing! By the way, there’s a meeting in Roslindale tonight regarding Boston’s rules on keeping chickens, and the upcoming hearing to change the zoning. The hearing is at City Hall on Tuesday July 12th at 9:30. Come on down and help make chickens legal!

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everything must go :(

I finally decided to put up the signs and start my going out of business sale this weekend. I’ve been waiting to hear a definite answer, but hopefully there’s going to be an artist co-op opening in the space in the next month or two. I had been trying to find someone to take over the store, to make parting less sad. I think the co-op will be a great addition to the neighborhood. She wants to carry some of the same things I have now (and suggestions from customers are more than welcome!), and keep a similar look. So the tree branches and old door dressing room could stay – yay! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they go ahead with it.

As for me, it’s westward bound! The snow was fun (for a while), but I miss California. Plus tenants are moving out, a sewer line needs replaced, and I’ve found that trying to be a landlord from across the country is… trying.

“But what about the chickens???” people have been saying. While I’ve got half a mind to take one or two with me, they will be staying with the guy who lured me out here. One pecked me in the eye this morning, which is making the upcoming goodbye a little easier.

chicken craze

Last week I got a long awaited shipment of six baby chicks. I’ve been wanting to raise chickens for years, and I’m finally trying it. There’s a lot of renegade chicken-keepers around Roslindale. While it’s supposedly legal in Boston, you need to get a permit, and rumor has it (via Boston Globe) that the permit is so complicated that no one has actually been able to get one.

I had a little photo shoot this morning with some of them (when they get bigger, I’ll try costumes, wigs and wind machines like the dads on Modern Family). Shown here is Frieda (now black, but she’s a Barred Plymouth Rock and will have stripes),  Grace (a speckled “Easter egger”) and Brittany ( a Buff Orpington). 

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Substation on Roslindale square

Finally!! I always wondered what was inside of this amazing building and why it was all boarded up. Roslindale Main Street organized tours this past weekend and it was pretty amazing.

What I think would be great here would be an indoor market, extension of the farmers market open all year round. And the basement would make a really cool antique market. Other talk is a movie theater or performing arts space.

Greek easter egg dye bought at the roslindale fish market

Excuse the blurry phone photo – there’s hardly any daylight today! But here’s one of the cool things (besides great fish and produce) you can get at the Roslindale Fish Market. All the way from Greece for only $1!

The Manly Art of Knitting

I’ve been reading a great book by Kyoko Mori called “Yarn”. It is a memoir interspersed with fact and history about knitting, she “examines a particular subject to understand human nature”.

In a later chapter she writes about men in the knitting world, the most famous of which is Kaffe Fassett. He studied painting here in Boston at the MFA, and later discovered knitting and started “painting with wool”. I have a beautiful rug he designed for sale in the store, pictured below. 

But what really charmed me was the 1972 book by Dave Fougner pictured at left, featuring a cowboy knitting on a horse. From the back cover: “Only a man would knit a hammock with shovel handles for needles and manila rope for yarn.”

 

Several men have been asking about the knitting classes at the store – I really hope they follow through.

 

Harvard Natural History Museum

“The winter that wouldn’t end” hasn’t been too good for business, I must say. So I’ve cut down the days the store is open for the time being – Thursday through Sunday. I’ve been using those extra days off to create some new silk screen designs, work on some art projects and take some field trips.

Yesterday I went to the Harvard Natural History Museum (free to Boston residents on Wednesdays from 3-5pm). Here’s some photos I took…. 

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30% off EVERYTHING Earth Hour sale

This Saturday the 26th is Earth Hour, when around the globe people will turn their lights out for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Last year a record 128 countries joined in (the Golden Gate Bridge and Rome’s colosseum stood in darkness), celebrating and contemplating this earth we all have in common.

We’ll be celebrating here at Regeneration by candlelight with wine, cheese and 30% off everything in the store between 8:30 and 9:30pm. Bring your flashlight!

More info on Earth Hour: http://www.earthhour.org

Roslindale train show

I finally got to go to the train show today – they’re only open twice a year, and it’s pretty amazing. It’s a group of train lovers that have made a wonderland on a space up above some of the shops off the square over the past 30 years.

I took a lot of photos -

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I can’t stop touching this alpaca

Another big shipment of yarn came in today, and I swear it feels amazing. I have it all over the counter and keep stopping to squeeze it all day. But this alpaca is doubly feel-good… it comes from Frog Tree, a small non-profit company that imports eco-friendly, fair trade yarns from Peru and Bolivia. Chet and Tricia started this company after they retired s a tool for supporting educational and environmental projects throughout the world. And they seem like really great folks.

Besides the alpaca, I also got their “picoboo”, a pima cotton bamboo blend and a pima cotton and silk blend. Great substitutes for those poor souls who are allergic to wool. I’m  s l o wly adding the yarns to the online store here. My favorite is #37, a brilliant blue which I’ve decided to call lapis.

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