Blog » November 2007

We're hurtling headlong towards winter up here in New Hampshire, and our thoughts turn to winter sports.  We went on a nice snowy hike yesterday, and came upon the (abandoned) Weeks State Park ski area.  It's totally awesome -- the kind of place you would go for an afternoon of easy skiing without breaking the bank (a near impossibility in this day and age -- even the half-day lift tickets in our area run $30+ per person).

It's a rope tow, as all of the municipal ski hills around here were.    There are no municipal ski hills left.  The Cochran Ski Area near Burlington, VT is the closest thing, and they had to finangle the IRS into letting them turn into a non-profit ski area to survive.  

I don't know about other rope tows (as all the other local ones have been taken down), but this one is a marvel of engineering ingenuity -- the gears are standard truck rims, and everything is mounted on old telephone poles (which also have lights on them -- for night skiing?).  

Everything is rusty, but not rusted -- I was able to pull the rope along through its paces for a foot or two.  There's still power running to poles, and the slopes themselves are in great condition.  There's even a huge parking area right at the base of the short trail up to the hill. This is exactly the kind of area that needs a patron.  Or, barring that, a group of steampunk makers who will sneak in at night and fix it up.  

Just think of it!  All of the wheels could be cleaned up and painted, the bottom of the hill could have a great warming hut with cider and nog and doughnuts, and everyone could warm up in front of a big fire!  I would totally figure out how to ski in Victorian garb if it meant that this perfect little hill could be used again.  

(As it is, Aaron and I have some kick-ass sledding trips planned.  I will hike all the way to the top if need be.)

Today, boys and girls, we are going to learn about the wonders of felting.  What's felting, you ask?  It involves mussing about with wool until it shrinks itself (nay, felts) into a tight and warm fabric*.  What does this have to do with webmeadow, you ask?  Wool keeps up warm here at webmeadow HQ, and felted wool keeps our toes especially warm.  Besides which, felting is awesome.  

* You may also remember felting from its starring role in the smash hit, "Oh my god, I put my favorite sweater in the wash and now it fits my cat".

When you want to make felt slippers, start with a nice pattern like this one from Fiber Trends. (Special note:  that was a really hard pattern to find on their website, even though it's one of the most popular!  What's up with that?  Fiber Trends, call me!  We can help your website!)  This pattern has great double-thick soles and knits up really quickly.  I made one whole slipper in just three episodes of Doctor Who.  

When you are done, your slipper will be HUGE.  Immense, really.  I was able to fit the whole thing on my head like a pope-hat.  But then you stick it inside a pillowcase, put it in the washer, and voila!  Because of the structure of knitted fabric, it shrinks way more length-wise than width-wise, and it ends up normal-slipper-sized (about a men's 9, in this case).  In shrinking, all of that wool gathers together into a super-dense fabric that is really warm and quite lovely. 

At webmeadow, this is how we keep our toes warm in the face of oncoming winter.  That, and thousands of cups of tea.  We have yet to resort to snuggling with the ducks for warmth (they don't really mind winter at all, except that their pond freezes over), but you never know.  Time will tell.