Author: -N-

Yarns of the City – 27 August 2009

Village Spinning & Weaving

For the fiberholic on a road trip through the central coast area of California – north of Santa Barbara – the Village Spinning and Weaving shop is a must-do. This summer, John and Marsha, the proprietors, celebrated their eighteenth anniversary in the same place by being able to more than double the size of their store by expanding into the retail area next door. When Josh and I visited them in June, they had just broken through the connecting wall.

Some of our closest friends, Stephanie and Jay, were living in Solvang at the time Village Spinning opened. Stephanie is a full-time weaver, and I primarily a spinner/knitter – of course this was heaven for us! And Solvang is always good for a lazy day or a short trip if you live nearby, or need cookies or chocolate or cutlery, or you are on your way to the wine country. (I recommend the large cookie boxes at Mortensen’s Bakery, Ingeborg’s Chocolate, and Nordic Knives, if you need to satisfy some other vices.)

Anyhow!

As you walk in the main door – which will probably still be the only entrance to this fiber wonderland – you enter the current store, filled with yarn, fiber, weaving supplies, looms, spinning wheels, roving, bats, books, dyeing supplies, knitting needles, and on and on. You want it, they probably have it. (Notice, I did not say “need“!)

Getting extra space at Village Spinning & Weaving will benefit everyone. The new space has a lot of lighting, both natural and installed. All this will allow better display of looms and spinning wheels, which is really important if you want to check out how an item looks, or feel how a wheel spins. There will be room for knitters. Some lucky group will get to sit around the fireplace, but the sunny windows are not a bad place to be either. As you can see below, there is a lot to look forward to – at least there was in June. I hope they are all moved in and ready to go!

The service you get at Village Spinning & Weaving is wonderful. And they have a lot of stuff – dangerous! This is what they say on their “About Us” page:

Solvang’s Village Spinning & Weaving Shop was started in 1992 by John Novak and Marsha Mullaney-Novak. This shop grew out of our desire to simplify our lives and provide the best possible service and products — something we find lacking in much of today’s world.

Whether you are looking for a new loom or some cochineal for dyeing or maybe a new tatting book, check here or give us a call.

We carry much more than we can possibly list here, so… we have several different print catalogs – you can download a pdf file from this website for many of them. As things change, sometimes too quickly, prices in our printed catalog may not always be completely up to date.

John and Marsha are very knowledgeable about the products they sell. Inventory includes so many books you think you have died and gone to heaven, wheels to test drive, looms both large and small. John takes a lot with him when he does shows such as the Black Sheep Festival, Stitches, or Convergence. Many of you may have met them at one of these events.

For those unfamiliar with Solvang, it is a small town off the 154 and 101, about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara. The Sant Ynez valley is a beautiful place, and as you come over San Marcos Pass into the valley on the 154, the view is breathtaking. This valley, toward Santa Ynez, is where the movie “Sideways” was filmed.

I’m looking forward to my next trip to Village Spinning & Weaving, to see how the expansion is going, to finger fibers, play with wheels, peruse books I have never seen. My pocketbook may suffer a bit, but it sure is worth it!

See you there, and tell ’em I sent ya!

Shozo Sato: Renaissance Man

Every now and again, someone in the public will catch your eye because of your interests.  Shozo Sato is one of those individuals who has come into my life over the years.  I have never met him, but as an individual, his range of accomplishments in traditional Japanese arts never ceases to intrigue me.

In 1965 he wrote a book about Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, and since then this book has been reprinted in various formats.  He is an accomplished calligrapher, and has written a book about sumi-e.  Cha no yu, the Japanese Tea Ceremony, is another of his accomplishments.  Most recently, he has brought the Kabuki theater to the U.S., and produced MacBeth, Medea in the Kabuki tradition; you may see more about this here at http://www.ket.org, and a review here.  He has also produced Othello at the University of Illinois.  I would love to see Shakespeare in Kabuki!

Shozo Sato is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois and currently teaches at Northwestern University, and at the Japan House, which is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and part of the College of Fine and Applied Arts.

In my opinion, Mr. Sato is a living treasure and an artist who enriches all of us through his creativity and dynamic sharing of his knowledge.

Moussaka

I’m currently reading The Bellini Card, by Jason Goodwin.  If you are not familiar with the series, I suggest you pick one up, especially if you enjoy cooking, foreign culture, and history. Our hero, Yashim, is in Venice in 1840. And, at one point, he makes Turkish Moussaka for a Venetian family – “lasagna without noodles.”

Having the house all to myself for the next three days, I thought I’d do a bit of baking. And since the moussaka sounded good, exotic, and filling, I did a bit of research and created my own:

Moussaka a la Turque

4 small Italian eggplants
1 1/2 large white onions
4-6 large cloves of garlic
1 lb. ground lamb
1/2 c. chopped Italian parsley
3 chopped medium-sized tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp. Chinese cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1-2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
2 eggs
2 c. goat milk yogurt
Aleppo pepper

Heat broiler.

Peel eggplants, slice about 1/2 inch thick. In large bowl of salted water, place peeled, sliced eggplants, and let soak for about 30 minutes (while you do some other things).

Chop onion and garlic together, very fine. Place in 10-12 inch frying pan, saute until golden in 3 T. olive oil. Add ground lamb, and continue to cook, stirring the lamb-onion-garlic mixture to brown the meat. When meat is browned, add parsley, tomatoes, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, and about 1/4 – 1/2 c. water. Continue to cook over medium heat to make a thick sauce.

While meat is cooking, mix together eggs, yogurt, and aleppo pepper. Let sit. Add pinch of salt if desired.

Drain eggplant slices, squeeze, and set out on paper towels, pat dry. Lightly grease cookie sheet, and in one layer, place sliced eggplant. Spray with oil, or lighly brush slices with oil. Broil until slices are lightly browned, about 5 mins. Turn over, coat with oil, and repeat. Remove from oven.

Drop oven to 375 degrees F.

In 9 x 9 glass pan, place ground meat mixture. Cover with eggplant slices. Pour yogurt-egg mixture on top. Clean up the kitchen, letting the yogurt-egg mixture settle over meat and eggplant.

Bake for 40 minutes, until top is nicely browned. Cool about 15 minutes. Serve with salad.