notable neighbors -- maureen lloyd nolan
by jennifer hetrick
gilbertsville resident maureen lloyd nolan, as a spinner of wool, bottler of garden inspired vinegars, and appreciator of herbal remedies, easily considers herself a woman of the earth.
“i’ve been knitting since i was about eight years old,” nolan said, noting that a friend of her mother taught her the needle-tapping skills.
by jennifer hetrick
gilbertsville resident maureen lloyd nolan, as a spinner of wool, bottler of garden inspired vinegars, and appreciator of herbal remedies, easily considers herself a woman of the earth.
“i’ve been knitting since i was about eight years old,” nolan said, noting that a friend of her mother taught her the needle-tapping skills.
( maureen lloyd nolan knits peacefully. photo courtesy of the earthy woman herself.)
in the 1990s, nolan ventured to coopertstown, new york for museum schooling. while there, she told the weavers at the farmers’ museum she wanted them to teach her their art, but they expressed that first, she’d have to spin.
she quickly picked up on how to card flax, a more difficult to spin fiber. this entailed banging fibers to soften them, then working them through combs to align all the fibers together, followed by spinning.
“i clean the wool and card it in the end of summer when the garden’s almost gone,” nolan explained, with spinning reserved for the chillier months.
nolan’s usual final products are rugs and scarves, as she said for her, a yarn should show through and speak for itself.
“there’s something cosmic about spinning,” she added. “it’s probably up there with fire because once we stopped wearing furs, we wore woven cloth made on a drop spindle.”
nolan often incorporates dyes into her yarns from plants including thistle and the skin from onions.
“there’s a zen with spinning—going back and forth,” she admitted, with the wheel’s clack-cluck something she calls comforting.
having always felt magnetism toward traditional women’s work, nolan values the strong social structure and support in the idea of weaving and knitting groups as well as the lessons she’s learned in practicing midwifery.
along the crest of a hill in her backyard is a stretch of land known as the wise woman garden where she grows an array of multi-purpose herbs.
in narrow glass homes are the specialty vinegars nolan bottles in the warm season, including sage, oregano, bronze fennel, raspberry, and a summery chive blossom brand.
“it helps to release the flavor of tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables,” she said about vinegar.
nolan also makes bath salts in addition to tiny dream pillows fluffed with dried mugwort and hops.
“mugwort is a really good plant for anxiety,” she said, detailing that dreams are agreeably provoked by mugwort and that some people think the result is an expression of their subconscious.
“hops tea is kind of bitter but very relaxing,” nolan elaborated about the beer-associated plant she includes in the dream pillows she gives away as gifts to loved ones, along with her homemade vinegars.
when nolan helped women with homebirths, if they were struggling early on in the labor, she frequently brewed them a cup of hops tea.
other herbs in her garden include tansy, an asian-cooking herb which she claims works wonders as an insect repellent, and comfrey, an eventually invasive plant known for its healing benefits.
what she didn’t pick up on in remedy-speak while she traveled with midwives years ago, she absorbed from her mother, like taking fennel seed tea to help an upset stomach.
“we try to live by the cycles of nature,” nolan said about her family, with her spinning time saved for winter and work with the vegetables and herbs encompassing each summer.
she quickly picked up on how to card flax, a more difficult to spin fiber. this entailed banging fibers to soften them, then working them through combs to align all the fibers together, followed by spinning.
“i clean the wool and card it in the end of summer when the garden’s almost gone,” nolan explained, with spinning reserved for the chillier months.
( the wheel itself, purchased as used but ever-reliable. )
nolan’s usual final products are rugs and scarves, as she said for her, a yarn should show through and speak for itself.
“there’s something cosmic about spinning,” she added. “it’s probably up there with fire because once we stopped wearing furs, we wore woven cloth made on a drop spindle.”
(maureen lloyd nolan spinning up a storm of wool yarn.)
( some gatherings of wool post-spinning. )
nolan often incorporates dyes into her yarns from plants including thistle and the skin from onions.
“there’s a zen with spinning—going back and forth,” she admitted, with the wheel’s clack-cluck something she calls comforting.
having always felt magnetism toward traditional women’s work, nolan values the strong social structure and support in the idea of weaving and knitting groups as well as the lessons she’s learned in practicing midwifery.
along the crest of a hill in her backyard is a stretch of land known as the wise woman garden where she grows an array of multi-purpose herbs.
in narrow glass homes are the specialty vinegars nolan bottles in the warm season, including sage, oregano, bronze fennel, raspberry, and a summery chive blossom brand.
( bronze fennel. )
( chive plants boasting of purple tops on neck-like green stems. )
“it helps to release the flavor of tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables,” she said about vinegar.
nolan also makes bath salts in addition to tiny dream pillows fluffed with dried mugwort and hops.
“mugwort is a really good plant for anxiety,” she said, detailing that dreams are agreeably provoked by mugwort and that some people think the result is an expression of their subconscious.
“hops tea is kind of bitter but very relaxing,” nolan elaborated about the beer-associated plant she includes in the dream pillows she gives away as gifts to loved ones, along with her homemade vinegars.
when nolan helped women with homebirths, if they were struggling early on in the labor, she frequently brewed them a cup of hops tea.
other herbs in her garden include tansy, an asian-cooking herb which she claims works wonders as an insect repellent, and comfrey, an eventually invasive plant known for its healing benefits.
( tansy growing in the wise woman garden. )
( comfrey perched in half-fuzzy, sky-aimed strokes in the wise woman garden. )
what she didn’t pick up on in remedy-speak while she traveled with midwives years ago, she absorbed from her mother, like taking fennel seed tea to help an upset stomach.
( a hops plant trails upward in maureen lloyd nolan's backyard. )
“we try to live by the cycles of nature,” nolan said about her family, with her spinning time saved for winter and work with the vegetables and herbs encompassing each summer.
&&&
this story is also in the print edition of news, not blues volume 1.
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