Last week I went to visit my mom who now lives in Massachusetts.  So, I spent three days with her and scheduled a few day trips.  One of those was to a home I lived in from the ages of 5 through 10 years old to revisit a bit of QueerJoe History.

West Medway Massachusetts – Part of QueerJoe History

This was my “Mayberry, RFD” place to grow up.  We had lots of childhood friends.  So, we could explore endlessly.  There was “the park” within easy walking distance where I learned to swim in the big pond there.  Also, we fished and caught bullfrogs.  I started to learned how much I hated baseball. It was safe and beautiful and idyllic.

Going back to visit after 50 years was truly mind-blowing.  I can’t begin to explain the crazy little snippets of memories that came back seeing this house after all these year.

Medway House History

West Medway is about 20 miles west of Boston, near Framingham.  The house we lived in was built in 1832.  At one point around 1920, someone had added an extension onto the back of the house which was the new kitchen and dining area.  The original house was built around a center chimney which allowed for 6 fireplaces (3 downstairs and 3 upstairs).  The main fireplace was the original kitchen with a swinging arm to hold a cooking pot and a stove built in to the side of the fireplace.  This was an amazing portion of QueerJoe History that really helped form who I am today.

There were two sets of stairs to the second floor (front and back of the original house) and both were incredibly narrow and steep.  We used to fly up and down those stairs.

The photo above was the stairway to the third floor.  There were two bedrooms upstairs.  One of them I shared with my brother

When my mom and I were walking around the front of the house, the current owner came out and introduced himself.  He graciously offered us a tour since he had a huge interest in the history of the house and who lived there.  Again, I can’t begin to explain the emotions of revisiting this time of my life.

I was shocked to see a planting shed was still standing in the back yard.

My bedroom looked almost the same as the day we left.  Climbing the steep stairs to the third floor…the sounds, the smells, the texture of the wall…was amazing.  And seeing where I had slept for about five years of my young life brought an incredible sense of comfort and joy.

Current Knitting

SQUIRREL!

I was distracted this past weekend and felt compelled to drop all current WIPs and design and knit a new scarf pattern.

I saw this pattern and fell in love.  So much so, that I cast on for a scarf (three times) and finally finished the first scarf.

What’s even crazier, is that I’ve cast on for a second scarf, written up a pattern for the scarf and published the scarf for sale on Ravelry (it’s $1 to cover the time answering all the inevitable questions that will come in about this stitch pattern when folks misread it).

Here’s the link to purchase the scarf on Ravelry:

And I have no problem if you can figure out the stitch count, pattern stitch, needle requirements, yarn, etc. yourself.  I honestly make very little from Ravelry pattern sales…just about enough to pay for this blog domain and web server.