FuriousNomad

When I was little I lived in north Connecticut. Near my town, there was
a historic reenactment village. It was actually just over the border in
Massachusetts, but was only about 15min from my house. But during the
summer, as it was Connecticut, I had nothing to do. So my parents
volunteered me at the village, for lack of anything better to do with
me. So every morning I'd go to the village, get put into appropriate
early 1800's dress for a 10 yr old, and I'd be directed to where I'd be
that day. I would usually be in the shop, demonstrating games or
wearing the clothes they sold, in the barn to help with the animals or
cannery, or the knitting shed.



After a week, I had rotated around and had been placed everywhere but
the knitting shed. The adults who oversaw me had noticed that I was
pretty patient with the animals, and the canning (ugh), so they decided
to send me to Lizzy in the shed so she could teach me how to card,
spin, dye, and weave fabrics. So that morning I put on my stupid boots
and my silly bonnet and went to the knitting shed. When I got there,
there was a woman with red-brown hair, in grey period dress, sitting
and spinning some wool. I introduced myself, but she just smiled and
told me to sit down and set me to carding wool immediately. She had a
deep Irish accent, I was not sure if she was faking it, but it was a
very good accent. She'd stop and fix my work every once in a while when
I'd mess up, I did notice she had very cold hands. But early morning,
MA, it's cold so I didn't think much of it. She started talking to me,
about 15min in to my work, about how I could learn to spin once I got
carding down, and I could dye once I got spinning down, etc. I listened
sleepily because I was tired, and she laughed at me when I dropped my
carding boards because I was tired. She appeared to be very nice, and I
did like her.



But then I heard someone calling my name from outside, so I got up to
see who it was. It was Ben, he worked in the barn and was the one who
sent me to the knitting shed that day. He asked me why I hadn't come
back when I found the shed empty. I said it wasn't, that there was a
lady in there. He told me Lizzy had called in sick with food poisoning.
I explained to him that there was a nice red-haired lady with a grey
dress and an Irish accent inside who had set me to work. He looked
shocked at first, but then laughed. Apparently, the grey lady (this was
before Harry Potter damnit!) had been showing up ever since they
opened. She had never talked to anyone before, mostly people saw
glimpses of her. But she always did work. People would leave the
canning for a while, and come back to find it finished. Or they'd walk
away from the loom and find lots of work had been completed when they
came back. I took Ben inside and showed him the most perfect skein of
undyed spun yarn, and try as I might her's was always better than any I
tried.