Progress

Holiday is over and I hit the ground running, or sliding.  It's 3-degrees F and snowy this morning.  Winter showed up!  Grey Wolf development has started and for the next five months, we will be developing the team for our week in June.

I'm making progress on Ben's sweater, the fronts are looking good.  The two pounds of Jacob wool are almost finished.  I began the natural black the other day and even found a bit more of the gray to spin.  The Icelandic birch spindle is one of my favorite tools.

The fronts of the cotton top are coming along a bit slower.  I took out two of the contrast yarn stripes and will continue to use the dark brown between the contrasting stripes.  The texture in addition to the color gives the fabric a more cohesive look.

The textured brown cotton is the star of this project.  

A day at the festival

On Saturday I went to Shepherd's Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo.  I did not take any classes, but did do a demo on top whorl spindle spinning.  It was such fun.  The demo area was in Building A and Andrea from Black Cat Farmstead was beside me.  Seeing the antique wheels lovingly restored is always a treat.  The first purchase of the day was a spindle sporting a glow-in-the-dark whorl 3D printed by Andrea's son.

A 3-D printed spindle whorl...

...that glows in the dark!

There were lots of vendors, some new some familiar.  I love the patterns from Ewetopia and purchased a few including Daisy and the October Cowl.

Sheep were sheared on the hour and Jody, one of my friends from Anoka Fiber Works, was skirting fleeces.  Between the shearing we talked about fleeces for sale in the barn.  I mentioned the beautiful Jacob fleece from Joxer's Jacobs.  Jody's eyes lit up and she said how nice they were.  I was not in the market for a fleece but her comments piqued my interest.  We went to the barn together and looked at the fleeces.  I had two in particular that I liked (Jody, you taught me well) and she agreed.  The smaller 3.3-pound fleece was mine!  Yesterday I roughly separated the colors.  Today I began the scouring process.  The wool is even nicer than I originally thought and nicely skirted.  ChiChi is the sheep with the lovely fleece.  The scouring is going well so far.  I worked from dark to light, which is my last batch.  The wool is fluffy and soft and the combination of natural black, gray and white is really pretty.  I will be interested to see how many yards of each color I can spin.  Perhaps enough for a Fair Isle vest?

Baaa!

Jacob fleece before dividing and scouring.

These little lambs were chilling in the barn.

It is always nice to know the names of the sheep.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Cookies n' Cream, although they are all cute.

The sheep surely look different when sheared.

Baa baa black sheep.  This little fellow was  so soft and sweet.

Pretty roving for sale in the barn.

My friend Jennifer.  It was so good to see her!

Mary from Anoka Fiber Works gives a spindle spinning lesson.

Andrea from Black Cat Farmstead grows flax.  Preparing the flax into linen is labor intensive. I did it one time before we moved to Minnesota.   

My new spindle, Stella with the beautiful Shetland wool roving I bought.  

Catching up

The last week of January--really?  I am working on catching up on projects and thinking of what is ahead for this year's classes.

The never-ending Kaffe Fasset squares are finished and I will be making two cushions.  It will be easier to display the cushions than the larger bolster.  I love the colors, but just did not enjoy knitting the squares.  I prefer stranded color work or intarsia.

The two pieces are drying and soon will be covering a cushion.

The KAL for Endgame by Michelle Hunter (knitpurlhunter) is finished.  It was rewarding to be able to complete the project within the four weeks.  Working with HiKoo Kenzie is always a pleasure.  I have to take a good photo to send in for the contest ends in February.

Endgame in HiKoo Kenzie, Saddleback.

Last Monday a group from Anoka Fiber Works took a field trip to Black Cat Farmstead in Stockholm, Wisconsin.  It was a lovely drive through the snow covered landscape, which reminded me of the hills of southern Ohio. There were fish houses scattered on Lake Pepin.  When we arrived, Rollo and Andrea greeted us and we walked from the house to the studio.  Andrea's studio is a small, two story house that once occupied a spot on the farm of author Laura Ingalls Wilder's grandparents.  The farm is nearby and after Andrea purchased the house, she had it moved to her farm.  The basement houses a large loom and a cheese-curing room.  The main floor has a wood-burning stove and there are baskets of natural and dyed roving, finished yarn, and silk hankies.  Andrea rescues spinning wheels and they dot the nooks and crannies of the back room.  Upstairs there are two large looms and some of her wheels.  We sat up there and enjoyed some of her homemade goat cheese with crackers and nice hot coffee.

We went outside to visit the sheep and the horses.  the Icelandic wool had a nice sheen in the late afternoon sun and there was a particularly cute dark Shetland lamb.

It was a great day and good to get out and about with fiber-loving friends.

Rollo leads the way to the studio.

Andrea and Rollo

Always a good sign!

Spindles and other fiber goodies.

Rollo helps Andrea get the stove going.

The layers of paint tell a story inside the house.

Bight colors on a cold winter day.

Lovely fiber everywhere!

The basket of roving by the window was hard to resist.  The stairs lead to the...

...studio!  The upstairs is newly renovated.  

On the other side is a cozy spot with lots of light and the perfect place to work and chat.

A dream wheel.

Downstairs is for drying. 

Of course no trip is complete without sheep encounters.  Icelandic and Shetland sheep, my favorites.

Over the weekend was the bi-monthly Spin In at Anoka Fiber Works.  There was a good crowd and the bunnies were there, too!  I brought my Moosie and the roving I got in Stockholm.  I like the way the singles plied together in the bottom photo.  

Mary's center pull ball exploded while she was plying.

Dawn snuggles one of the visiting bunnies.

The bunnies were friendly and so sweet.

The fiber matches the hair!

Whatever I make with this yarn will be called Rollo.

My Moosie Has Arrived!

The wait is over--my Moosie arrived today while I was at SSK!

The box was at the front door...

...I anxiously opened it and saw my name...the suspense is driving me crazy!

Shiela Bosworth test-spun it for me and I am so happy.  It's just beautiful.  

The whorl has a pin weight by the notch.  The weight is 39 g/1.39 oz,
and the shaft is Kamphi Rosewood.  It was #3 in the release of ten spindles.

I finished spinning the roving that was on it and plied it.  

I may have to name it Bullwinkle.  This is the obligatory Moose and Squirrel photo.

Spin and twist!

Yesterday I did a spinning demo at Share Fest.  It is always fun to see friends and share my love of spinning with others.  One little fellow, five years old, was so cute.  He explained to me how my wheel worked (very accurately, too) and then helped me spin my spindle.  Later a little girl came by and enjoyed how the spindle was spinning and proceeded to show me how she could spin also.  I noticed her shoes lit up when she walked and I told her it would be nice for my spindle to light up when it spins.  She agreed.

Lyppa is unspun Lopi and I finished the first package of 120 grams.  The Icelandic birch spindle I bought in Þingborg is wonderful easily holds 60 grams.  I was able to spin the mórauður (reddish brown) wool.  This was exciting, as the singles were just perfect.  The first hank is blocked and the second part is still on the spindle.  I looked up the color name online and found the definition here.

mórauður (Icelandic)

Origin & history:  From mór ("peat") + rauður ("red").

Pronunciation:  IPA: /ˈmouːrøyːðʏr/

Adjective:  reddish brown, peat-coloured (especially of sheep, wool and dogs)

A lovely name for reddish brown in my opinion.  The roving was delicate and wispy to spin but very strong and stable after spinning.  Drafting was smooth and easy.  Up to now I avoided spinning singles and will be anxious to see how many yards I have between the gray and the reddish brown.  It is between the thickness of Einband and Lett Lopi.  My fingertips are soft, too.  The wool has a slightly sheepy smell, which is not bad--clean sheep smell no vinegar.

Just enough twist to hold together and very little over twist.  

About 60 grams in this hank.  

The spindle was getting a little heavy, but I was able to fill it with the rest of the wool.

Back to Iceland--armchair style!

Naturally I would love to go back to Iceland immediately, but this little trip will be from my chair.

I arrived so early in the morning, met Barbara and we found this little cafe for our breakfast.
I admit the heads are creepy, but we sat in the back so they were not staring
at us while we ate.

The door on the Hallgrímskirkja.

You know you are in knitting country when...
a huge picture of sheep is on the side of a building.

I love to take photos of doorways--beautiful color and texture!

Ragga's colorful bicycle parked outside her studio. 

Alafoss--where Lopi yarn is made.  The lovely color samples on the wall were just a teaser...

...of what we were going to see!

Huge bales of wool waiting to be carded.  The brown bales some white
added to make a particular tint of brown (whIte = tint, shAde = black)

A very large room partially filled with wool.

This room is full!

After visiting Deb's Ewespun Woolen Mill, it was nice to know
what the machine was doing to the wool on a huge scale.

MiniD was exhausted and took a breather on some oddments.

Dyeing room.

Here is the view from the dyeing room.  Not bad, I must say.

Our delightful teacher, Debbie Abrahams, poses by some  red yarn that matches her hair.

Winding skeins of white.

The shade cards are nice to see.  Alafoss tries to be as green as possible
with the dyeing process but some of the colors they
create have to be done in a not-so-green process. 

The yarn bits on the left will be carded together into cakes (aka plates) of unspun Icelandic wool called "plötulopi."  After being carded together, the wool is peeled into fine strips
and then wound into cakes. 

No visit to a factory is complete without visiting the shop!  I cannot
say I would buy a fox pelt (sad face), however the knitted gnomes
were pretty cute!  I purchased some Einband and three cakes of wool.

MiniD was charmed by the elf houses across the street.

Our first stop after Alafoss was the plains of Þingvellir.
Coins shine in the very deep clear water.

Lava 

Walking along the tectonic plates.

A little geyser bubbles.

While the big geyser spouts every four to  ten minutes

There is a reason to stay on the paved path!  Mary holds tight to MiniD
so she does not get burned.

After a quick lunch we go to the shop and what do I see?
Icelandic snuggies!  Now that is a snuggie I would wear.

On our way to the wool cooperative we stop briefly at a lovely waterfall.
It was very windy and rainy.  I did not want to stand too close to the edge.

The cooperative is run by female farmers.  They work to preserve the
beautiful colors of Icelandic sheep.  (White wool is most in demand.)

A sweet doll greets us when we walk into the building.

Honestly, I do not know what this was, but it looks like a turf house of sorts (on a small scale).

Back in town the next day and our lunch spot had a lovely view of the harbor.
It was a good day for some hot soup.

I can imagine these would be fun and stylish to wear in the middle of winter.

Everyone loves to knit!

Interesting color and texture...except for the cigarette.

An elf rock in a park behind our hotel.

Stepping stumps in the park.

A nice way to recycle cans.

I got hungry and needed something for a snack.
These cookies were really good.  Gnome liked them, too.

Back home, the lava rock votive candleholders make the shadows look
like the mountains of Iceland.

Lopi yarn and cakes from Alafoss, buttons from Ragga, a pin and ornament from
the Handknitting Association of Iceland.

Lovely spinning fiber from Þingborg Ullarverkstæði

Herr Kurbis and Humpty Dumpty admire the soft wool and my new birch spindle.

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