Tempus fugit 🕰

Wow, 2023 speeds ahead.  Using the wayback machine, I need to catch things up since last September. We went to Ireland the last week of October. We visited friends along the way and made it up to County Donegal.  It was a treat to see Studio Donegal, where the tweed continues to be woven by hand.  

The mill shop at Kerry Wollen Mill, Co Kerry, Ireland.

It is where I bought the Kerry Gold color way of KWM

Aran Wool 3ply.

A lovely green tweed warp. The sound of the 
shuttles going back and forth was nice to hear.

Looking down at the at the warping room and all

the cones of yarn. A look just to the left, and on to the...

Cutting and sewing room. Pattern pieces hanging

at the ready.

  A closeup of some lovely wool tweed pieces

for garments.

Piece by beautiful piece. 

I produced quite a bit of knitting the past year, and expanded the sweater choices for the Pick A Sweater class at beWoolen.

Blomst

Forêts Paisibles, Ris, Anthology,
and Dreaming of Provence 

Cassis, Goldwyn Folly (with a dash of Anthology), 
and Inovec

Of course there are WIPs. One is fingering weight, which I love (but what was I thinking?!) and the other two are Aran weight.  

Simple Sweater TCK

Classic Cardigan, TCK

Lara by Di Gilpin is a fun and quick knitting project.
Donegal tweed for the body and some leftover KWM
in Kerry Gold from the Cassis for the neckband.

Anoka Fiber Works

Anoka Fiber Works is a small business located northwest of Minneapolis.  The shop is made up of vendors, much like an antique shop, and the owner is Mary of Spinning Magic.  Some of the vendors, myself included, teach classes and occasionally guest instructors come to the shop to teach.  There is space to sit in the spinning circle or take a seat at one of the tables to work on projects  and make new friends.  AFW hosts classes and open social hours. 

Coming up the first weekend of April is the North Artists Studio Crawl.  AFW is Studio F.  Deb P. of Old Man Wool Farm will be joining Kathryn, Rob, and I this year.  

We returned from China on Thursday.  I slept for ten of the fourteen hours from Shanghai to Boston because I caught Jim's cold.  We had a great time in China and below are a few photo highlights from our trip.  

We climbed a portion of the wall on the second day.

A group of us took the subway to the night market in Beijing.

Outside the Temple of Heaven folks gather to socialize and exercise.  Yarn barf is universal!

With the help of Google Translate, we managed to order a delicious meal of chicken and chrysanthemum blossom dumplings with vegetables and some coconut juice.

Learning about the health benefits of green tea.

A mix of the new and the old on the river in Shanghai.

Old town Shanghai was bustling with activity.

Ireland

Ireland is one of our favorite places to visit and this year Jim and Ben did a bike ride, the Steven Roche Atlantic Challenge.  They were fortunate to have a beautiful day for the ride, with sun and low wind.  Andi and I walked to "downtown" Doolin from the cottage after we cheered our guys on from the intersection up the hill.

We stayed in Doolin, a small town in County Clare on the west coast.  Home base was a cottage overlooking the ocean and in the distance are the Aran Islands.  Inishere (Inis Oírr, and also spelled Inisheer) is the smallest and closest to the mainland.  On the days we had other plans the weather was beautiful and the days we were available to take the ferry found the sea to be rough.

Here are a few of the highlights from our visit, in no particular order...

Quin Abbey in County Clare, Ireland

Across the street from the abbey was a tea room and we enjoyed coffee, tea, and cake while sitting by the fire.  

We had a lovely day for a hike on one of the Burren National Park's trails.

It was a treat to visit McKernan Woollen Mills and watch the antique loom (late 1800s) in action weaving one of their beautiful scarves

We met Andi in Galway at the bus station and popped into a tea shop so she could buy a gift for her friend.  

We stayed in Doolin and the daffodils were in bloom this trip.

Jim and Ben on the ride.  And and I met them as they rode through the intersection above where we stayed.  We were wearing our t-shirts and waving an Irish flag.  The fellows directing traffic knew who we were cheering for, our guys were famous!

We stayed cozy and warm in the cottage by the fire.

It was a rainy, windy, and very cold day at the Cliffs of Moher.  I think they are so beautiful in the mist.

St. Brigid's Well, Liscannor, County Clare

 Inside St. Brigid's Well

Boots make nice flower pots

Every morning and evening I enjoyed the sunrise 

and the sunset

Our last full day we visited and hiked around the cliffs of Kilkee, County Clare 

Adventures in Scotland, the wool and whiskey tour, day 1

Jim blogged about our adventures the week we spent in Scotland.  Now that we're home, I have the time and energy to look through the photos and think back on the wonderful time we had through the week.

The first day was a whirlwind, having arrived in Edinburgh early in the morning.  After getting the car, Jim called a friend we met through Scouts and we headed to Dundee.  We met up with Chris and Ben, two Scouts that stayed with us twelve years ago.  It was good to see them and catch up.  They are doing well, and maybe someday the trio (including our Ben) will meet up again.

A lovely red mail box in Glamis.

Walking in the direction of the castle, I found the colors of the stone and moss inspiring for knitting or weaving.

Ben, Clem, and Chris (Chris had a basketball injury).

Oh, I would love to hear the stories this tree could tell...

Even on a rainy day Glamis Castle was a spectacular sight and the surrounding grounds were impressive.

The castle is quite large.  

We drove around and enjoyed the scenery, had a bite to eat, and were able to get out and about between the bouts of rain.  Unfortunately, as the day went on I began to feel ill.  We picked up Clem's Shetland sheepdogs to take them for a walk and I could get some puppy kisses.

Unfortunately I was really feeling poorly by the time we picked up Clem's wife, Diane, I was so dizzy and sick we had to find a doctor.  Fast forward...it turned out to be vertigo brought on by an inner ear rock slide.  The up and down of the three flights (the flight between Chicago and Dublin was very turbulent), driving, and fatigue caught up with me.  Once we got to the first B&B in Perthshire, I was able to lay on the bed and rest.  Between the prescription and Brandt & Daroff exercises, I felt much better by the next morning.  

Despite feeling ill, I loved Clem's little darlings and they were fun to watch darting about the park chasing their ball and each other.  

I call this dog pills.  I think they know just what they need to do to make one feel better.  

Spinning, Knitting, and Shetland

The night before I left on my trip to Shetland I took a spin-for-color-class taught by Doreen of Goldfish Love.  I grabbed the bag of colors from the Kerry Woolen Mill, Louie, and learned about spinning Noro-style yarn.  It was such fun.  I actually liked the mistake skein better than my second skein.  In my excitement I pulled a color out of order when I was spinning. A happy accident.  There are many possibilities with this spinning technique!

Naturally I had to choose six colors!

This is how the single looks on the bobbin.

The bottom skein is the one with the "mistake" and the top skein is my second and successful skein.  They are both two-ply yarns.

The more the colors are carded, the more subtle the color gradation.

I had this going when class ended.  I have to admit I like the color bits in the transition colors.

With wool and color dancing in my head I slept well before leaving the next day for Shetland.  The first two legs of the trip were eventful by spirited children and a screamer.  (Having traveled with a little one and experiencing a painful ear during take off and landing I understand.)  The seven-hour and one minute flight to Dublin was one minute too long, as I gave up my aisle seat on a very crowded airplane.  I am a seasoned traveler, but over the years I prefer to sit in an aisle seat on long flights.  My neighbor was a nice man and we chatted off and on during the flight keeping tabs on the hockey playoff scores.  Anyway, the leg of the trip between Dublin and Edinburgh was uneventful.  I met up with the group at the gate and after introductions we had a short flight to Shetland.  

My first impression was that it reminded me of Ireland.  The cliffs were impressive!  I was  not expecting them to be so high.  It was warm, with the mist rolling in and out the first day. 

Audrey peers out the window at the spectacular cliffs of Shetland.

Wildflowers were blooming everywhere.

Color in every nook and cranny!

Whale bone

Add caption

Steep cliffs in the mist.

More to come...