Sue and I will be speaking at Dog House Yarns 3rd Annual Spring Knitting Retreat on Saturday, April 20th at Graves Mountain Lodge in Madison County, Virginia. We are really looking forward to a lovely day, meeting knitters and getting to tell our story and share info with lots of samples of different types of wool and talking abut yarn structure and how they go together. There are still spots available, but you need to be pre-registered.

note May 1st:
Thank you for having us Dog House! we had a great time and are looking forward to having your group up soon to she Solitude Wool corner of the warehouse to talk wool some more.

Can’t share photos of my lambs yet. I was off gallivanting at fiber festivals and events last October and late to provide a date for my ewes. Most shepherds, however, are either all done or in the thick of it. The little sweetie above is a Montadale lamb from Child’s Montadales in West Virginia.

I was on a mission to get some photos of Montadales and see if baby lambs would like our Montadale baby yarn; they did! They were really cute and their curiosity overcame their caution pretty quickly. That little black one was the flock trouble maker, first to touch it.

I asked Dick Childs what he did with his wool. He answered “you don’t want to know.” Well that answered my question, but I asked again anyway. “I burn it” he said. Mr Childs is a realistic farmer. Unlike some of us (read: me) he isn’t willing to lose money just because you (read: I) think it’s worth it. Even though he has some very nice sheep (champion show sheep), it costs him more to hire a shearer than he can sell the fleece for.

This is the story that Sue and I heard so often that motivated us to start Solitude Wool. He was really interested in what we were doing (especially paying a much higher price for fleece) and said if we were interested in his wool, he would hire a shearer (he is clipping them himself now, just getting the wool off). I don’t think we can this year. We are pretty full up of Montadale, but I want to! I just hate that good wool goes to waste, and it does!

You all can help. What we need is people to rediscover what a fabulous fiber wool is and appreciate and buy it…at all levels, from spinning fibers to yarn to crafted items and manufactured goods too. Save the sheep. Save the Farms. Save open pasture land. Okay, I worked myself up. No more coffee this morning and I’ll step down…

Montadale baby yarn on cones

The wool in our new batch of Montadale Baby yarn (a big box just arrived!) is from Saffer’s Montadales in Maryland. They have a good sized flock and Sue and Bill went just after Thanksgiving for shearing day. I had dyed all of our first batch and have been waiting for this to arrive so I can do more. But right now we can offer it undyed on cones. Okay all you weavers: how great to have a soft, washable wool to weave a baby blanket, or something nice for a big baby of any age? We pulled out a few 1 pound and 8 to 9 oz cones to get on the web site. Sue and I are not very skilled on the web site and need help (calvary is on it’s way) to get both the skeins and the cones up correctly…but there is a bad version that will let you order the 1 pound size on the site. Know that with all our yarn on cones, we most likely have lots of cones of different weights. We can put together an order to closely match your project needs.

Jacob sheep, see it now, spin it later…?

Sue and I visited Shiloh Manor Farm in Loudoun County, Virginia to see their small flock of Jacob sheep in full fleece right before they were sheared. Oh they are so attractive! We hope to have some Jacob roving this year.

I really should save these photos and send them out when we actually have product to sell, but I’ll rationalize it by helping you understand how long it takes even to make roving. The clock is starting. Will let you know when we have it made. But also, I wanted to show your these Jacob lambs. How cute are they?!

Farmers Markets this weekend (rain could be a problem)

We will be packed up and ready to go with Alpaca/Merino, Karakul (three new colors), Tunis, Romney (two new handpaint colors), the Shropshire double twist, Suffolk/Dorset (on sale), Montadale baby, yarn on cones for weaving, roving, odds and ends and I have three sheep pelts this week. The weather forecast is not so promising, but if it’s questionable, I will go with the most optomistic forecast and hope for the best. I don’t want to miss! Check the web site by 6:30 am the morning of the market if you want to know if we are NOT coming. If there isn’t anything, we will be there. Falls Church, Virginia market on Saturday from 9 to noon and Dupont Circle, Wash DC from 10 to 1.

Thank you!

Gretchen

Greetings!

Our second Field Day to learn about different breeds of sheep and their wool is coming up fast! On Sunday, September 16th, from noon to 4:00 pm, we will be at Davlin Farm in Lincoln, Virginia (in Loudoun County, about 50 miles from DC). Davlin raises Cotswold sheep, a heritage, Longwool breed with beautiful lustrous curls of wool. Come meet the sheep, learn about their wool and history, and see Davlin Farm. Sue and I got a tour from Lynn Updegrove, our shepherd host, and it is lovely land with lots of pasture (I’m envious!), a stream, pond and very nice barn. You can just hang out and knit or spin, shop of course and maybe go on a nature walk (we hope to have a guide).

Davlin Cotswolds with their Summer hair cut

This time we are offering two different mini-workshops:
Introduction to lace knitting with our new Cotswold lambs wool yarn: taught by Karin Fellers (who taught at our first Field day to rave reviews). I don’t have photos to share yet, but the plan is to knit a lace bookmark. We will have two sessions: 12:30 and 2:30 with a limit of eight students per session.

Introduction to spinning Cotswold wool: taught by Caroline Hockenberry. Caroline will cover fiber preperation, spinning a 2-ply lace weight yarn and tail spinning locks of Cotswold. You need to be able to spin yarn and bring your own wheel or spindle. We will have two sessions: 12:30 and 2:30 with a limit of eight students per session.

Cost: there is a $15 entrance fee. You will receive a $10 coupon good towards any Solitude Wool purchase the day of the event; $5 of the fee goes to Davlin Farm.
You can pre-pay if you want, but you can also pay that day at the farm.
Each mini-workshop is $35, which includes a $15 materials fee. If you want to take both classes, you can sign up for one at 12:30 and one at 2:30.

Pre-payment is required to reserve a spot in a mini-workshop, but if there is still room, you can pay at the class that day.
To reserve, please send me an email at: f-fsolitude@mindspring.com and I will send you a PayPal request for payment (no PayPal account needed), or we can work out another payment method.

We had a great time at our first field day, and we are really looking forward to this next one. Hope you can join us!
Gretchen

First, our big news! We are really excited and proud to be new vendors at the Falls Church (Virginia) farmers market. This Saturday is our first time. We have made a few trips in in preparation and I can tell you it is a really, really nice market. There are several vendors we know from Dupont, but there are quite a few we didn’t know, including a vendor that makes mini-donuts right there (so dangerous!). I also got really great strawberries. The hours for Summer are 8:00am to noon, directions on the web site link above. I think the plan is for us to be on the grass at the front of the market but I won’t know until we get there. Do look for us! say hey!

Sunday we will be at the Dupont FreshFarm market as usual. And it is Mother’s Day! All you knitting, corcheting, spinning and felting mothers; wouldn’t you love a present of local yarn or spinning fiber? All you children of those mothers, consider a beautiful bouquet of skeins of yarn for your treasured mom. We are bringing lots of beautiful yarns this week to both markets:
• Border Leicester sport yarn in two undyed and many natural dyed colors
• Icelandic yarn in lots of undyed and several natural dyed colors
• Romney in four undyed and quite a few synthetic dyed colors
• Shropshire double twist, white and dyed
• Shropshire baby yarn, white and dyed
• Alpaca Merino lace weight in undyed black and a few dyed-in-the-wool colors
• Targhee 3-ply in white and dyed colors
• Roving: many breeds and colors including our new Cotswald pin drafted that is really beautiful

Brief report from Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival:
1. It was a great weekend, the weather much better than forecast (thank you!) and we were thrilled to see lots of old friends and meet many new ones.
2. Cindy O’Neill won a 3rd place ribbon for the crocheted capelet (her original design) made with our Border Leicester yarn and a first for another piece too. Congratulations Cindy!

3. I got my Knitter’s Life List signed by Gwen Steege (again!, thanks Gwen)
4. Rebecca Fox won the “Freddie” award for the weaver of the most unusual handwoven article in the Skein and Garment show with her blanket (mostly Solitude Wool yarns in warp and weft). Congratulations Rebecca!
5. We got to pick up two, freshly spun for us, yarns from mills: Green Mountain Spinnery and Battenkill Fibers. Thank you for saving us shipping costs! Look for these new yarns this summer…
6. Sue met a very fine Clun Forest ram:

I believe we are purchasing his fleece…can hardly wait to get enough wool for another batch of Clun Forest yarn.

Thank you all for reading this and supporting us! We appreciate you!
Gretchen

(more…)

Good Morning!
Boy is it Spring: new colors in the dye pots, a personal (aspiration) push for, or at, spring cleaning, mowers breaking, the garden knee high in weeds…(a few beds are cleaned up and planted thanks to Joan), my desk is getting a bit deep in paper, etc. Basically…start early, go, go, go and stop in the evening because you just must…not because you’ve really made progress. This is my problem, and I do know it’s an attitude issue. The sheep are so much more advanced. They take everything in stride and just handle it. Including loss.

Tomorrow, says my calendar, is the first possible lambing here at Solitude. But yesterday I rounded the garage heading to the barn to do chores and I knew in two steps that something was up. The sheep were just looking at me telegraphing news. Sure enough, I see two white lambs up and standing with Oklahoma who looks calm. Cool! I just turned around to call Sue (I’ll be late) and go fetch the lamb “stuff” (it was on my list to get all that together yesterday). So, I get back out there in a few minutes and Okla has moved over under a tree about 30 feet away from where I first saw her. I get a picture and think one of the lambs was exhausted by the effort and is laying down.

But I go over…and the lamb is obviously dead, in fact, stiff. I know I saw two up and moving and I’m sure my eyebrows knitted together trying to figure this out. How could it be? Well, I look back over where I first saw them, and sure enough, there is the other lamb. Okla had triplets. I try not to feel bad. This is nature. I wonder if I had done a 3 am check and could have assisted with the birth, would the lamb have lived? I don’t know. Maybe, but I didn’t. So once she had showed me, she let it go and concentrated on her two boys. Here they are, shortly after settled in to a clean pen (called a “jug”) to relax for a day or two.

I’ve posted more photos of the lambs including their evening out in the pasture on another young thing…Solitude Wool has a Facebook page. There is a link on our homepage, and I probably should be able to put one in here, but it is beyond my current skills…just look for Solitude Wool. Hope you “like” us!

What else is up? Sue! up in a wool bag:

Sue is stomping in Montadale fleece that was sheared a month or two ago. We got a lot more than our usual haul, and this fleece will be heading north for scouring. We will see how this works. We are pretty excited about this beautiful soft wool. Thinking about what kind of yarn we want to make (oh boy!). And then we got back a box of Montadale yarn from the mill that I had forgotten about, a small batch of Montadale that we had saved up fleece before we met the new farm. This yarn will be the follow up yarn to our Shropshire baby yarn. It feels pretty great. Sorry you don’t get to see it yet, but look for Montadale pretty soon (Maryland Sheep and Wool?)

Last for today…Sunday we will be at the Dupont FreshFarm market in DC. We are planning to bring: Alpaca/Merino, Border Leicester sport weight (nature dyed), Border Leicester aran weight, Icelandic (nature dyed), Leicester Longwool/Border Leicester (nature dyed), Romney, Shropshire baby, Suffolk/Dorset sock yarn including yoga sock kits, Targhee 3-ply, roving, 4 white Romney sheep pelts (all I will have this year) and honey.

Gotta get going, I’m behind already!
Remember Sunday the market opens at 8:30am for the regular season,
Gretchen

First in a series of on-farm, direct experience learning about sheep breeds and their wool

K A R A K U L

RedGate Karakul sheep in full fleece

We want to share with you the way we get to learn about wool of different breeds of sheep: meet them, hang out and watch them, then stick your hands into the raw fleece on a skirting table, and if you like, knit with some Karakul yarn.
Sue Bundy, Solitude Wool partner and Chief of Fleece is inviting us into her farm, RedGate, just outside of Leesburg, Virginia. Sue raises and shows (mucho ribbons) Karakul sheep. Karakul is a rare breed and Sue works hard to promote and save these sheep. Sue will talk about the breed and introduce her sheep. You will also get a chance to see their chickens, turkeys and bees.

Sheared ewe with her lamb

other RedGate critters

freshly shorn Karakul fleece

During the day we are offering a Knitting mini-workshop: Karakul knit-to-felt
Knit and felt a coaster using Solitude Karakul yarn (including yarns specially dyed for this workshop), then take home enough yarn to finish a set of four. You should know how to knit, but it will be simple knitting and kids 8 and older may participate.
Two sessions: 12:30 and 2:30, space limited, reservations suggested (advance payment to reserve)

Or, bring your knitting (or spindle, or crochet…) with you, sit near the pasture and just soak up a bit of farm: sheep, chickens etc…

field trip details:
date: Sunday, June 3, 2012
when: Noon to 4:00pm
where: RedGate Farm, 17883 Running Colt Place, Leesburg, Virginia 20175
how much: $15 entrance (and you get a $10 coupon towards Solitude Wool purchase that day)
workshop (optional): $30 includes instruction, pattern and yarn

Reservations suggested for the Knitting mini-workshop (limited number of participants), but if there is space left, you may join the group that day.
To reserve, send an email to Gretchen at: f-fsolitude@mindspring.com, she will send you a PayPal request to complete your reservation.

Greetings on this rainy, gray day.
Sorry to say that I am still sick. Turns out, it is pneumonia. I am improving, but it is very slow. I’m going to listen to my body and stay home. Solitude Wool will miss the Dupont Farmers market again this week. Sorry! Promise we will be back with bells on asap.

Since I don’t have regular business, seems like a good opportunity to share with you wool appreciators one of the things shepherds have to consider to produce the best wool: when to shear. What time of year?, before lambing?, after? how often? Not doing it right can wreck a fleece. As I bet you all are learning, different breeds of sheep grow different types of wool, and how fast they grow it is pretty wildly different. Most Fine wool, Down type and Medium wool breeds grow wool slowly and usually get sheared once a year. Many Primitive breeds grow their fleece so fast (up to an inch a month), that they need to be sheared every 6 months. And then there are the Longwool breeds that might make it a full year, but those last two months might really dry out or mat the fleece. As a rule of thumb…it is a good idea to shear ewes about a month before lambing. So, for spring lambing, much of the shearing happens from January through April, but farms might shear nearly any month during the year depending on their own circumstances.

Sue (our Chief of Fleece) is just starting her busiest season. Every fleece that we buy is hand selected one at a time. And the way Sue likes to do it is on farm, on shearing day as they come right of the sheep, still warm. Sue tells me all the time that she wishes everyone could sink their hands into hundreds of fleeces and how much they would learn. It is, however, both very hard work (I attest to it!) and one of the most important factors that distinguish our yarns. We can’t make really good yarn without really good wool, and all fleeces are not equal. It isn’t complicated, but takes real love of wool…or you might start to cut corners. Not Sue. On the other hand, we want to provide a market for wool from small local farms. We want to buy as many good fleeces as we can for the fairest price. It’s a balancing act.

This Sunday, WeatherLea Farm will get their Romney sheep sheared (fingers crossed for decent weather). We have been buying fleeces from WeatherLea from the very first year Sue and I started Solitude Wool. Their fleeces were in our first batch of Romney yarn and I think, just about every batch since too. WeatherLea is like many Loudoun County, Virginia farms in that it is small and works hard on several fronts to make the farm “work.” The Baldwins have a vineyard, sheep, llamas and a beautiful 1790′s farm that is a wonderful venue for weddings, events and weekend getaways in a charming cottage. They use their wool to have custom blankets made (available for sale) and occasional other wool products, but those great sheep keep growing good wool. We love that we can buy it from them.

So…we have been talking for a couple years now about having a Solitude Wool…something?… at WeatherLea… sometime. Maybe this spring when there are new lambs?
If we have an event…what would you all be most interested in? a knitting class? a wine tasting? farm touring? learning about Romneys…??? We would love to hear what you would like, and if it is worth a day trip to the country. And to get you interested, here are WeatherLea farm reps to invite you out:

Thanks!
Man, do I hope I’m back to the market in two weeks!!!!!
Gretchen