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

Sampson comes to woo the girls

The girls were starting to worry just a little bit. Here it is, mid-November and no suitor yet. But yesterday I went up to Maryland to Triple R Farm to fetch Sampson, a very handsome young Romney Ram with “georgeous” black fleece. His owner/shepherd, Michelle Rilley told me to not wreck that fleece…it is already spoken for (I promise to keep him healthy and fed). He arrived after dark, so I couldn’t see introductions, but everybody seemed happy this morning.

Did you see us on TV? Yeah, I don’t watch TV in the morning either…but if you are interested, the video (three 4 minute spots, shot live last week) is posted on our site, or directily on the Fox-5 site. Thank you so much to Jean and Bob Galey of Catoctin Creek Farm in Jefferson, Maryland for bringing their beautiful white Romney ewe and to Irene and Jim Mandracchia of Beaucaire Farm in Purcellville, Virginia for letting us borrow two Tunis ewes so we could demonstrate how different the breeds of sheep are and their wool. Of course, we were at Sue and Bill Bundy’s (RedGate Farm) in Leesburg, Virginia and showed off Sue’s beautiful Karakul sheep.

Weekend farmers markets:

Saturday we will be at the Falls Church, Virginia farmers market. We have moved up a spot and we are now right on the corner of Park Avenue and the driveway in (where Greenstones usually is). This week is the last drop in learn to knit class…might be a bit chilly. Exploring an inside refuge if it is too cold for fingers to work well…

Then Sunday we will be at the Dupont FreshFarm market in DC.

Packing up to bring to market:

• Targhee 3-ply
• Karakul*
• Tunis*
• Border Leicester aran weight
• Tunis/alpaca nature dyed
• Shropshire baby yarn (on sale, but only a few skeins left)
• knitting kits for bottle cozies and coasters
• alpaca/Merino lace weight
• odds & ends
• Sue Burke handcrafted bags*

* we have just a few of Sue’s knit-to-felt bags and each one is a unique creation. They are available for sale, or use them as inspiration and buy the yarns/pattern to make your own. If you have anyone on your holiday list that would appreciate something really special, this might be it…

And on Sunday only: Solitude honey. It is sort of hidden because I keep it bundled up. It’s raw honey (not pasturized), that begins to crystalize below 50 degrees. Even if it does start to crystalize, it is fine (Europeans expect and like it crystalized). You can carefully warm it back to liquid, but don’t microwave or overheat or you will kill the magic good things that you want from raw honey.

Do come to the market and get great local food to be thankful for next week…and yarn for a project to work on in front of the fire, or a parade or football game or something…

See 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

Good Evening!
Just came in from sitting outside, sharing a beer and admiring the garden, lots of birds, the beautiful hay field with sun streaming down it, backlit trees at the edge of the pasture…. The air is so pleasant and it is so beautiful. I think this evening is what I fantasized about 20 years ago when we we first moved here and were starting the garden. Ahhhh. Can I just freeze it and keep it like this?

This week will be our last time at the Falls Church Farmers market until August 25th. A long vacation? Well, nooooooo. We will be here, sweating, working with wool: washing fleeces, harvesting dye plants, dyeing yarn, updating the web site…in other words, producing! We need to both catch up and get a little ahead so we can be ready for a big fall schedule.

In the meantime, we would love to have you join our Tour de Fleece team (spinning, it’s great!) on Ravelry. And shortly after that, you could join our Ravelympic’s team (knitting, it will be my first time, so can’t say yet) and cast on during the opening ceremony. The name of both teams are the same: team Peace & Solitude, a conjoining of Peace Weavers and Solitude Wool. Also in July, on Saturday the 21st, we will be at the Uniquitie’s Fiber Farmers market in Vienna, Virginia. Plus, you can always reach us by email (f-fsolitude@mindspring.com), phone (540-554-2312) and on the web site: www.solitudewool.com.

But…about this week, we will bring:
the two sale yarns: Shropshire baby and the Leicester Longwool/Border Leicester nature dyed
The Alpaca/Merino
The Border Leicester sport weight nature dyed (by request)
The Border Leicester aran weight
The Karakul yarn, plus balls prepared for the knit-to-felt coaster pattern
The Suffolk/Dorset boot sock yarn (three new colors)
Targhee 3-ply, another new color just out to dry this morning:

Roving: get yourself ready for Tour de Fleece
odds & ends (very popular at Falls Church)
some of my handspun Romney yarn
and one white Romney sheep pelt

That’s all the business, but thought you might want to see how the babies are not babies anymore…

Good night from Solitude!
-G

Good Morning!
This is the weekend for our first “Field day” to learn about breeds at the farms that raise them. It is on Sunday, June 3rd at RedGate Farm in Leesburg, Virginia from noon to 4pm. Details of what’s happening and driving directions at the end of the email.

Saturday we will be at the Falls Church farmers market. I think it will be fine, but in case of rain, if we decide to stay home and keep our powder dry I will post on the web site by 6:30am on Saturday. All you Falls Churchians that just signed up for the email list (welcome!) now know where we are, but if you haven’t been to see us there, we are in a really lovely, slightly off the beaten track place: on the sidewalk on Park Avenue just behind the sausage folks (they give samples and you can probably follow your nose as soon as you get close). It is under a big tree, lovely and cool and such a lovely place that we thought it would be perfect to sit and knit for World Wide Knit in Public Day. This year it isn’t just one day, it’s eight: from June 9th to the 17th…so that covers the following two Saturdays. I will see if I can get permission for us to set up some chairs next to the tent. More next week if it’s okay (and prizes, especially if you happening to be knitting in public with Solitude yarn. Come this Saturday and pick some out!).

At market this week: the four yarns on sale, Clun Forest, Leicester Longwool/Border Leicester, Border Leicester bulky and Shropshire baby yarn. They are 20% off. Plus our two other Border Leicester yarns: the aran weight, in very preppy colors and the sport weight that is nature dyed. I will also bring the Targhee 3-ply yarn this week that has 4 new handpainted colors:

The first photo shows two skeins from the same dyelot…I went a little crazy and it is very funky and no two skeins are the same. I think it would be a really fun summer shawl for traveling on planes, cool evenings at Wolf Trap, over air conditioned places… The second photo is also fairly funky, but the dark version with blacks and bright jewel tones. The third photo shows two different dyelots, not funky at all, a nice soft green and pewter/lavender with orange and green accents. This yarn is very lightweight and almost feels like cotton. Look for our Fire and Ice bottle cozy kits. I can’t recommend these enough. I use mine everyday now: it keeps the ice in my water bottle from melting for ages, even in a closed car in the parking lot in the heat this last week. And prepared roving for spinning or felting.

Field day: RedGate Farm
We hope you can join us at Sue and Bill Bundy’s farm just outside of Leesburg, Virginia this Sunday from noon to 4pm.
The weather sounds pretty great, but we will have it rain or shine.

Schedule:
• Sue will be introducing you to her Karakul sheep, an ancient and rare breed that has fat tails and a double coat. Sue will be talking at 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00pm
• Bill will be talking about the bees (RedGate Apiary) at 12:30 and 2:30
• The mini-workshop, knit-to-felt coasters with Karakul yarn is at 12:30 (full) and 2:30 (two spots available, email f-fsolitude@mindspring.com to grab them, or try that day)

You can see RedGate and get a feeling for how great it is to live on a small farm (the garden, lots of poultry!), bring your knitting (and maybe a chair) and just enjoy. It is a working farm so remember to bring a hat, wear closed toe shoes that you wouldn’t mind if you stepped in anything…and no dogs. This is not an event geared to kids younger than nine, so plan to monitor them closely if they come along.

Entrance is $15.00 and you get a coupon for $10 towards Solitude Wool purchase that day. Yes, of course we will have yarn for sale.

How to get here:
RedGate Farm
17883 Running Colt Pl.
Leesburg, VA 20175

From the beltway:
Follow Rt. 267, a toll road, towards Leesburg.

Exit 1A and stay in the right lane. Take the first exit on to Rt. 15 N.

Turn left on Davis Ave.

Turn left on Dry Mill Rd.

Go 2 miles and turn left on Coltfield Way.

Go straight through the stop sign on to our driveway. There will be parking signs.

From Purcellville and points west:
Coming towards Leesburg on Rt. 7, exit at at Rt. 9

Turn right as you come off of the exit ramp.

Turn left on Dry Mill Rd.

Turn right on Coltfield Way.

Go straight through the stop sign on to our driveway. There will be parking signs.

From Brunswick, MD:
Go South on Rt. 287

Turn left on Rt. 9

Follow Rt. 9 until it dead ends at Dry Mill Rd.

Turn left on Dry Mill Rd.

Turn right on Coltfield Way

Go straight through the stop sign on to our driveway. There will be parking signs.

Hint.. the address is Running Colt Pl., but you will not turn on to that street. Go straight across it.

A quick good morning!
Looks like we will have decent weather for this coming Sunday so I am feeling much more confident we will make it to the Dupont FreshFarm market this Sunday.

And we are looking forward to the following weekend: Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival! Hope you have it on your calendar and I am hoping for dry weather! More next week, but add a note to find N26 and come see us.

Goat kid name update:

In the foreground of both photos with the black legs: Tina Modatti, a black and white photographer who also was an actress in early movies. I never knew about Tina Modatti. Tina the kid is the ringleader, all my photos seem to have her in front and the first to jump. In the middle of the second photo with the black chest is Dora Carrington, another artist I didn’t know. She was a painter and hung out with The Bloomsbury Group. Last is Dube, he is standing on the right in the second photo. We have had a goat named Jean (Dubuffet) before, but he just seems like a Dubbie…and we gave in. Thank you everyone for your suggestions. We will have to save them for future years too and I loved learning so many new artists.

signing off with a smile from Pearl,
G

Good Morning (more…)

(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

Happy New Year!
Wow. Feeling like I’ve gone from zero to 60 miles and hour in 6 seconds. What happened to that Holiday suspension of time? I know this happens every year, but it is still a shock. How did I get so behind when I thought I was getting ahead? So, once again, this is a rush email. I’ll do it in bullet points:

• We are going to the FreshFarm market at Dupont (in Washington DC) this Sunday. Remember it is now winter hours: 10am to 1pm and we will be on the other side of the street from where we have been (which is really nice for us to get the sun and to be able to park next to the stand). We will take these yarns: Alpaca-Merino lace weight, Border Leicester bulky (almost sold out and it is really nice!), the Corriedale bulky, the Leicester Longwool and Border Leicester nature dyed yarn, the Shropshire baby yarn, the Suffolk-Dorset boot sock yarn (really nice for sweaters, kids knits, shawls etc and socks too), the Tunis-Alpaca and ready to spin or felt roving.

• The following weekend we will be at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Holy smokes! We aren’t quite as worked up as last year, but almost. We are going to have a double booth and lights (I think…) so hope to have room for people to actually get into the booth this year. We were so excited to see some friendly DC Solitude customers last year! We hope lots of folks will come. I don’t know what classes might still be open, but just coming to the marketplace is really interesting, there are very Vogue fashion shows (two different runways) and demos, yarn tastings, celebrity book signings…and man the knitting celebs are so there! Kaffe Fasset, Clara Parkes, Nancy Marchant, Ysolda to drop names of people I’m looking out for. So if you are interested in dropping in to the marketplace, you can purchase tickets online (and the lines last year were daunting, so this is a really good idea) and get a free gift certificate. I’ll send an email next week with our line up of yarn and other particulars.

• Lamb update from RedGate…they are growing up really too fast I think. Here are the photos Sue just sent me of the little girls

snuggling sisters

• and look what we got for Christmas, a special purple birdhouse…with a leaping goat. We have it hung where we can see it from the livingroom. Just waiting for spring to see who will move into this fine place.

Hope you can come to the market Sunday, if there is something we don’t have on our list to bring that you would like, drop me an email by Friday morning and we will pack it in: f-fsolitude@mindspring.com
The weather forecast is for warmer temps (thank goodness!) but possible showers. Right now I’d say it is a 90% chance of us coming, but if the rain is bad we will stay home. Check the web site by 7am if you want to know for sure. I will post if we are not coming, otherwise, assume we will be there.
Thanks,
Gretchen