Good Morning!

Okay, I’m trying to set the tone for my day: efficient but thorough and maintaining good cheer. Here goes:

1. You all were so appreciative of Solitude Wool at the Leesburg HomeGrown markets the last two Saturdays that Sue wants to come back this Saturday too.

2. I will be at the Falls Church Farmers market on Saturday (looks solid) and the Dupont FreshFarm market on Sunday. Once again, the weather on Sunday sounds wet, but I hope it comes in late. If we can’t come to any market, look for a message on the home page by 6:00am that day. And if we are not able to come, free shipping on all web site or phone orders for that day… no matter where you happen to live (as long as it’s in the lower 48 states).

3. Special things coming to market: three new small felted bucket bags by Sue Burke (two shown above). Small bags $160 plus we have one medium one at $240 and two large bags at $280. Sue will have some at Leesburg and I will have the others, or you can snap them up by phone/email ahead of the market if you can’t make it (540-554-2312, f-fsolitude@mindspring.com).

4. Clara Parkes, author of The Knitter’s Review, The Book of Yarn and The Book of Wool, is having a yarn making adventure starting in January. I had my nose just slightly out of joint when I read about this, Now Clara, who has been a great supporter of Solitude Wool, is a competitor? But I talked myself back around, of course we want more people making yarn from good farm sources! This adventure centers around wool from one farm in New York. I got to meet the shepherd two years ago, and although I haven’t been to the farm, I think he is pretty amazing. So, I signed up to follow Clara transform this “Great Bale” into yarn. You can follow too by signing up for a members-only protected section of her web site. Sue and I live this adventure, and I think it ought to be pretty interesting to knitters/yarn users to see what it takes to make small batch artisan yarns in the US.

Okay, that’s it for now…off for more cheerful efficiency (I think I can!)

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!
What a wonderful taste of fall. Almost as good as a 70 degree day in February…I’m savoring every cool moment, and so are the animals! Are you getting the urge to knit something for fall or thinking about hand made holiday gifts for the people you love? Small batch, breed specific yarn will make your project even more special, plus wool is just so nice to knit with, you will be treating yourself, even if you aren’t knitting something for yourself.

Next week I will map out our full fall schedule which includes several fiber festivals and shows. Coming up soon: Solitude Wool Field Day 2: Cotswold September 16th (reservations suggested for the mini-workshops, one knitting, one spinning) and The Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival September 29th & 30th

This weekend we will return to the Falls Church (Virginia) market on Saturday and continue to be there most Saturdays until Christmas. Sunday we will be at the Dupont (DC) market and back every other week until November when we come every week again. At the market this week:

This boot sock yarn has several new colors, including some that men would wear. I think they will be up on our web site by 8/22.

There are several new colors of the hand painted Romney. These are now up on the web site, but please note: the hand painted skeins are larger than the solid colors, I wanted to make sure in this larger yarn there was enough to play with.

This is one of the Romney hand paints…a bouquet that won’t fade and make you happy in the middle of winter.

We will bring other yarns too…Karakul and Tunis, the ingredients for the knit-to-felt bucket bag and others yet to be selected.
Hope to see you this weekend, and if you aren’t within market distance, check out the web site!
Thanks,
Gretchen

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.

Greetings!
This Saturday will be our first time doing two events at once (a milestone I think): we will be at the Falls Church Farmers market from 8 am to Noon and we will be on the Loudoun County Spring Farm Tour at our warehouse location with Endless Summer Harvest in Purcellville from 10:00 am to 4 pm.

Falls Church: We had a lovely time last week for our first time at market. Thank you to our friends who came to welcome us and all the new local fiber folk. Our official spot is a little off the main path, so keep looking for us; we are under a lovely tree on Park Avenue, just to the east of the main entrance. Each week, we bring different yarns, but if you are interested in something not listed, you can send me an email and we will bring it for you. This week at Falls Church:
• Alpaca Merino lace weight
• Tunis, woolen spun, worsted weight
• Karakul (fabulous felting yarn, see felted bag samples)
• Border Leicester aran weight
• Corriedale bulky (we have a wonderful pillow pattern for this yarn)
• Dorset boot sock kits (not too many left after the Yarn Harlot knit a pair!)
• Leicester Longwool/Border Leicester nature dyed yarn
• Shropshire baby yarn
• Suffolk/Dorset boot sock yarn
• Tunis/alpaca nature dyed yarn
• roving for spinning or felting
do I really think I can fit all this in the truck…hmmm.

Farm Tour: Come see our new digs at Endless Summer Harvest farm in Purcellville. Sue will be there to show off our new space. We are so thrilled to have room to store the yarn on cones, a great place for our new motorized skeining equipment, all our inventory, a big table for mailing off orders around the country (and occasionally across the seas), all the market tents and accoutrement and even a table for us to meet at. We will have yarn on display and for sale, Debbie will have the skein winders going, our friend Nancy will be there spinning plus…you can also see the Endless Summer Harvest greenhouses and get a lettuce wrap. The weather sounds great! Do come!

Coming up really soon: June 3rd Field day at RedGate farm to see/experience Karakul sheep and fiber. I will be sending out information to those of you registered for the knit-to-felt mini-workshops. There are still a few spots open, send me an email (f-fsolitude@mindspring.com) if you would like to save a spot, but if you want to just come to the farm, you don’t need to pre-register. $15 entrance fee includes a $10 towards a Solitude Wool purchase that day. Details here

And at Solitude…it’s spring rush:

This is what most of my photos of the triplets look like…a blur of jumping, running, butting, climbing. The lambs are already concentrating on the important things…eating. I will post more photos on our facebook page.

Thank you all, hope to see you at the market and at Solitude Wool warehouse.
Gretchen

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

K A R A K U L

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.

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.

the wonderful part of growing things is you get enjoy them so many times: anticipate how great they will be, then appreciate them at their peak…and again when you get to eat…or dye with them! This year’s daffodils will get put to use very soon, but as you fiber folks know, textile arts require many steps and mucho time to finish (slow yarn!). If you want to knit in season though, you’re in luck. There are daffodil dyed yarns available in the Border Leicester/Leicester Longwool, the Icelandic, and one skein in the Border Leicester sport.

This Saturday, St. Patrick’s day, we will be in Vienna Virginia at the Community Center for the Uniquities Fiber Farmers Market. This is a gem of an event. Do you want to get to know the growers of natural fibers in the DC fiber shed? This is the best place to start. We are going to have a guest with us this Saturday, Kathy Owens, a new knitwear designer. Kathy is almosty ready to publish several patterns (they are in the final editing stages). Three of the patterns were developed with Solitude yarns and Kathy is offering them (draft previews) free with a yarn purchase from us. Too nice of her! They are good patterns.

Then Sunday we will be at the Dupont FreshFarm Market in DC. Even though it is feeling like summer…it is still the winter market and hours are 10am to 1pm. We will pare down our offerings a little (Sue and I couldn’t fit in the booth last time), but are still trying to figure out how to bring it all…

Hope to see you this weekend, or via the website!
Gretchen

Good evening! Hope you have had a nice leap day.

Well, I’m pretty well fixed. Sue and I will be back to the farmers market this Sunday at Dupont Circle in DC. Thank goodness.

I haven’t mentioned it, but a generous offer and unbelievable opportunity came our way thanks to Mary Ellen Taylor of Endless Summer Harvest (a fellow Loudoun County Farm and vendor at Dupont). We have taken over a corner of their big warehouse. I’m sure I haven’t thanked Mary Ellen and all the folks at ESH enough (a fault of mine, I need to follow Mary Ellen’s example, because she is so good at expressing her appreciation for everyone!). This is life altering for us. Here at Solitude and at RedGate, we were about to suffocate in mountains of fleeces and yarn. We are still moving and organizing and it is already great.

One of the great benefits of crawling from under our fiber seems to be creating a little clear space in our minds to think about things in a new way. It may take awhile for us to work it out, but we are going to try to bring a selection of all our yarns to every market. We hope you will find just what you need and we aren’t just telling you about a yarn that we don’t have with us. We will have to bring less of each batch, but can check how much is available and will deliver next time we are at market or ship (no charge). From us to DC usually takes only one day. Over the next few markets we would love to have your feedback. Is it better this way or would you rather go back to the old way?

There are some new yarns to highlight this week:
Alpaca/Merino lace weight yarn: we have two new dyed in the wool colors to add to the palette. Both these yarns are primarily white alpaca. One is 80% white with 20% dyed Merino wool that is a lovely tropical teal color

and the other new color is white with some black alpaca and 20% dyed Merino in purples (skein and knitted sample on the right). I photographed it with the black and gray alpaca with 20% dyed Merino in pinks and purples for comparison.

On the web site, quantities of labeled skeins available are indicated, but we have lots available. This yarn is dyed in the wool and blended at the mill, meaning there are no dye lots: the whole color lot matches. Sue is almost finished knitting a lace shawl out of the black. Maybe she will have it to show this Sunday? It also works beautifully as a soft fine weft in weaving. Available on cones.

Another great thing that is possible because of more working room: fabulous new skeining equipment. We can make longer skeins which opens up new opportunities for me dyeing yarn. The larger skeins make it more successful to handpaint heavier yarns and the first experiments are with the Romney aran weight. I only got a couple done before the P-neumonia got me. Here is a peek:

These handpainted skeins are longer (than the solid and undyed skeins): 205 yds/187 meters; 7 oz./198 grams and are $49
In addition to the summer solstice color above I have one with dark blues on gray yarn. Plus, three new solid dyed colors: two blues and a new honey orange 2. Will have them at the market and up on the web site next week.

Hope to see you this Sunday or hear from you via email or web site.
Thanks,
Gretchen
f-fsolitude@mindspring.com

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

Greetings!
So, I’m changing up my usual order of procrastination this week getting ready for Vogue Knitting Live. Both the RedGate big red truck and the Solitude green truck are packed up with yarn, roving, tents, lights (yeah!), the pattern box (which needed to be fed-x’ed to us at Stitches East since I left it on the table), and all the assorted stuff to put together a booth. That is thanks in great part to Sue and Bill who did most the work while I was printing stuff…and now I just need to do about five other things like stamp bags, organize all the paperwork stuff (and where is that NY sales tax number?), pack clothes, charge everything and maybe even take a bath…but even though it feels like I’m a little less crazy than usual, I haven’t done an email to you all. There is always something I can be behind on.

We will be in booths 2114 and 2116 on the second floor of the marketplace. It is the same spot we were in last year. The highlights in my mind are: 1. new colors of the Targhee 3 ply yarn including some handpainted skeins that are the first with our new 4 yd skein winder. I think it is going to open up some new creative dyeing possibilities. 2. We have three new samples to help show off our yarns courtesy of Chris Rose, a long time DC customer. (2.1) One is “Daybreak” designed by Stephen West and knit with two colors of the Targhee yarn (pattern available on Ravelry).

(2.2) The second is a free pattern on Ravelry, Ruffled scarf- Ullas-Schal by Margareite Dolff in our Shropshire double twist yarn. and here is Chris modeling it

(2.3) And last, but not least, is a pattern from Nancy Marchant from her book Knitting Brioche, “Laars Manchetten” which is Dutch for boot cuff. These are knit using the Brioche stitch which is double sided and therefore reversible. The yarn is our Border Leicester sport weight yarn. I love them.

Since we have two spaces this year we can bring more yarn…so hope you are also going to be a VKL and can come see us!!

And to finish off, wanted to share some photos from yesterday morning when we had snow on the ground and fog. It was a bit mystical, and so unexpected after our spring like weather for the market last Sunday.