Our third breed study field trip is coming up fast; Saturday June 15th. We invite you to join us for an afternoon of experiential learning about a wonderful Longwool breed of sheep.

The idea bubbled up because Sue and I were learning so much by going directly to farms, buying fleece (especially Sue, she has touched many hundreds, no… thousands of fleeces), and getting to meet the breed that grew it. Books are great references…but touching is better. Plus we wanted to introduce you to some of the farms that we buy wool from so you have a personal connection to the yarn. It is also an opportunity for the farm to offer their own products directly to you.

So, here is what’s on offer:

See and enjoy a beautiful 1790 farm in Lovettsville, Virginia, WeatherLea Farm. In addition to raising Romney and a few Merino sheep, they have llamas, a small vineyard, host weddings and have a cottage available for overnight stays (last I heard, it was available for the weekend in case you want to fly in from far off parts for the event). There are gardens, a lovely pond with a deck above; perfect for sitting and spinning or knitting, so bring a project and soak up some good farm ambiance. WeatherLea will be selling their beautiful wool blankets and roving made from the wool they don’t let us have. Listen to the talk on Romney sheep and see the sheep shearing. Taste wine from North Gate Vineyards, who turn WeatherLea’s grapes into excellent wine. And come to of my favorite places at WeatherLea, a great big bank barn where we will have Solitude Wool yarns and fibers, the mini-workshops and…

We have another guest at this event: Two Rivers Yarns, a local shop from Brunswick Maryland. They are putting together the spinning mini-workshop and are bringing handcrafted swifts, shawl pins, soaps etc from local consigners plus spindles, needles and other tools.

Two mini-workshops with Romney wool

1. Knitting: two color mosaic (slip stitch) knitting taught by Karin Fellers. Knit an eye glass or cell phone case using a simple slip stitch technique that creates a bold color pattern. You will knit in the round and learn how to read a mosaic chart so you can expand to other projects. Offered twice: 12:30 and 2:30.

2. Spinning: learn how to spin your own yarn taught by Jenni Campbell. Romney is one of the easiest wools to spin and often recommended for beginners. Here is your chance! Grab it. Roving from WeatherLea will be used in the class. Two sessions: 12:30, beginning spindle spinning; 2:30 session can be an intermediate or beginner + class depending on interest/skill.

Schedule for the day:

12:00 (noon) to 4:00 pm – farm open, Solitude Wool and Two River’s Yarns booths and WeatherLea wool products

1:00, 2:00 and 3:00 pm – talks about Romney sheep

time still to be determined: sheep shearing and North Gate Vineyard, wine tasting

12:30 – first session Mini-workshops

2:30 – second session Mini-workshops

Cost and reservations

WeatherLea can handle all of us, so you only need to reserve a spot if you would like to take a workshop. Each class limited to 8 students; pay in advance to reserve a space.

Entrance is $20.00 and includes a $10 coupon good towards Solitude Wool purchase.

Mini-workshops are $30.00 each plus materials fee.

Please send Gretchen an email at f-fsolitude@mindspring.com, or call 540-554-2312 to reserve a space and arrange for payment.

So hope you can come! We are on rain or shine (thank you big bank barn).

How to Get to Weather Lea Farm

Phone: 540-822-5097

from I-495 Beltway, VA: Take Dulles Toll Rd (Rte 267) to the Greenway toll extension, which begins just before the airport. At the end of the Greenway, exit left to Rte. 7 West/15 South. Stay on Rte. 7W about 3 miles, then exit right to Rte. 9 West. Go 5 miles to 3rd stoplight; turn right on Rte. 287N. Drive 8 miles, to stop sign at 7-11 store in Lovettsville. Jog left and immediate right to stay on Rte. 287N. Proceed 1.9 milies down a long winding hill, passing Wenner Rd. Look for Weatherlea Farm Lane on right, at white board fence.

From MD at I-495: Take I-270 from Beltway to I-70W at Frederick. Exit onto Rte. 340W/15S. Stay on 340W (do NOT take 15S to Leesburg) to Brunswick exit. Turn left off ramp to Rte 17S; take right at stoplight, continue down hill to roundabout; straight across Potomac bridge; Weatherlea Farm Lane is second left, 1/2 mile from the river.

Scenic Alternative from DC/Bethesda: Take River Rd. through Potomac and beyond until it ends at Seneca Rd. Turn right on Seneca, continue to end at stoplight in Darnestown. Left at light onto Rte. 28. Continue on Rte. 28 for approximately 20 miles; watch for little house with many birdhouses, and turn left there (Rte. 28 itself turns). Continue several more miles (stop and get an ice cream at the Creamery) into and through Point of Rocks. Turn left on Rte. 15; cross Potomac River bridge and take immediate right on Lovettsville Rd. Continue several miles into Lovettsville. Turn right at 7-11 onto Berlin Turnpike (Rte. 287). Go two miles down a long, winding hill. Look for Weatherlea Farm Lane sign on right.

Here are the details:
Two hour session is from 9:30am to 11:30am
Location is next to the Solitude Wool stand, on the grass on the Park Avenue end of the market.
you can bring your own wool yarn and appropriate size of needles, or we will have kits with yarn and needles for sale.
do bring a chair if you can.
cost is $30.00. class limited to 8 students. reserve your spot (email Gretchen at f-fsolitude@mindspring), or drop in is great if class isn’t filled.

It is so pleasant sitting under the shade of the big trees along Park Avenue on the grass

Hope you are able to come to the festival and celebrate everything sheep and wool!

This year we have a new location: in the Main Exhibition Hall, booth B-17 which is along the west wall. We would love to see you and show off our yarn and roving.

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

In reverse order…

We are planning our next Solitude Wool Field Day: Romney. On Saturday June 15th we will be at WeatherLea Farm & Vineyard in Lovettsville, Virginia. WeatherLea is a beautiful farm with a great big bank barn for events. More info soon.

Hope you have blocked out May 5th and 6th for the 40th Anniversary of the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. This is the grandmother of all sheep and wool festivals. I wonder if anyone has written the history of how it got started? I know it was Maryland Shepherds. I hope they are all beyond proud of themselves, because it is an extraordinary event. I don’t really know this, but it feels like this festival was the start of bringing back wool handcrafts and small flock shepherding from the brink of extinction. I guess I should try and find out…anyway, Solitude Wool will be there in a new location this year: D17 of the Main Exhibition Hall. Even if you are far, far away. Consider coming. It’s worth it.

On Sunday April 7th, we are going to open for visitors and sales at our corner of the (Endless Summer Harvest) warehouse in Purcellville, Virginia. Hours will be from noon to 4 pm. More information soon (interested in a spinner’s circle?).

And last and closest: On Saturday March 23rd, we will be one of the farms participating in the Uniquities Fiber Farmer’s Market. Hours are from 1 to 5 pm and it will again be at the Vienna, Virginia Community Center.

A brief announcement about Farmers Markets:

We will be back to the Falls Church Farmers Market this Saturday, January 5th. The market is starting the winter hours: opening at 9:00 am (and boy do I appreciate it!). We will probably be in a new place at the market and I won’t know where until directed on Saturday morning. Look for our polka dot tent top…or just racks of yarn. We will be there!

Then, Sunday, January 6th we will be at the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market. This market also has winter hours: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. So civilized! We will be in our regular spot on the street.

And then for the rest of the winter our plan is to be at both these markets every other weekend:

Jan: 19th & 20th

Mar: 2 & 3 16 & 17 30 & 31

And, as you now know if you are a farmers market customer…we bow out if it is raining…or if the roads are icy. So, if we have to miss a weekend, we might just pop in the following one to make up. I will always (at least if I am able, power outage might prevent it) put a notice on our web site if I cannot make it when scheduled.

There are bunches of other things going on:

• getting it together to put new yarn on cones for weaving up on the web site…we are late! sorry…

• will be adding the Targhee 2 yarn to the web site very soon too

• also getting information/labels ready to introduce another new yarn: Montadale baby. Really nice.

• planning our next Solitude Wool Field Day: Tunis. Date and time to be determined

I’ll announce them all as soon as we pull it together.

Thank you,

Happy New Year!!!!

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

I’m really sorry. Before I was a farmer, I was a farmers market shopper. I was mad when I went to get something and the vendor wasn’t there. And it’s present buying time. So. I’m staying home…sending two orders along with Mary Ellen to the Endless Summer Harvest booth for pick up, and any phone or online orders today (from the lower 48 states anyway) get free shipping. I will be happy to help shop by phone: 540-554-2312.

Gretchen

It has been an unexpected but most welcome return to October weather these last few days. I have been going as fast as I can to take advantage of it. Dyeing yarn, working on several different yarns

including our new baby yarn…rinsing yarn, drying yarn, dyeing more yarn etc etc

and, doing some good farm things: trimming hooves (boy is that a good thing to have done before the finger freezing time arrives), filling feed bins, cleaning out the milking parlour (what a terrible mess it was!). Joan worked in the garden, raked leaves, mowed (!) and harvested lots of kale, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, beets. All the beds under cover got uncovered and watered and are now covered up again.

And we didn’t even get to several things we wanted to, changing light bulbs at the barn and outside the house, hanging the double suet feeder and figuring out how to keep the racoon from stealing it.

So the sun is setting and I head out with camera and it makes me look. The animals are all cooled out, just enjoying this brief warm up. I’m pooped, and now the warm up is over. I didn’t miss it, but somehow I don’t think I got as much out of it as they did.

Back to all three markets again this weekend

Sue and Bill will be heading to Leesburg Farmers Market this Saturday again and I will be doing the Falls Church Farmers Market on Saturday and the Dupont Circle Farmers Market on Sunday (if it doesn’t rain).

This week will be just the opposite of last week:

Leesburg customers will get to see Karakul, Tunis, Targhee 3-ply, Border Leicester aran weight, Border Leicester sport weight, Corriedale bulky, Tunis/alpaca plus the new preview yarns and the alpaca/Merino lace.

Falls Church and Dupont get Romney, Shropshire double twist, Corriedale/Corrie cross, Targhee 2-ply, Border Leicester bulky, Icelandic, Suffolk/Dorset sock plus the new preview yarns and the alpaca/Merino lace.

Hope you all got to enjoy some of the weather half as much as the farm animals did!

Gretchen