Good Morning!

Thank you to everyone who came to the Field day at RedGate last week to meet and learn about Karakul sheep. It was a beautiful day and Sue and I are still happy because everyone had a good time. You know how sometimes a party just has that magic and you know it’s good?, we felt it. We are working on the second one and it’s tentatively planned for Sunday, September 16th, save the date!

I so love this cool weather. Once again, I’m rushing the email because today (and maybe into tomorrow?) is barn cleaning day here at Solitude. Normally I would have this done already, but hey, I’ve been busy. Here is the before, from afar so you can’t really see how bad it is:

I’m visualizing the after…today the John Deere and I get a bit of a workout. See the goats relaxing in the barn? They hate cleaning day because they get booted out. I would be happy if someone would come clean my house, but they will feel very put out.

WWKIP day
WWKIP day, if you don’t know, stands for World Wide Knit in Public day. This year it runs from June 9th through the 17th…eight days long, hmmmm. We will start this Saturday, June 9th, at the Falls Church Farmers market. Our booth is right on Park Avenue, on the grass by the brick sidewalk under big trees. It is the coolest spot at the market and is a perfect place to sit and knit in public for awhile. Bring a chair, some money (for coffee, a yogurt smoothy, donuts or a crepe snack from the market) and of course…your knitting and join us! Just in case you don’t have a project going and need to pick up some yarn, we will bring a swift and ball winder. We have four prizes to offer, so if you come you can put your name into a hat and we will do a drawing once an hour on the 45′s. Come early, winners get to pick out their prize, so first one has the best choice. Must be there and knitting in public to win.

prizes: Leicester Longwool (lemon chiffon) roving, a skein of the Alpaca/Merino lace weight yarn, a pattern and yarn to make knit-to-felt karakul coasters (from last weekends mini-workshop), or a $12 Solitude Wool coupon. If we all have fun, maybe we can do it again next week also at Falls Church? This week and next will be our last two Falls Church markets until the end of August. During the market break we will be busting something making yarn for you all: using Summer solar power to wash/dry fleece; dyeing dyeing dyeing; rinsing, rinsing, rinsing and drying, drying, drying.

Sunday we will be at the Dupont FreshFarm market. We will have all the same yarn and bring the swift and ball winder because in the afternoon, Looped is sponsoring a WWKIP event in the Dupont Circle. So if you are in DC and don’t have a project going…stop by our stand first and get fixed up!

At market this week:
1. Karakul
2. Tunis
3. Romney
4. Shropshire double twist
5. Targhee 3-ply (great summer yarn)
6. Dorset sock kits (already in balls with a pattern)
7. Fire & Ice kits (easy and small and great for the hot weather to keep your water cool)
8. Odds and Ends bin
and sale yarns (two more weeks!):
9. Leicester Longwool/Border Leicester natural dyed
10. Shropshire baby yarn

That’s it!
time to get tough and clean the barn!
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.