If you look at the knitting section of Sarah’s website, I tried on many of those sweaters a few years ago at SOAR and I was particularly taken with the one called Green Sleeve and the one called Ode to Elizabeth.

Most of the sweaters shown on her website don’t have patterns available but you can find her work here too if you want to get some of the patterns.

The tapestries look beautiful on the website but their true beauty doesn’t come through. She really is amazing.

When i met her at SOAR I immediately began inviting her to teach here in Michigan. it took a while to convince her. She only travels to teach a couple of times a year and though she likes the teaching, she’s not a fan of the traveling. So, in late 2011 we set a date for 2013. When I decided to close the brick and mortar store I couldn’t cancel her and so I came up with another plan. A local hotel was the key and I think it worked out really well. That’s why I’m now working on scheduling some more workshops in the area. Keep your eyes peeled and watch the newsletter for upcoming announcements.

This is what the classroom looked like. Piles of wool in the middle and people all over the place. It was fantastic. Lots of freedom to do what moved us. There was instruction each day (it was a 2 1/2 day workshop) and then we went crazy with knitting and embroidery and needlpoint. We were seeing what blending wool to get values that move smoothly from one to the next could do for us in our needlework or weaving. We also learned about different processing techniques and drafting techniques which would make great yarn for a wide variety of projects.

This is my wrap card of the first blends I did. the yarn was better with values that were closer to each other. I have no other photos because I was so busy and involved in what was going on I forgot to take pictures! i did do a big knitted swatch with that yarn and then i did a bit of embroidery and a little self portrait in needlepoint that isn’t finished.

I was amazed at what the other students in the class came up with. so much fantastic work.

Then she was gone. Back to Idaho. to take some time off of teaching and get a lot of work done. I was so sad.

And one final thing. Here is a tiny little picture. Maggie made this robe for herself last night.

She watched this video and just did it.

She is fearless and she inspires me to be more fearless and that’s all i have to say about my darling youngest daughter.

Better, yes?

There are certainly some things that need a home still but…at least you can see the floor now.

I can even reach my books now!

And this is my personal stash room. I can walk in here. I can find things in here! I can see the rug!

I don’t even have to keep most of the wheels in the dining room now. (There are only 2 or 3 in there now.)

I could even use the loom if I ever get caught up on stuff.

Somebody needs to clean that floor though.

On Thursday and Friday of this week there will be work in the fleece storage. I’ll have photos if you want. Everything will be organized and alphabetized and the class fleeces and club fleeces will have their own spot. I am so excited to know what I have again. Yay!

And on to my main point of today.

My kids like to ask me, a lot, what is my favorite song, what is my favorite movie, what is my favorite TV show? Well, the what is my favorite song question arose again and I gave my usual answer – for what?

Today was the first time I realized that I give that answer all of the time when asked about my favorites. In almost every class i teach a student asks, “What is your favorite wool?” My answer for years has been, “For what?” When i answer the kids with that they roll their eyes and it doesn’t go any further. In spinning classes, the subject often goes a little bit deeper and I talk about what wools are my favorites in each category.

Then we move to how I categorize wools and why.

This kind of thinking was the reason I wanted to write a book. I felt like my approach was a little different than many teachers I had taken classes from. Lucky for me, my publisher thought it was a good idea too.

So I wrote this book and spun the samples from May of 2011 to May of 2012. I turned in my manuscript in May 2012. It was in Word with about 160-ish pages and over 50,000 words. the most I had ever written about one topic in my life. then I waited. Some other books were in the works and things were delayed and so I waited. And then Christmas came and I waited.

Then, in early March of this year I got it back. With lots of notes and questions and comments. Well, i actually didn’t know that at first because I didn’t open it for at least a week. I needed the strong support of my friend Jillian. When I opened it the world did not come crashing down and everything seemed manageable.

Well, it took me just over 3 weeks in the midst of washing about 85 pounds of wool in at least 17  breeds. the last few days only consisted of editing all day. I turned it all in for my editor’s eagle eyes to review again on April 2 and it included 183 pages and more than 60,000 words!

There are still a few charts to fill in and some new samples to spin but progress is happening and I am glad.

There was a lot of hot chocolate drinking…

I stayed longer than I had planned and talked and talked and talked about sheep.

It was my lucky day. When I got there one of their cheviot ewes was in labor and she delivered during my visit! I had never seen a truly newborn sheep before. The closest I had gotten was within a few hours. It was wonderful and the mom took care of everything she needed to.

There is the little girl. Within 30 minutes the mom delivered another tiny ewe lamb and everybody was happy!

Here’s a different mother with her twins. I just love Cheviot sheep and their wool. it’s not one of the ones I chose to focus on my book and I keep wondering if that was a mistake. The wool of the Cheviots is one I would put in the Down types category because the crimp is helical and when you look at the locks there is usually no distinct crimp that shows like in other breeds like Romney or Corriedale. It is a very bouncy wool that is kind of medium in fineness, ranging from about 27 to 33 microns.  That makes it soft enough in some cases for next to skin wear but it also is a wool that will stand up to hard wear.

Also, I just can’t resist those ears that stand straight up.

The other fleeces I got are from Clun Forest sheep. That’s the black faced girl up there. Clun Forest Sheep are listed on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy list in the recovering category which means they have reached more than 2500 annual registered animals in the US and more than 10,000 animals of the breed world wide. So that’s happy news.

The Clun babies are born black and then their wool grows in white but as you can see, their faces and legs stay black. the wool is dense and has a micron count of about 28 to 33. Similar to the Cheviot but the wool feels a bit different to me. I might also place these sheep in the Down Types again because the crimp is more spiral in nature and the bounce is tremendous.

The staple lenght on both of these breeds is generally in the 4-5 inch range. Everything about both of them makes their wool easy to work with and desirable for a wide range of products.

Finally we went to see what the yearling ewes were up to. That’s two gorgeous Clun Forest Ewes and 3 fantastic colored Merino ewes. Merinos have been bred to only be white but once in a while a colored sheep pops up. they are not allowed to be registered but they are truly 100 percent merino and their wool is very lovely.

Anyway, my Easter isn’t over yet but this was surely a highlight!

The teaching part was great. The students were wonderful and I had a great time with them. Most of them were from the Vashon Weavers and also the Seattle Weavers Guild. Those two days flew by.

The thing that has stuck with me and has been niggling at me is the weaving I did in 5 days. The class was taught by Sue Willingham who has a studio on the island and offers classes on a regular basis as well as Janet Dawson, Sue’s Daughter who lives in Nova Scotia and has her own fiber business called the Bobbin Tree.

We spent time learning how to use a weaving software called Fiberworks which is very powerful and beyond what I need but so fun to play with. We also learned an easy way to warp from back to front which made me not afraid of it anymore.

There were 8 students and 9 looms. We each warped a loom 2 times and then the weaving round robin started. I came home with 9 good size samples and a great notebook so i can remember what we did.

Wanna see what we did?

This is the same cloth that Janet made and used to upholster a chair.

This one is a sampler of Bronson lace. There were 4 threadings and then we saw what happened when we changed the treadling in each square.

Overshot. One of my favorites. We played with the software to come up with a border that worked with the center.

This was threaded as straight twill but the treadling was interesting. I beat the first part hard and then loosened up.

This was a sett gamp. the threading was the same all the way across but the sett changed. Then we had to beat correctly to get an even weave.

This is the same threading and treadling as the blue one above. It’s in cotton and beat harder to use as a towel.

So cute – Twill! I love it!

This one is waffle weave. i haven’t finished the fabric yet. It will shrink right up and make a lovely absorbent towel.

And another of my favorites! Huck Lace.

See how much we accomplished? Just 5 days.  I want to get out my loom. Maybe this summer when things slow down a bit.

It was a small store. All of the fleeces would live in the garage and everything else would fit into the room that I forced Lou to move out of. I would bring things home little by little and put them in their spots and the house would always be pretty clean and organized.

It turns out that my spacial talents are non-existent. Also my idea of how long things take is way off. We were running out of time and so things just came home and were piled. A room full of stuff was taken to Michelle’s house for short term storage (lots of it is still there). Jillian and Carla came in January and spent a whole day with me. We made ginormous progress but then more fleeces arrived and I am hesitant to throw them in the garage with the other fleeces but I really need to find a spot to work in my new studio.

This is the studio where I am meant to write and ship things and prepare for classes.

Another view of the room where the work is supposed to happen.

And one more view.  you might be able to see why i’m working from my bed more often than not.

This is a view of our dining room. That stuff shouldn’t be in there.

More dining room.

And finally the room which is supposed to be my personal fiber room. You can see it’s not all personal.

And from the other end.

I’m not sure how this will ever be fixed but I am determined to get it done. Chelsea will be here tomorrow to help dig out in the studio. I’ll keep you updated.

So after all of that chaos there needs to be a little uplifting. Gluten Free Maple Bacon Cupcakes made by my friend Dana and won for not a little money at last night’s camp fund raiser at church. They are delicious. I think the recipe is from Pinterest.

Here’s what’s happening for the rest of the year.

April 5 – 7     DFW Fiber Fest  – Dallas Fort Worth –  There are still spaces left in a couple of these classes!

Wool Sampler Shawl

Mastering Wool Combing

Woolen and Worsted

Finish that Skein

Working Toward Consistency

April 26-29   Stringtopia String Thing - Lebanon Ohio

Finish that Skein

Woolen and Worsted

Breeds Study

May 17-19 I’m not going anywhere but Sarah Swett is in our town! Woohoo!

June I’m not going anywhere because the lovely Chelsea, mother of my granddaughter and number 2 daughter is getting married. Brittney and her darling are coming to town and lots of other family too. So that means I am staying put.

July 12-14  Spin-U – Hofstra University, Uniondale, NY

Classes to be announced but I will say it includes a lot of Longwools play

August  Los Angeles – Classes and dates to be determined.

September – It’s all up in the Air

October 17-20 New York State Sheep and Wool Festival – Rhinebeck, NY

Fleece to Finish

Working toward consistency

Springy Bouncy Down Breeds

Working toward consistency

Woolen and Worsted

And finally a photo of what I’ve been working on, the book, she is coming along.

And this girl: 

But I am behind. I need to have this finished and dry before I leave for Vashon Island on February 2! I did a little less than half yesterday. Today’s washing won’t be as much because I am running out of space to dry it all.

I thought I’d show you my set up. Most people won’t be washing the quantities I do but you can see that this is very doable for almost everyone.

This is the utility sink in my laundry room. this is where all of the water comes from and all the squeezing out happens.

How do you like that wallpaper? We’ve been in this house since 1999 and I’ve never redecorated this room. Anyway, you can see that I use my washer and dryer as a counter for the wash tubs during the soaking. Each tub holds between 1 and 2 pounds of wool depending on the breed. The Down types which I’m washing today take up a lot more space than say the Lincoln that I did yesterday so a little less fits in the tubs with enough room for the dirt to move away from the wool.

Here’s a look at the whole thing. Generally I do two soaks with Power Scour and 2 soaks with no detergent.  Yesterday I washed some extremely filthy Merino so I did 3 soaks with Power Scour before the rinses. I was willing to do this because the Merino is very long stapled. I think it’s 2 year’s growth and the fiber and crimp are particularly nice. But since it was on the sheep for extra long it was also extra dirty. The wool looked like the sheep had been rolling in mud.

Between washes and rinses I dump everything into the utility sink and squeeze out the extra water as well as I can. This takes away a little bit more of the dirt that is stuck in there.

So here’s one of my drying spots. It’s right outside of Maggie’s room which is across from the laundry room. Poor Maggie. On the floor to the right is Teeswater which is dr already but i need to put it in a bag with a label. On the sweater drying rack is the Merino drying very nicely. the fans have been going for almost 24 hours now and the wool is drying faster than i thought it would. Hopefully the Merino will be dry by bed time today.

The towels hanging over the laundry sorter are the towels I use to press out as much water as i can before laying the wool out to dry. There are at least ten towels hanging all over the place drying out for the next batch. I just put the wool in the towel and stand on it.

As you can see, there is no spinning out of the wool in the washer and no machines involved. It’s all me.

This is the other drying area. Lincoln in the back and Romney in the front. There were towels under the wool when I first laid it out but then the towels were soaking wet and so I removed them. More racks might be a good idea!

So, that’s what I’m doing right now. Get ready people on Vashon Island! I’m coming…first I’m gonna take this weaving class.

Some of this wool is also for the DFW Fiber Fest in April too. There are still spots in some of my classes if you are interested!

When I can back from Rhinebeck I had one week to get my stuff together for England. That included bringing home all of the stuff that was left in the store. There was paperwork from 6 years and lots of wool and tools that were my own personal things but I used at the shop. It also included the 400-ish fleeces from the Walls O’fleece and some processed wools that I would use for classes. It was a little overwhelming and almost everything ended up in piles all over. The trunk of my car is still full of bags of wool and Evil Michelle has an abundance of stuff still to be sorted…as soon as I get done with the piles that still remain.

It has now been 2 months since the shop has closed and I am still struggling to get a handle on everything and reorganize my life and brain for this new chapter.

The reason I bring this up is that now as I shuffle through all of the paperwork and piles I keep finding lovely little things. Little gifts, kind notes, bits of wool that were given to me by my customers. Many of those people I feel an attachment to and affection for. Most of all, as I go though this change and find these little treasures I feel grateful to all of the people who helped me make the Spinning Loft a happy place by being my customers and my advocates.

There have been so many times that I messed up which led to someone being unhappy with a shipment or a product. Those times are hard for me because I have a difficult time just moving ahead. I am usually down about it for at least a week. Keeping this in mind, i am finding all of these little bits of joy and putting them all together so I can go back and look at them because I am sure that I haven’t messed up for the last time!

And so, in my rambling way, I want to say thank you.

I know there will be spinning and teaching and more weaving than I’ve done. I’ve got a few articles lined up and a weekend retreat to plan but I need to set it all right in my head and reorganize to fit into my new life.

I’m looking forward to it.

In the mean time I’ve been reading a lot and look forward to more reading for pleasure. I used to read a ton of fiction when I was younger and then over the last ten years I stopped. This year, maybe around spring, I started reading fiction again and I remember why I loved it so much. Tomorrow I will set my reading goal on Goodreads. I think I’m going for 24 books. Maggie is going for 50!

I’ve also been knitting. It’s Blue Faced Leicester / Silk that was dyed by Amy King. It was a Christmas present last year. I’ve spun about half of it and am knitting a pattern in the process of design also by Amy King. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when we are done with it!

I’ll talk abut the spinning of it soon. I have big plans for the sleeves.

Off I go to keep knitting. Happy New Year!