What Housework?

"How long are you going to leave that thing up?"

Trooper, nagging me about the Christmas wreath. Since it snowed last night, I think I'll leave it up a little longer.

Trooper had a fun day yesterday, escaping 3 times before we figured out the fence had come loose in one spot. We let her explore the yard and the porch and generally hang out with us for a while.

Several times she climbed the turkey ramp and got on the roof of the goat/turkey house (here shown last summer):
. I didn't have my camera but it didn't matter; when she got on the highest peak of the turkey's section (there on the right, 20 feet off the ground) I had my hands over my eyes. You should have seen the look on the peahen's face when she flew up there and discovered a goat up in the trees.

But goats are good climbers, and she got down fine. They are also social. Trooper wandered over to the pig/cow barn, where my brother-in-law was mucking out the cows' pen.

Also, in case you didn't know: Goats are funny.

I have to show you how the batts from my last post spun up:

It's only 160 yards, but I love it! As for the quick shopper who bought the other batts, she isn't even a spinner yet. But from the sounds of it, this fiber might be the inspiration she's been waiting for to take some lessons. A convert. I am pleased.

I was in the shop yesterday, dyeing up some silk/merino DK and also doing a little spring cleaning. In response to some requests, I did finally create a new category at A Piece of Vermont called Jessie's Specials, dedicated to yarns that had some dyeing problems or that I just don't carry anymore. 20 percent off! I should mention also, since it's not very prominent on the site, that there is free shipping for orders over $60 (calculated automatically at checkout). If I ever get a decent amount of product up there, you can take advantage of it.

While poking around for my mistake yarns, I found some superwash merino top that I always meant to sell but never took pictures of. (I'm like that.)

Then I looked at a big pile of Border Leicester locks I had recently washed. (They're Sophie's and she wants them back.)

Look how lovely:

Border Leicester dyes beautifully, and it seemed to me these two could somehow become something very special together. Stay tuned for those batts...

Thanks for all the great feedback on our trip to the Spinnery. No  matter where you are, I would like to make a suggestion in only one word: PILGRIMAGE. And now I must get ready for a 4:00 closing at the bank. A Piece of Vermont is getting some funding today!

Best day ever!

Okay, best FIBER day ever.

Halfway to the Green Mountain Spinnery, I realized I had forgotten my camera. Fortunately, when we got there, David (one of the owners) lent me the Spinnery's and then emailed me the pictures later. This would be great if I had been capable of focusing an auto-focus camera not familiar to me. It would also be great if I had photographed something other than machinery, such as, I don't know, PEOPLE. Because while the mill was very cool, the people were even cooler. I was so overcome with fiber I couldn't think straight.

The shop:

The storage room, full of fiber:

Jenn trying to abscond with a 500-pound bag of wool.

The mill process was more interesting in person than in pictures (esp. blurry ones), but we saw the scouring area, the picker, the carder (which cards once into a big sheet of fiber and then cards that fiber in a perpendicular way, to get a woolen yarn, into pencil roving), a long spinning machine, a steamer, and a big ol' skeiner.

Scouring. The process of washing the fiber is problematic because it wastes a lot of water. The Spinnery filters the water and reuses it several times. As for the leftover "sludge," they are looking into ways to use the by-product, such as by extracting the lanolin to be used in salves. I think David said they're hoping to eventually have the scouring done off-site but I could be wrong about that.

Picker:

Carder, first pass:

Pencil roving:

Spinning machine:
 

I don't have pictures of the spinning in process, but at the end of our trip we did catch a woman named Patty, simultaneously supervising all those bobbins up there while knitting (crocheting?) up some little Easter eggs. Must suck to work there.

Coffee and yarn (and patterns). It's all good.

The final word: Warm, friendly people treated us like we were the first ones to ever tour the mill; dropped everything to talk yarn and fiber; and allowed us to fill the small shop area completely with bags of fleece. Then customers, people with car troubles, and even pattern designers* started showing up to climb over the bags. It looked a little like this:

*A woman showed up with the back of a sort-of cabled baby sweater in a natural yarn, which turns out was GMS's organic yarn. The pattern is going into their next book. And the woman was "Melissa," who, it turns out, designed lots of projects in the Green Mountain Spinnery pattern book. How cool is that?

Jenn (knitting only since December '07 and cranking out the FOs) had to breathe into a paper bag after looking at all the patterns and feeling all the yarn in the shop. She fell victim to the Mountain Mohair and is almost done with her hat already:

Now I can't even remember what we settled on for Real Vermonter yarn, but it's going to be either a DK or sport weight 2-ply (wool/alpaca), and I'm having them use the non-petroleum spinning oil on it. It will be ready in May or June.

I'm telling you, if you are anywhere near southern Vermont, make plans to visit the Spinnery, even if you don't have time for a tour. It's worth it just to meet people who are actually interested in the same things you are, who talk the talk (only better than you becaues they're pros), and who don't think it's weird that you like sniffing wool.

Speaking of wool....

I have this idea I mentioned in my last post, and I gave it a try. A few weeks ago, a friend sold me this Romney hoggett fleece, some of which I scoured

and then picked, and then carded into batts:

Well, last week, I dyed the batts:

Then I quartered the dyed sections and ran them through the drum carder in this order, with no clear idea of what would happen:

Jenn took pictures of the progress:



And we got:

Actually, we got four of these 2-ounce batts.

Who wants four ounces' worth?

That's right, they're for sale. I am currently spinning four ounces myself and would be done plying if those people my family did not suck the life out of me need my attention every waking moment now and then:

Do you love it? If so, I'm asking $17 for four ounces plus shipping, and the first person to email me gets it. [SOLD] With any luck there will be more in the future, and soon I may be able to make it more efficiently because I GOT A LOAN for the business! Just a little one, but it's a start and will allow me to buy, in addition to lots of yarn, this, which will speed up the picking process by up to 10X.

For my next project, I'm thinking of white Romney blended with black alpaca and then overdyed. Ahhh. And if I can "cheat" a little, I might buy some non-Vermont silk and add that in. Are you swooning?

I don't have the time or energy to post all the Easter morning pictures. There was a hunt with clues that, when turned over, formed a puzzle, which led to a new bike.

Milo stalked the bike:

Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?

And last, why we have a hard time getting dinner guests to come back:

Milo, in a deceptively loving mood:

Thelma & Louise & a GPS

ROAD TRIP!

This morning, weather permitting, my friend Jenn and I are blowing town (just for the day, we're not that wild) and heading down to Putney, Vermont, home of the Green Mountain Spinnery. My car is packed to the ceiling with bags of wool and alpaca fleece, all of which will soon become the next Real Vermonter yarn from A Piece of Vermont. I can't wait to see spinnery, and one of the owners is meeting with us to go through the fleeces and teach us a little about commercial spinning.

Speaking of which, I have a ridiculously small shop update. Four bumps of Real Vermonter wool/alpaca/mohair roving, including Petunias:

Jolt:

Rambo:

and Bittersweet Falls:

I have also put up 4 skeins of Panda superwash in Lilac:

Though you might not believe it, I have been very busy with the shop. I built a new, semipermanent light box which, while not perfected yet, will give me a consistent place to photograph my yarn and fiber. I need stronger lighting, but that will come.

I've been working on just the right color for the Yarn4Socks sock club colorway coming up in June.

And I've been sorting fleeces and let me tell you, 60 pounds of fiber might not sound like a lot but it takes up most of the shop! Here's a sample Romney fleece that's going into this order:

Up close, the locks look like crinkle fries:

I also have been putting a lot of thought into offering some small-batch blends of spinning fiber that I process myself. I am having so much fun playing with the stuff I spin, I want to share. Remember how I got a young Romney fleece (hogget?) and fell in love with it? This,

once scoured, flicked, and carded just once, looks like this:

How, I ask over and over, can you see this and not want to spin? Anyway, I have some ideas of how I might be able to feasibly sell my own roving and batts like that above. Time will tell. (How about a black batt of 50/50 wool and alpaca? Or pure alpaca? Or the fleece above but with some silk blended in? Dyed or undyed? Dyed before carding and blended softly? Dyed after carding into bright color blocks? The possibilities are endless.)

Deep breaths. Anyway...

The other afternoon my daughter hollered upstairs to me, "Mom, a cow!" I didn't quite understand until I came downstairs.

(Note the abundance of Vermont March mud framed by muddy snow and brown grass.)

My husband and brother-in-law decided to take Polly and Gert out for a stroll. Apparently I didn't get any pictures of Gert.


These two cows (and I mean no offense to cows in general) are not the smartest animals on earth and don't have the personality that the pigs do. But they do have the softest fur you can imagine on their necks.

In knitting news, I am just about to join the sleeves and body for my husband's handspun sweater. And my March socks? I've got the cuff done on the second one, but I haven't even done the heel on the first one, so I've got a ways to go.

And last, the weather. I hate to complain about the inevitable March slump that falls over Vermont, but it's not just me. I swear coffee sales must double by this time of year because it's so gray and muddy most of the time it just makes you perpetually sleepy. The silver lining is that when spring finally does come, it's greatly appreciated. I don't know how people get through winters in the far north.

Okay, I'm outta here. I've got to get ready for a day spent on the road with a good friend and a crapload of raw fleece. It doesn't get any better than this.

Mud

When it's March in Vermont, things happen.

You might find yourself, one Sunday afternoon,

wandering down a muddy log road

on the way to a special place.

And your daughter runs ahead because

friends are waiting

at the sugarhouse.

It's sugaring season (time to make maple syrup, for those not from these parts) in the north, and  we had a wonderful time at our friends' sugarhouse, which used to be a tiny shack with a wood-fired maple sap evaporator. They used to use four-wheelers (and I assume horses before that) to go through the woods and gather sap and then stay up all night boiling it down into maple syrup.

Times have changed.

The new sugar house is bigger and fits lots of people, an enormous evaporator, a wood cookstove, and lots of computerized equipment that turns a lot of sap into over 500 gallons of maple syrup, which the owner uses in his local diner. No corn syrup/food coloring imitations around here.

These days, high-production sugarers have even abandoned the sap buckets. Not quite as picturesque to see miles of plastic tubing running through the woods, but apparently it does the job better and faster (excuse the overexposure):

There is even a high-tech reverse-osmosis machine that removes some of the water from the sap before it gets into the evaporator, so instead of boiling down what was 2% sugar and 98% water, the process starts with 12% sugar. Now the guys can get home by 11 at night instead of 3 in the morning.

If you have never sat by a woodstove, in the company of wonderful people, and had a sip of freshly boiled warm maple syrup, you need to come to Vermont some springtime. Heaven.

Apparently, mud season is also shearing season, as Sophie and J.J. found out this weekend.

Andy the Traveling Sheep Shearer came and got to work.


Sophie, naked:

J.J. was next, but apparently I don't have any more pictures than these two.

The two sheep didn't recognize each other after, so they squared off in their little barn, one at each end of the room, heads down. The goats (who also got their hoofs trimmed and got vaccinated) stood well out of the way, on window sills and in food troughs, and wondered who these strange animals were and how they got here.

Everyone's happy now.

I'm happy because the sourdough starter I've been struggling with (just flour and water in a jar on the counter) has finally taken off, turning my twice-weekly loaves of brick into real bread:

If you have never tried a sourdough starter, it's a fun little science experiment (Hey kids, let's capture some yeast spores!) that makes fantastic, chewy, flavorful, crusty bread. Except when it makes bricks.

My handspun sweater had another setback. My husband started asking if the body wasn't perhaps a bit wide. Turns out 52" is 4"  more than he needs.

I ripped it out Friday and stated over, but I'm almost back up to where I was. And so it goes.

And yesterday, in case I was suffering from a lack of starchy winter foods (not), I made bagels. Have you tried this? Piece of cake. Make your basic dough (water, flour, yeast, salt, sugar). Knead it. Let it rise. Punch it down and shape into bagels. Boil for a few minutes. You get this:

Then bake.

Then eat. I made 24 and with a house full of teenagers yesterday they were gone by 4:00.

Finally, isn't anyone going to ask when I'm going to update the shop? It's been forever, I know. I have some Real Vermonter roving (in 6-ounce bumps) and a bit of Panda superwash ready to go, but I want to get more dyed. By request, I have lined up some silk/merino (DK weight, I think) that will be hitting the dye counter this week. Taxes are done, bills are paid, school is open, and I'm planning a big week in the shop. Hold on.

Calvin (the bedraggled rooster who is finally looking good and being accepted by the other birds) wishes you a happy, muddy week.

A dark and stormy night

Another post, so soon?

Yes, because my computer goes in for an overhaul tomorrow afternoon and won't be back until late Thursday. (Goodbye, 40G hard drive and 256k ram; hello, 160G hard drive and 1G ram. I'm giddy.) I'm still not sure what I am going to do with myself offline for two days. Commune with nature? Interact with my family? Clean stuff? Nah, probably just use the computers at the library.

Before I forget, I just listened to an audiobook of Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely a self-described "behavioral economist." Ariely has conducted all sorts of interesting studies with some fun and telling results on irrational human nature in the rational world. Find out why we make bad decisions, how our emotions sway decisions that should be made rationally, and why people, if given a choice, will pay 15 cents for a good chocolate truffle rather than 1 cent for a Hershey's Kiss, but why, if there is a one-cent price reduction, they'll pick a free Kiss rather than buy a 14-cent truffle. (Hint: People can't resist "free.")

As for the weather, yikes. The lovely icing in my last post got worse as Saturday progressed. Around 5:30, just as I was commenting on how the wind was picking and up and we might lose power, we lost power. All evening. The kids managed to make the best of it, and I practiced my knitting-in-the-dark skills.

How lucky for my daughter not only have her big brother home from college for the weekend, but also to have him challenge her to a game of chess by candlelight. (By the way, he finished his freshman college wrestling season 21-10. Nice job.)

The power came on around 1:30, long after we were asleep, and the next day was more ice and a little snow. I couldn't get good pictures of the trees encased in ice shining in the early morning sun today, but it looked like something from a fantasy movie set. Here was the ice-coated grass late yesterday afternoon:

Yesterday morning, Sophie was napping peacefully with my knitting when, unbeknownst to her, Milo joined the party. This is something new. (Sophie's that brown fur thing on the left.)

She woke up and had a near heart attack.

Rather than rescue her from the Fanged Menace, we took pictures.

Eventually, she resigned herself to fate.

Springtime in Vermont

Ha, ha, just kidding. It might be springtime elsewhere, but here it's mud season. Oh, and ice season. Pictures from this afternoon:

It's a good day for staying in and huddling under a blanket, like Sophie:

It's also a good day for knitting. And guess what: I have finished the sleeves on my husband's handspun sweater. I have now learned why consistent spinning is important, especially in a garment with symmetrical elements. My first sleeve was fine but my second sleeve, from a bulkier skein, revealed a slight problem at the cuff:

I have since re-knit the second sleeve and moved onto the body. The sleeves are still not exactly identical, but I figured if my husband's not perfect, his sweater doesn't need to be either. I love the way the yarn is knitting up, at any rate.

I have also started my March socks. These will be boring because (a) I want to focus on this sweater and (b) I had to drop down to a size 0 needle to get my Colonial Superwash at a gauge I liked. I have no interest in knitting a challenging sock on 0s right now. I'm going top-down this time, but I'm still using magic loop.

I'm using two of my own hand-dyed skeins from my "factory seconds" pile. Both skeins had imperfections in them, but thanks to the magic of knitting, neither seems to be showing any faults in the knitted product itself. I'm going to do a checkerboard on the heel flap and a purple toe to match the cuff. (Purple and green. I'm so predictable.)

Yesterday morning was mild and sunny, and the brief taste of spring prompted the turkeys to take their first trip across the road in months. They complained loudly the whole time my husband was marching them back across our front yard.

In my spare time I've been mostly working as office manager/bookkeeper for my husband's business, which I have started to realize sucks up a lot more of my time than I give it credit for. In addition to the usual weekly bid-typing, bill-paying, and payroll stuff, this was tax-appointment week. Everything went fine but the whole concept of taxes and accounting always gives me a stomach ache and generally made me nervous and jerky all of Thursday. I am really not a numbers kind of girl. Thank God for Quickbooks.

In other news, I finished painting my stepson's room and his bed. Now I'm onto end tables and dresser and then I'll be pretty much done. (Hmm. At the current pace, that will be June.)

Milo continues to be evil.

There is one saving grace to his general love-you/chew-you demeanor, however.

As much as he'd like to eat us, limb by limb, he can't fight one fatal flaw:

He's easily distracted.