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.

Comments

[Carole]

Have fun today! No driving off cliffs, okay?

[margene]

Your colored rovings are so tempting! Have a fun day, a great getaway!

[yvette]

Have a fun day, we got some more snow here today, ick!

[trek]

The fleece really does look like crinkle fries!

[Kristen]

A spinnery getaway should do wonders for the mud season doldrums. And remember that at least technically it is now Spring.

[Sonya]

Pretty roving! Yucky mud. As the daughter of a cattle farmer, I can attest to the dumbness of cows. Kevin was goose hunting in one of Dad's pastures one time. One cow kept coming over to investigate the decoys. Cow knocks them down, Kevin sets them back up, calls me to complain about dumb cow, rinse, repeat.

[Katrina]

Love your blog by the way!

In Finland most people deal with the long winters by boozing lol, and getting into fistfights in the local kioski.

I use fishoil and vitamin D. Light exercise and lots of computer games :D.

[katy]

I just have to say that it is terribly mean of you to post pics of gorgeous dyed roving AND that beautiful poofy white stuff...when I'm still working on the roving I bought from you last year, and I have no time to spin! Wahhh! ;)

[Bea]

Have fun! The new roving is lovely, and I especially love that Romney fleece, I can't even believe it's the same thing! I don't know much about cows, except I see them a lot while driving, but I do love a good steak :) Are you guys going to use them for meat or dairy? Or both?

[no-blog-rachel]

Have fun! I know two of the owners of Green Mountain Spinnery - Libby and Claire (one was a teacher, the other a friend's mom). Great people.

[Carol]

It must be spring, the cows have come home. Hope you have a blst on your day out and this constant teasing about spinning just makes me want to win the lottery all the more.

[Heather Shelton]

I hear you about this being the hard part of winter!! I had a brief glimpse of the tippy tops of my daffodils and by evening it was snowing again. The weather is even discouraging me from knitting- that tells you how bad it is!! The roving colors are sooo beautiful. Will you dye sny mohair free roving in those bright shades?

[donna lee]

You are such an enabler! I am deep in spinning wheel lust and am investigating them. That soft white roving looks so beautiful I want to touch it.

[Amanda]

Have a wonderful time at the Spinnery! We visited a few years ago and luckily got a tour by Margaret. It's such a fascinating process--in such a cozy little building! :)
*p.s. I never went back to fake syrup after visiting VT! :)

[missscurious]

Hope you had a fun adventure down to Green Mountain Spinnery. The weather is certainly challenging this time of year. It's all about coffee and comfort food. Can't wait to see how the new real vermonter comes out. Excuse me, I have to go hibernate now.

[Cathy in Va.]

"Good friend and a crapload of fleece" - now that does sound like fun!

[Terri D.]

Something you will never hear in NYC: "Mom, a cow!"

Hope the trip was a blast.

[alex]

I'm so jealous I think I'm giving myself a nosebleed. Have fun!

[Rosa]

amazing colors and lovely fibers. I hope you have an amazing time.

[JessaLu]

"We've got cows!" ;o)

Hope you're having a great trip!

[Jasmine]

I have always wanted to tour the Spinnery but it always seems to get put off. Make sure to take pictures and share it with us.

[janna]

I've heard of driving cattle -- like, from Texas to Montana -- but taking them for a stroll? It actually sounds much easier!

I hope your little trip was fun!

[Andrea (noricum)]

I hope you had fun! (Wish I could have snuck along! ;) ) Jolt sure looks *purdy*. ;)

[Teyani]

your fiber dyeing is glorious. And the crimp on those locks is amazing.

[heide]

If Thelma and Louise had a GPS then maybe they wouldn't have taken that last turn. The wool pictures make me want to spin! Do those fancy earrings in the cows mean they're destined to be dinner someday or do they just tell where the cows come from?