Sunday, April 20, 2008

Slightly off the yarn diet


Many knitters go on a yarn diet before Maryland Sheep and Wool.
However April is always the time for the spring Countryside Artisans Studio Tour which happened last weekend on April 11th,12th, and 13th. I went on Saturday which was a good choice. At Kiparoo Farm, Annie said Friday had been very busy, and as a result there was only one skein of her wonderful silk and wool, which I scarfed right up. I also got more Sparkle, and a wooden Norwegian yarn winder, made by Kip. The yarn winder works great (Kip showed me how to use it). I don't own a swift (though one is on my list... a friend who no longer knits has promised to lend me hers, so I have not bought one) nor ball winder. I am one of those knitters who loves hand winding yarn (except for laceweight).
Annie was nearing the end of lambing - 80 lambs had already been born, and 10 ewes were left to lamb. Ewes, except for virgin ewes (first time mothers) usually have twins. There was at least one set of triplets, and they might have been the 3 black lambs I spotted. When I was up there in the fall, there had been an emu on the loose (not a resident of Kiparoo), and it makes quite a funny story, which we chuckled over - but it's a hard story to write as it is better in the telling.
At Dancing Leaf Farm I walked out with two skeins of organic cotton and 3 skeins of Dalis's natural colors. These natural colors are very limited, and come from Dalis's own sheep. Here is her own description:
I shear in April and October so I have 6 months to accomplish that. I cheated this last time and had my fall shearing sent to Prince Edward Island in Canada to be spun into yarn. I'll be offering natural colors in cream (Sparkleberry's Wool), grey (Mocha's) and a blend of both (Bramble's). The yarn has an organic quality to it and has plenty of lanolin left in. Mmmmm.
I said to Dalis that no one would think I'd been to DLF, as the palate of yarns I brought home were whites, greys, and beiges. She's doing lots of handpainted roving in gorgeous colors too.
Both Kiparoo and Dancing Leaf Farm are at Maryland Sheep and Wool. In fact, Annie Kelley is one of the founders of MSW.
So today, being rainy, and we, I organized my stash. I have a good idea of what's in it, and what I might want to let go of. I am working on a couple of projects, and my stash will shrink accordingly. Because it was so dark today, I couldn't take any pictures to update Ravelry - I'll have to do that next week.

1 comment:

CiCi and CAJtalk said...

sounds like you had a good outing. I can't believe it's time for MSW already.. I need to start making a list and revisit my stash to see what I plan to do.