The gansey knitter's kid finally has a gansey*

(* Actually, I finished it a month and a bit ago, but as usual I am late to the blogging)

I am a little embarrassed to admit that this is the first sweater I’ve knit him. Somehow I pictured having a child as an endless excuse to knit little sweaters, and yet somehow that didn’t happen…

I have made up for it with the gansey, red as per the boy’s request, with some very charming bee buttons from Katrinkles that I snapped up years ago when we were vending at the same event. I always meant to use yellow and black threads when I sewed them on to make them proper bees, but when it came time to sew them on I grabbed what I had. I rather like them with the dark blue, even if it makes them a little less bee-like.

i always thought the phenomenon of parents and kids dressing alike was some sort of imposed weird ego thing on the part of the parents, but it turns out the boy really wanted a gansey that looked like his dad’s and he loves that they have the same buttons.

The kid regularly sleeps in his gansey, and thankfully we are having a very delayed summer so he can play in it a little longer. Although between the boy’s desire to wear it no matter what, and the German tendency towards overdressing small children, it’s possible it will get worn over swimwear.

Actually I wrote that as a bit of hyperbole, but the gansey over swimwear thing would probably extend the swimming season nicely. Wet ganseys are basically the knitwear equivalent of a wet-suit after all.

Gansey, with the very functional armpit gusset.

The wonderful green pants he is wearing are called Matschhosen (mud pants). All children here wear Matschhosen over their normal clothes when they play outside in all but the warmest, sunniest weather. The coated vinyl is perfect playground armor, impervious to mud, sand, rain, sticks, and it makes kids slide down the slides really fast. And it keeps the pants worn underneath clean and tear-free. The coated vinyl is basically a lighter weight version of the pants worn by fisherpeople, lobsteringfolks, and tall-ship sailors, which to my eye makes a playground full of German kids look a bit like a bunch of very short, under-aged water-front workers getting up to no good.

(Also, apologies for the disjointed nature of this post. I really wanted to post gansey pictures, but this morning has been full of the pitter patter stomp of a very excited toddler/kid, running in to show me things/tell me things/ask me questions, despite the best efforts of his dad to let me have an hour to myself.)

local yarn store found!

I finally found the local yarn store, and more importantly, this week I finally managed to be there when it was open. Compared to what we are used to in America, Germans have a different tradition of business hours. Shops (including grocery stores) are closed on Sundays. Many small shops, including the local yarn store, are also closed on Saturday, or are closed by noon on Saturday and by four on weekdays. Add to that the Covid lockdown restrictions, and it feels like I have spent most trips to the city center staring longingly through the window of closed shops filled with things that I would really like to look at (toy stores, pen shops, book stores, fabric stores, antique stores, etc). But I did finally manage to bike by the yarn store at a moment when they were open and the Elf King (in the pull-behind bike stoller) was in a good mood.

Fadenwohl is a lovely small yarn shop with a nice selection of commercial yarns in a variety of fibers. The current owner recently bought it from the previous long term owner, and is in the process of working through previous inventory while bringing in newer yarns. She has a small amount of lovely local wool from one producer and hopes to bring in more.

I managed to restrain myself on the wool buying front, but a display of recycled three ply cotton yarn prompted a desperate need to learn to crochet (I have no idea what came over me - I blame our echoing white walls and our second hand white Ikea furniture; I will cover it all with bright cotton doilies). So now I am watching YouTube tutorials and ripping back as often as crocheting forward, and remembering why I never crocheted back home. And yet still I can’t seem to stop. Travel is for learning something new?

I am still searching for the traditional local yarns, and for the spinners and the weavers. I have a fantasy of finding some crazy East German fiber artist collective, preferably housed in a semi-squat in one of the older industrial buildings on the outskirts of Jena, committed to preserving old fiber traditions while exploring newer ideas, and maybe some blacksmithing, and a few obscure musical instruments. Really I want to find a semi-underground Bauhaus with a fiber focus.

In the meantime, doilies.

Quick Podcast recommendation for fans of Elizabeth Zimmerman, social history, and fiber arts

After all the changes of the last few months, I finally had a quiet moment to start catching up on podcasts this weekend. This recent series of interviews with Dr. Lily Marsh on the Yarns at Yin Hoo podcast about Elizabeth Zimmerman and her influence on knitting is a fascinating mix of (relatively) recent knitting history, social history, and a glimpse at how historians work and draw conclusions. I’ve only managed to listen to the first episode in the multipart series (episode 268) but I’m hooked.

Western Mass Fiber Shed pop-up shop, the pillows I long for, and a brief Germany update

Perusing my Instagram feed this morning I came across two posts that immediately made me wish I was home. Re-posting them here for the folks who may not be on Instagram.

First, Western Mass Fibershed is having a pop up

In case the image isn’t loading correctly, the pop-up is at Swanson's Fabrics on Saturday April 17 from 11-2. On offer, locally produced wool fabrics in three fabrics and two-ply knitting yarns, all produced, spun, and woven locally. Contact email for questions, WesternMassFibershed@gmail.com

The Western Mass Fibershed had a table at Boston Farm & Fiber Festival last year (ah the before time) complete with samples of some of their woven goods (including a pair of very stylish fabric covered heeled oxfords!) and I have been longing to get my hands on some ever since.

Also on my Instagram feed, pillows from Full Circle Wool.

My neck, weirdly crunched from sleeping on IKEA pillows, longs for one of these.

Someday.

In Germany news, we have moved into our new long term apartment. We now live on the 4rth floor of a five story apartment block built in 1982. The attic is a “drying room” where everyone hangs their clotheslines. There are also communal clothesline in a small green space in front of the building. I hung our first batch of laundry yesterday. It was not a very neatly hung collection of tea towels and bath towels, and I was expecting a stern talking to for hanging out such messy washing from one of the older ladies. I think I did get scolded by a stern older lady the other day for accidentally biking back from the grocery store without my bike helmet. It’s that sort of place.

And just across the river, there are sheep! I am trying to work up the courage (and the German) to leave a note for the farmer inquiring about fleece, or the fiber community here.

We made it to Jena

After the kind of mad house packing-up that I thought we were done with (seriously, I had planted my metaphorical oar, signed a mortgage, and stowed my suitcases in the deepest closet) and a few false starts, we are here.

My two week quarantine ends tonight, and I can’t wait to start exploring the city tomorrow. Never let it be said that international travel in the time of pandemic is easy. (That said, our charges - both toddler and dog, handled the flight and are handling the transition with aplomb).

Now to find the fiber community.

And now for a three-year hiatus

Just when we thought that next year would be the year that we properly plumbed the workshop and maybe installed a heater of some sort, the opportunity for my husband to do graduate work arose, and so instead of installing a sink I’m packing up the shop (and we’re packing up the house) and we’re moving to Jena, Germany. This month. With a toddler and a dog. In a pandemic.

The logistics of it all are not good for our sleep.

Upton Yarns in its current incarnation will be on hiatus while we are in Germany, but I am looking forward to getting to know the fiber world of the former East Germany and surrounding areas, and maybe even writing about it a bit. We are currently slated to be there for three years.

I would like to continue to support the shepherds I have been working with, though I’m not sure how that is going to work. One plan involves maintaining my current fleece buys and storing it all in our barn until we return (how will the fleece get to our barn you ask? Good question) but I feel like there should be a better option. I will continue to brainstorm once my head is clear of our current logistical hurdles, and would welcome suggestions.

A million thank yous to all the knitters who have supported Upton Yarns up to this point. I am looking forward to the next chapter, whatever that might look like.

I'm a wool sponge convert

Really I want to write about how much I love these wool sponges from Full Circle Wool, because they are genius and do an excellent job of cleaning dishes, but somehow in my head a post about these sponges has morphed into a long complicated essay about the overwhelming nature of the problem of climate change and how the idea that the responsibility for fixing it lies in our everyday choices is actually malarky invented by a PR firm working for BP as a distraction (because it was, and it worked).

But I don’t have the heart to write that essay at the moment, so let’s move away from the idea that converting to wool sponges made from the fleece of well managed flocks of sheep will save the world (though in a butterfly effect kind of way it won’t hurt).

You should convert to these sponges, really just thick pieces of felt, because they are really good at being sponges: they clean dishes and counters without crumbling into little sponge nuggets or developing that rank sponge smell, and then when you are done you leave them to dry and never have to give them another thought. The felt is made from coarser fleece, and so while they feel fairly soft they are also better at scouring than the plastic scrubby part of a conventional sponge without having to worry about scratching. And they are durable. We were wearing out a conventional sponge every two weeks or so, but our current wool sponge has been undergoing the same sort of use since August and is still going strong. And when it finally wears out we can compost it, or put it at the bottom of a houseplant pot.

They felt smaller with use, but the corners and edges remain the perfect tool for cleaning the funk out of travel mug gaskets.

Theses sponges are also a perfect example of the utility of the full range wool that different breeds of sheep produce. Look through any good book about sheep or fleece and you will come across a range of different ways that wool was used once upon a time; from the expected range of clothing, rugs, and blankets to the less remembered mattress stuffing and sailcloth (where wool has been superseded by plastic fibers and foams). As a strong supporter of “strong fleeces”, I really appreciate being able to replace something I loathe (plastic) with natural, renewable, carbon beneficial fiber that is often considered (these days) to be waste.

Even in you have no interest in the sponges, you should go to the Full Circle Wool website anyway. She has created an amazing, educational website with lots of information about Climate Beneficial Wool. Also - these. I’ll take two please!

Vote Cards round 2

The response last week to my offer of postcards has been so lovely! I printed until I was out of paper, and then I ordered more, which has arrived just in time for another weekend weekend printing, along with my slightly fancier dark blue ink. I pulled a few test prints with the new ink last night, and I really love the results!

The prints I made last weekend went into the mail at the end of the week. If you ordered prints they should be in your mailbox early this week. I should have done little more research before I packaged them for shipping however: it turns out that bundles of 10 can be sent as regular mail, but bundles of 20 are thick enough that they become "packages” which cost way more to ship. So, this batch will be packaged in bundles of 10, but please order as many bundles of 10 as you think you can write.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but my best cure for anxiety is action. Keep writing postcards!

Vote

I’m dusting off the block print and turning my shop over to make “vote” postcards. Request a set here.

If you would like to know where to send postcards, Postcards to Voters is a great organization, though I have heard of people sending postcards through other groups. To be clear, I am creating these postcards to support greater equality, environmental protections, and a stronger social safety net. Black Lives Matter. Climate changes is real. Women are full human beings. Health care is a human right. If you are planning to send postcards via an organization that disagrees with any of those statements, please do not request my postcards.

Cards are free, though donations are always appreciated, and will go towards more printing and shipping supplies.

Temperature Blankets in the News (and I've started one)

From the NY Times this weekend: Knitters Chronicle Climate Change One Stitch at a Time

Casey at PortFiber knit an amazing temperature blanket last year, and is hosting a temperature blanket KAL this year. It’s not too late to join in.

I plan to knit a temperature blanket for 2020, but first I decided to knit one (belatedly) for my now toddler to commemorate the climate of his first year.

I’m using my Straw’s Farm Island Sheep fingering weight yarn, and because I inevitably make my knitting more complicated than it needs to be, I’ve taught myself double knitting techniques so that I can record the daily high and low temperatures. I’m using this free Purl Soho pattern as a guide, and placing the “tucks” to show the weather on Sundays. As one might expect, it is Very Slow Going, but enjoyable.

The Gansey Talk (or, there was a microphone, but it was okay)

In which I talk about ganseys, and try not to make weird noises into the microphone - thank you to Sarah H for the photo

A huge thank you to everyone who came out to the Third Annual Boston Farm and Fiber Festival, and an equally huge thank you to those who paused in their day to listen to me speak with great enthusiasm about ganseys. It is always wonderful to meet other people who share an interest in and love for historically important but currently obscure forms of knitting.

When I imagined the talk, there was a table to share books and ganseys on. Sadly that existed only in my head. So thank you to the folks who were willing to join me on the floor to share their work and thoughts. (Also thanks to Sarah H. for driving to Boston and taking photos).

And a special thank you to the folks who stayed after to share their own gansey related show and tell, and poke through the books I brought, and generally geek out over the very unexpected and unique garment that is the gansey.

And of course a thank you to New England Farm to Fiber and the sponsors, Harrisville Designs and Taproot magazine! Every year the Festival is a little more amazing, with more vendors, more talks, and more enthusiastic fiber folk dressed in their finest.

I will admit that between the stage fright, the strangeness of talking into a microphone, and the general muddle that is my head, I don’t remember much of the actual talk itself, but I did spend the drive home wishing that I had touched on more than I did. Because the history of ganseys encompasses so many elements important to the history of knitting in the UK, and the social history of people who worked on the water, and the differing concepts of geography encoded by one’s relationship to the water and vessel type, and really it is too broad a subject to possibly do justing to in twenty minutes. And that is before one starts talking about the actual garment itself.

And personally it’s a bit weird to talk about any of those things because I am not British, and there is a feeling of cultural appropriation and overlooked nuance. But I am a mariner, and from the perspective of a mariner I can see that previous writers, though British themselves, have missed quite a bit more than nuance in their discussion of ganseys.

Perhaps the paragraph above is really the introduction to a book. We’ll see.

On a more personal note, one thing I also meant to share, and completely overlooked, was the personal history of the working gansey I knit for myself and my husband (who had his own maritime life). Each gansey really deserves it’s own post. Stay tuned.

My ganseys at rest (two of them were knit for my husband). Collectively they have more sea miles than I can count, and more days in shipyard than I care to remember.

Gansey Links

Recommended gansey books and links of interest relating to ganseys, gansey knitting, and gansey related maritime history. This list has grown out of research for a talk about gansey history at the 3rd Annual Boston Farm & Fiber Festival. Beware, my sense of “related to” is broad. Will be updated from time to time.

Books

(in the order I happen to have stacked them on my deck)

Gladys Thompson, Patterns for Guersnseys, Jerseys and Arans The original version of this book was published in 1955. She was perhaps the first person to “collect” and transcribe ganseys into written patterns for the wider knitting audience. Suggest using in conjunction with Beth’s book.

Beth Brown Reinsel, Knitting Ganseys (Revised and Updated) Contains a version of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage method adapted for gansey design, along with a thorough explanation of how to use her method to design your own. Her book also includes a good history, an easy to follow collection of motifs, and several full patterns. The most user friendly of the gansey books. If I was to buy only one gansey book, I would buy this one.

Penelope Lister Hemingway, River Ganseys A very interesting survey of the history of a lesser known tradition of gansey knitting, combined with a good history of knitting in the British Isles generally. She does give a few gansey patterns, but I enjoy this book more for the broader research she does into the history, context, and technical background of gansey knitting.

Michael Pearson Traditional Knitting new and expanded Holy heck this book is worth it for the photos alone! Extensive history. Another “collector” of gansey patterns. Many written patterns given, but not necessarily in a format useable to first time gansey knitters. Would use in conjunction with Beth’s book for actual knitting.

Mary Wright, Cornish Guernseys & Knit-frocks Another of the “early collectors”, originally published in 1979. As the name suggests she focussed mainly on the tradition of knitting ganseys in Cornwall. Fascinating history, but from a knitting standpoint I would use this book in conjunction with Beth’s book if I was designing or knitting a gansey for the first time.

Sabine Domnick, Cables, Diamonds, Herringbone Great selection of motifs displayed both as samples and charted out. History a bit thin.

Websites - Gansey focussed

Gansey Nation - gansey.com Really the go-to site for all things gansey and the wonkiest of gansey discussions.

Propagansey - A festival of ganseys held annually

The Moray Firth Gansey Project “To find, record and conserve gansey patterns from around the Moray Firth coast.”

The Cordova Gansey Project Inspired by the Moray Firth Gansey Project, bringing the tradition of gansey knitting to the Alaskan Salmon Fishery and beyond.

Of Maritime Interest

Because this was a maritime tradition

Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society

video of the Humber Keel

lovely video about sailing a Thames River Barge with brief mention of the sort of regular voyages made up to places like Yorkshire

Shetland Museum and Archives

Of Linguistic Interest

Getting into the weeds of “Guernsey” vs “Gansey” vs “Ganzee” vs “Geansaigh” and “Geansaigh snåth” and remembering that there are three languages and many dialects of each spoken in the British Isles (not counting Cornish which went extinct as a first language at the end of the 18th century, though attempts at reconstruction began in the early 20th century). Yup, it’s a fascinating linguistic soup.

Highlighting this post from Gansey Nation for the fascinating discussion in the comments.

Doric

North East Scots (Doric) History Present and Future : of specific interest, the comment that farmers and sailors in Buchie spoke slightly different Doric

A longer Ted Talk about Doric (and also neurolinguistics and the importance of the language you speak)

Of General Knitterly Interest

How to knit faster (using a knitting belt) - I am a process knitter and don’t for a moment believe that knitting skill and knitting speed are the same thing; but knitting speed is a knitting skill, and contract knitters could attain amazing speeds using knitting belts, knitting sticks, or sometimes twists of straw.

Gansey Talk at the Third Annual Boston Farm and Fiber Festival at the Boston Public Market

I am both excited and nervous to announce that I will be giving my first ever talk about ganseys, their history, a few myths, and my experiences as a working sailor of traditionally rigged schooners (whilst wearing ganseys) on February 9, time TBA, at the Third Annual Boston Farm and Fiber Festival at the Boston Public Market (because go big or go home).   I am trying to organize my thoughts on a type of traditional knitting that has had an enormous impact on my life, and finding that it is incredibly difficult to narrow down my thoughts on the subject. Perhaps there will be a book someday? In the meantime, if you are heading to the Boston Public Market for the Fiber Festival and want to learn a little bit about ganseys, please come to my talk. I’m bringing my favorite gansey books and a stack of work-worn ganseys for show and tell.  I’ll be in the knitting lounge for a bit after the talk, and would love to continue to chat about ganseys, or traditional boats, or knitting in general.

The Start of a New Gansey

(Or rather, the start of blogging about the new gansey; the actual gansey has been in production for about a year now. As of this writing I’ve divided for the upper front and back. As always, I would rather do the thing than write about the thing).

The release of Beth Brown Reisnel’s updated Knitting Ganseys made my fingers itch to knit another. One day, when I can better concentrate on crossing cables, I will knit Beth’s Snakes and Ladders (designed with Upton Yarns Coopworth 5-Ply Gansey yarn) for myself, but at the moment much of my knitting takes place in cars, or in a dimly lit room while the toddler sleeps, or when the toddler was still small enough to fit in a baby wrap, around the bump of sleeping baby in front of me. In these circumstances horizontal motifs of seed and moss stitch are soothing and occasion fewer dropped stitches and muttered bad language.

Sam has been the beneficiary of my gansey knitting impulses twice before, but both instances predate Upton Yarns. When he fell in love with the steely like blue gray gansey yarn on my drying rack it seemed time to remedy the Upton Yarns shaped hole in his gansey wardrobe.

This colorway has been christened “Falling Waters” after my favorite hiking trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I have spent years at sea knitting ganseys meant for service in a maritime environment, but with this gansey (now that I have walked inland with my metaphorical oar) I am setting out our intentions to relearn the New England mountains we grew up in. While a little heavy to carry on long hikes, ganseys are great for shoulder season day hikes.

The Swatch

I am an impatient knitter, or rather, I am a knitter who is impatient to start working on the actual piece. I do not swatch as much as I know that I should. Upton Yarns has actually helped me with this; previously I could never really figure out what to do with the swatches after their initial use in garment planning was complete. I am a process knitter and generally knit for the love of feeling yarn move between needles, but even so swatching felt like a speed bump on the way toward the really satisfying work of creating a garment. Now, swatching has become a way of creating little inspirational pieces that fit on my display table when I go to yarn events. Swatches help other people imagine their own creations, and as such I have discovered that I love the pressure-free act of creating them. When I swatch I’m not trying to “get gauge” or concerned about trying to fit the yarn to a pre-existing design, I’m just moving the yarn from one needle to the next and seeing what it wants to be, experimenting with different motifs to see how they fit the yarn, and how the yarn fits them. Freed from expectations, swatching has become one of my favorite ways of knitting.

When I started thinking about this gansey last year, I was usually knitting around a sleeping baby in the baby wrap. It turns out that swatches are perfect for this kind of knitting. So I got carried away.

I swatched until I ran out of yarn. This is what one 240 yard skeins looks like when knit, or rather as much of it as will fit in frame. There is an additional six or so inches of stockinette with the wearer’s initials, and a garter stitch welt with channel island cast-on just below the bottom edge of the photo. The whole thing is about as long as my arm, and if seamed would be a reasonably fitting sleeve. I cast on a bunch of stitches (66? I did not keep good notes on the swatch) knit the welt I knew I wanted to use, the stockinette and monogram that I also knew I wanted to use, and then turned to pages 42-3 in the updated edition of Knitting Ganseys. I knew that I wanted to make a relatively simple gansey full of horizontal motifs, possibly with a large definition motif at the top of the plain stockinette, or possibly not.

Pages 42 and 43 are a joy. (Actually, the whole chapter on pattern motifs is a joy, but the motifs on pages 42 and 43 are the ones that were most relevant to my design interests for this gansey).

Beth doesn’t include any photos of the motifs knit up on these pages, only the graphs, which makes knitting the motifs an act of discovery. I moved from knitting one to the next, knitting each for as long as I wanted to until I felt like I had a sense of what it would look like knit full size.

And when I finally ran out of yarn, I cast off my swatch and cast on for the full size gansey.

Vermont Sheep and Wool

The yarn travel deities smiled upon me, the stars and the autumn leaves finally aligned, and I was lucky enough to spend a Saturday noodling north through forests resplendent in their autumn finery to Tunbridge, Vermont for the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. I varyingly listened to, and lost, seemingly all the New England NPR stations on offer as I wended through through old mill towns and over hills, past working dairy farms and unexpected remnants of manufacturing, admiring the vernacular architecture and lovely slate roofs along the way. The Toddler even slept through most of the drive (both ways!).

My visit to the festival itself was equally charmed, though much too brief. As usual I didn’t take nearly enough photos, but what few I did remember to take I posted to an Instagram Story, which I thought I would repeat here in a more permanent form, both as a reminder to myself and for those who might be interested.

This book looks fantastic and is one that I really want to add to my library (and also knit all the Selbu mittens!). Selbu Mittens, by Anne Bårdsgård

The Felting Studio continues to grow and every time I come across their booth I just want to loose myself in their felted hangings, as beautiful and intricate as a medieval stained glass window. My fingers itch to take up needle felting. Beyond the beautiful felt art, they have expanded their wares over the years, seemingly in any direction that takes their fancy, which is an urge I much support and admire. They are now producing the pattern for this lovely child’s jacket, and though I didn’t see any on display I must remember to ask if they are selling kits for it as well. I need to make this jacket. I just do.

I want to get in touch wth Steeple Chase Farm, in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire (pardon the lack of link, they don’t appear to have a website) both because they are actually very close to where I live, but also because they have a flock of heritage sheep, including Teeswater. I came away with this lovely sampler pack including some Jacob and - ? I’m embarrassed to admit that I can’t remember what the light gray is - a very lustrous longwool; Leicester? It was getting late in the day for the toddler at this point and a conversation I really wished to linger on was instead conducted while doing the toddler soothing bop - my apologies to everyone in that display barn on Saturday at around 3:00. I really want to pick up my drop spindle and feel these beauties drift through my fingers and let them be the yarn they want to become, but the part of me that prefers planning wants to wait to make sure I have a project in mind first. All my two minds can really agree on is that I need to get in touch with Steeple Chase Farm.

And of course there were a host of lovely, charming, animals with gorgeous fleeces who I really wanted to take home.

Along the way I ran into many yarn friends, admired much knitwear, ate some fantastic salted caramel ice cream, and generally had an inspiring day. So thank you to all the vendor and organizers and fiber enthusiasts at VT Sheep and Wool!

Locally Sourced, Locally Made Clothing in Western Mass! Or: CLothing I am saving my pennies for

Nur Tiven, of Nurture Clothing Co is accepting pre orders for their locally sourced, locally made wool/alpaca clothing. From their website:

“At Nurture Clothing Co., we design and make custom and bespoke bioregional wool clothing and accessories in Western Massachusetts. We source all our wool from the Northeastern US, make our own custom yarns, and have them woven into bespoke wool fabric. We design, cut, and sew all our pieces in-house, one at a time, and all our designs are gender neutral and can be worn by anyone.

When I say “we “ I mean me, Nur Tiven, and my 12 year old calico cat, Bala.”

I’m officially saving up for the wool work shirt, but I’m also eyeing the overalls. And the vest.

Open Farm Day and Makers Market at A Wing & a Prayer Farm

I am so excited to be heading north on August 31 for A Wing & a Prayer’s Open Farm Day and Makers Market, hosted by Taproot Magazine! This was a great even last year and promises to be just as wonderful this year.

From the event webpage:

We're so excited for the Open Farm and Taproot Maker Market here on August 31 from 10 - 1. There is free parking in the field and we recommend comfortable, closed toe footwear for walking the farm and touring, observing Natural Dye demos outside the dye garden, being introduced to the animals and shopping our local Farmers' Market and Taproot Magazine's Maker Market in the barn.

Being a production fiber farm means it is not always easy to find time to share with the public, but there is nothing we love being able to do more than introduce our fiber stars to you, their adoring fans. Get your cameras ready, bring your baskets to fill in the marketplace, bring a blanket and a picnic if you like! A local food cart will be here, too, for purchasing delicious, homemade snacks such as crepes or popsicles and we'll have pies for sale in our Farmers' Market, along with other local farm's produce, syrup, honey, dairy and meats.

I’ll have new kits, and a new pattern!

Hope to see you there,

Sarah

Wool sponges!

One of my favorite things about wool is how many uses it can to put to. A quick perusal of most books about sheep will result in a long list of things we used to use wool for before the invention of plastics and/or the shift towards enormous flocks of sheep far away from centers of population made lower value uses for excess wool unprofitable. Wool could be a comfy mattress or pillow stuffing (and people are starting to do this again). Wool can be insulation (another use that is coming back). Wool can be cordage and sails (I would love to see this in action).

Apparently wool also makes great sponges. Poking through my instagram feed this morning I came across a post by @ladysheepshearer memorializing her beloved wool sponge, finally worn through after several years of use and now on to the next use, “probably holding water in a plant pot”. The sponge in question was made by @stargrazers of Full Circle Wool in Petaluma, California who sells them in a pack of two on Etsy (July 2020 Update: They have moved off of Etsy and developed their own website; sponges now available at www.fullcirclewool.com, and they also make pillows!). They also wrote a wonderful article about the dance between sheep and shearer during the shearing process for Fibershed.com, Choreography and Skill: How Sheep are Sheared.

Now off to buy myself some wool sponges…

(Apologies for not reposting the original Instagram post I am referencing - such things are beyond my pre-caffeinated brain).

July 2020: post edited to update link to wool sponges

Jennifer Steingass on Fruity Knitting

I’m a bit behind in the world of podcasts (vlogcasts? hmmm…not the most mellifluous of words) and so am once again posting a recommendation that is a little out of date, but I finally got to watch Episode 74 of the Fruity Knitting podcast, which included an interview with the designer Jennifer Steingass.

The interview itself is well worth watching, but the part that I am selfishly excited about is that Jennifer is wearing her Arboreal sweater, which she designed and knit using Upton Yarns Bluefaced Leicester. And it looks great!

The interview starts at 54:13.

Elsewhere: morning newsfeed and echoes of my other life

Scrolling through my newsfeed this morning, first cup of coffee in hand. Came across the following stories (among many others, but these stood out):

A new species of whale has been discovered - which is just nuts. Anytime it feels like we’ve discovered it all and filmed it for iMax, just remember, we are still discovering new species of giant mammals. It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the only new species of whales that have been recently discovered. There was a new beaked whale in 2016, and there may be another new species in Antartica. Also in Antartica, a new (to science) type of killer whale.

On a far less good note, a cruise ship is experiencing my worst nightmare off the coast of Norway. The BBC posted cellphone video footage taken by passengers. The roll they take looks pretty scary because nothing is stowed for sea, but that much roll is also pretty normal underway in a storm. The actual problem is that the engines aren’t working and the ship was drifting towards rocks, but while the engineers are working madly to fix that, the hotel crew is no doubt working just as madly to keep unprepared passengers from getting hurt. The cruise ship industry has done such a good job building enormous floating hotels and marketing family vacations that people seem to have forgotten that they are going to sea. Ships seem so stable in flat water that it is impossible to imagine what they will be like if things get rough, and how difficult and exhausting and scary it can be to simply exist on a ship once it starts to roll. Compounding this is the effects of any sea sickness medications that people have taken. My heart goes out to the crew, and especially to the engineers.

And since my mostly yarn blog has been hijacked by whales and cruise ships this week:

A friend of mine (and former co-worker) is currently working on a research cruise aboard the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer to Thwaites Glacier. Also aboard, a writer for Rolling Stone. Articles here.

And I just happened to read a great article in the New York Times Magazine this weekend about an accident in Glacier Bay National Park. It’s actually a meditation on life and chaos and luck, but there is a whale and a Coast Guard rescue and it happened in a part of the world that I miss greatly.

And a weird connection to my first paragraph about recently discovered whale species; one of the very few skeletons of a beaked whale that we have, and the only know skeleton of a Baird’s beaked whale on display, can be found sitting out on the carpet of the second floor of the Glacier Bay Ranger station.

The world is a strange and wonderful place.