at home with Lara's wheels, spindles, looms & dye pots
How does Ontario’s own Stone Spindle Farm do alpaca? The short answer is: superbly. In order of my growing admiration since 2021: full marks for the farm’s name; Beth’s warm Instagram account; the raw locks; the rolags & finally, the mill-prepped alpaca top. The raw locks They had me at featuring spindles in a farm […]
Read MoreEarlier this week a TKK reader, Rita P., asked: Is there any more word on your Southdown adventures? I’m especially interested in whether the yarn turned into the lilac undertone that you had imagined. I’m anxious to try some of this yarn on my CSM (circular knitting machine). Olivia’s babydoll southdown fleece, and her flock’s […]
Read MoreAt the end of last September, I washed a beautiful Shetland ewe fleece. It is from Willow Farm, and was my first (run-don’t-walk) purchase at the 2018 Woodstock Fleece Festival. Willow Farm is a great spinner’s flock. After the joys of working with Shepherdess Jocelyn’s Romney ram fleece 10 years ago, I also loved an […]
Read MoreWe are off & spinning as they ride the Tour de France! This starting picture has all the openings for a flexible 2019 Tour de Fleece with favorite containers. It is very sensible; let me count the ways. On any given stage we could: Ply from the outer-pull balls in my WIP jar or the […]
Read MoreThe year is unfolding in tough & unexpected ways. As we work hard to adjust, meet these challenges, I have been pressed out of regular posting as just one result. By Eastertime, I wanted to pivot and weave something beautiful. Out came Sarah Jordan’s stunning handspun merino/tencel that I won from her summer 2015 Shawl […]
Read MoreGuests have been hosted, and summer is finally well under way. The time crunch was hellish but we were able to tackle all the tasks. This gathering was all in T’s honour. Two years in having this outpouring was simply wonderful. As it happened, I also lucked into a birthday with favorite people all either […]
Read MoreIt is fabulous to sit down placing words in TKK’s editor this morning. Over the long stretch we did live with those new challenges I mentioned (words “cancer patient & break-up”) but were knocked back by a sudden loss mid-November also in our immediate family. That side had just buried another older family member the […]
Read MoreThis past month has been a very good one for my fibre work, seeing N recover from his lingering shingles pain, and the winter of fewer weather alerts. The gloves came off the needles shortly after my last TKK post. They are for N but also were a great reminder that I miss the knits […]
Read MoreWarm (i.e. wooly) congratulations to the flock that I wrote about in my last post! Laurie’s Little Lambs farm won blue ribbons in 2 categories of the 2015 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair fleece wool competition. Both are in the competition’s Down-type category (26-33 microns). It was their first year exhibiting, and I am very happy […]
Read MoreJust a couple of days after my last blog post, I headed out to the Woodstock Fleece Festival. It was a day of bustling spinners’ mayhem, and this post is brought to you by a happy co-incidence. The spark for this adventure is a local credit to adolescents everywhere, E. Her grade 8 school project […]
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