A Sheep In Wools' Clothing

Amish Memory Project Updated

We have at last, been able to contact someone who personally knows the Amish families involved in the recent shooting tragedy.  She has graciously confirmed that our project, with minimal modification, would be welcome by the Amish families affected by this incident, and Mrs. Roberts.  She indicated that the Amish dress was extremely uniform out in public, and that it would be hard for us to make something that matched their usual shawls.  She suggested, instead, that we make lap robes for these recipients, as that would be something they could use inside their house.  She said they would gladly accept the shawls, but that they may not get used, so if we wanted our gifts to actually be used, the lap robes would be the ticket. 

So, we are asking our knitters to start thinking in terms of lap robes for our recipients and send me an E-mail about your pattern idea, what weight yarn it would take, and roughly how much yardage.  We'd appreciate an idea of whether it is adaptable to other weights of wool as well.  We will try to match up the knitter's needs in yarn to the spinners production of yarn.  As we are changing away from shawls, we can free up the color selections for the spinners to include black, brown, as wells as medium to dark purples and blues.  We no longer have the black only restriction on this project, but lighter colors aren't consistent with the Amish traditions.

Another fiber supplier, Kendig Cottage has generously offered a 20% discount for any fiber purchases for this project.  Just need to mention "Amish Memory Project" to receive your discount.  Fiber folk rock, I tell you!

Spinners At Your Wheels - Right Foot, Left Foot, Go !!!

OK.  The lists are ready.  We have 33 spinners at this point, and over 40 knitters.  Here are the spinners:

1. Dianna-Margene
2. Amie----Patricia
3. Rissa  and her friend
4. Loraine Guritzky spinning --Rachel Sunshine knitting
5. Lori <bonjourlori...>

7. Sarah Bell
8. Kathy Ryan
9. Denise Stevenson
10. kelly <thegabby....
11. JoShell Koliva
12. Annie      knittygr
13. Kate/Massachusetts
14. Gretchen Lieb
15.  Janel Laidman
16.  Tina Shaddox
17. Robyn <irrob...
18. dez
19. Mary     cisco...
20. Cheryl  newhue...
21. Veronica Velasco
22. Jeanne     blossom...
23. Anjeanette Milner
24. Jackie Joy
25. Lisa Milliman
26.  Chris Hadaway
27. Mary Tucker
28. Lola    lolajl
29. Gwendolyn M
30. Shelley
31.  Sandra    Thistlecove
32.  Susan Rachel

The spinners need to use BLACK fiber only, or over dye the yarn once spun to BLACK.  These women will only be wearing black during their one year mourning period, so any other color will not be able to be worn for at least a year.  Thank you!   If you thought you had volunteered and don't find your name on the list, please E-mail us asap!

If we should need additional spinners or knitters, we will post again with that information. For now, please hold the offers, and that we thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts for all the volunteering of spinning, knitting, fiber, and other assistance, including thoughts and prayers!

The shawls will be the Simple Garter Stitch Prairie Shawl shown on page 53-54 of Cheryl Oberle's book, Folk Shawls.  It has simple garter stitch, is triangular, and has a border fashioned by a yarn over eight stitches in from the edge.  Very simple and unadorned.  Easy to knit, and comforting.  The pattern calls for 750 gms of worsted weight, but is easily adaptable to virtually any weight yarn.  Since these shawls for the most part are worn in place of a coat, I would think sport, DK or worsted would be the best weights.  I am thinking in terms of 1200 - 1500 yds of worsted for the project.  Thank you!

Shawl Pairings Out Soon!

Shelley is going to compile the list of spinners and knitters today.  We will pair them up, each team having a spinner and a knitter, and start going!   All of our inquiries indicate that if we keep the shawls plain enough, unadorned and simple, that they would be welcomed by the Amish women.  We are going for black fiber, since the mothers' mourning period where they have to wear black lasts a year, and we wouldn't want them to have to wait that long to use the shawls.  The pattern that seems most in keeping with Amish dress seems to be the Simple Garter Stitch Prairie Shawl (pages 53-54)  in Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls book.  It calls for 750 gms of worsted weight yarn, but this pattern would be adaptable to any weight from sport, to DK, to worsted.  Anything heavier would be too heavy, and anything lighter not warm enough, since the Amish wear shawls instead of coats.

We certainly have sufficient spinners and knitters to make the minimum of 14 shawls for the mothers of the deceased, the injured girls, the mothers of the injured, and the wife of the shooter.  If we have additional numbers of spinners and knitters, and we can get the information about how many sisters are involved, we would like to reach this out farther to include them, and perhaps grandmothers....

Amy King of Boogie Knits or Spunky Eclectic has generously offered fiber support for our project, so if the spinners out there who will be spinning for us need fiber, Amy can help you out!  Also, Teyani, of The Intrepid Fiberwizard , who owns Crown Mountain Farms, has offered a 20% discount on their natural black alpaca fiber to anyone who is spinning for this project. 

This is really shaping up, and I hope soon we will see fiber spun, hanks of hand spun and photos of shawls in progress, then completed shawls!  Fiber folk rock!

Spinners Needed for Shawls

We have a clearly disproportionately high number of knitters coming to our aid as compared to spinners.  If there are more spinners out there sitting on the fence about helping us out in this project, we would very much appreciate your help.

Additional information has come forth regarding the shawls.  The mothers who have lost a child must wear black for the period of a year following their loss.  Amish shawls are plain, plain, plain.  No lace.  No cables.  No embellishments.  We have found some photos which depicted short fringe on some shawls.  It is possible that even knitting the victim's name into the hem might not be acceptable to the recipients.  While the spinning is commencing, we can dig into this further.  In the meanwhile, the Prairie Shawl pattern in Cheryl Oberle's book Folk Shawls seems to be compatible with the shawls we have seen in photographs of the Amish.

Meanwhile, thank all of you in the fiber community for your support in spinning, knitting and even cheering us along in this endeavor!