A Sheep In Wools' Clothing

Swans Island Blankets

While camping at Searsport Shores Ocean Campground during Fiber College of Maine, Laila, Sara & I decided to take a short road trip down the road to visit Swans Island Blankets.  The blankets are made from regional sheep, spun at Green Mountain Spinnery, then dyed with natural dyes and woven here in Maine.

They have scarves, stoles, baby blankets, throws, summer & winter weight blankets in many colors - stripes and checks.  The dye building was made with special care to not contaminate the environment as well.  The big rings the yarn hangs to dry from are the rings in lobster trap openings for $0.20 instead of $12 for the custom made ones originally used.  

The smaller items come in a linen presentation box and the larger items come in linen woven bags for storage...The looms were amazing with electric shuttle movement and thousands of warp strands.

Searsport Shores Ocean Campground

The venue for Fiber College of Maine is Searsport Shores Ocean Campground.  Laila, Sara & I strolled around today to check things out.  There is a studio with an artist in residence, dyers' garden, Beehive bunkhouse, Fairy & Toad house and fiber goats.  Lawn sculpture icludes a large triangle loom, a tapestry loom and a woven reed or twig basket.  The camp store sells dyed locks of fiber by the ounce.  There are crocheted party dresses hanging in the garden.

 

Astrig, the campground owner & Fiber College organizer, indicated that she has learned to spin drafting with her left hand, hoding fiber betweem her index & third fingers.  Later today, I am going to give it a try.  And I'm goint to try to learn how to crochet with a clearly impaired hand,,,, wush me luck!

The campground is right on the ocean.  They have lobster bakes every Saturday night on the beach.  Last night there was a giant Easter bunny wearing a tutu going through camp....

 

Right now there are two Great wheels in the studio loft, one of which will be auctioned off during Fiber College.  There will be a Rio Grande wheel for the Great Wheel spinning class as well.  The natural dyeing instructor, Jackie Ottino Graf, is reportedly phenominal.  There is a class in reading Japanese knitting patterns, bookbinding (Purple Bean Bindery), woodcarving, Navajo spindling, etc.  Lots going on with Phenomenal instructors.

Second Annual Knitting Friends Camp Week

Last year, I tent camped in Acadia National Park with two fiber buddies, Laila and NH Sara.  I "met" Sara through blogging, and physically met up at Fiber Revival in 2009.  At Fiber Revival, Sara told me about the Vermont Knitting Retreat.  Sara & I attended that in 2010 where we met Laila.  Laila moved to the USA from Sweden at the age of 14.  Sara knits & weaves.  Laila knits and weaves and now dyes (our dye weekend was at her daughter's place in Vermont).

The three of us met up again in 2011 at the Vermont Knitting Retreat.   Both of those retreats ended with a tour of Gilead Fiber Farm owned by Laila's daughter, Kristen.  We then added SPA to our meetups, sharing a room and enjoying each other's company.  Then we started adding in weekend get-togethers for events such as NH Sheep & Wool and Green Mountain Fiber Festival in White River Junction, VT or simply gathering at Laila's house for a weekend of being fiber junkies and friends. 

Last August  we got together and tent camped for a week, using the now-becoming-infamous three room Sam's Club find tent I own.  While I'm not certain that Laila and Sara were really hyped about the idea of spending a week in a tent camping, they were good sports & it all turned out well.  We have a fiber-shanty-away-from-home to use for events like the VT dye weekend, and our now annual week of tent camping.  

Last year was the first time I attended Fiber College of Maine despite the fact I live only 25 miles away from the campground where it is held.  I took two classes from Mary Jane Mucklestone in Fair Isle and Andean colorwork, a class from Josette McWilliams of Enchanted Knoll Farm and a wood carving class where I made myself a wood spirit staff.

Enter this year's plans for our now annual camping trip, and we decided to dovetail our week of camping with Fiber College and pitch the tent at the facility hosting Fiber College, Searsport Shores Ocean Campground.  We have a screen room, camp kitchen, LED Coleman quad light, 2 queen sized air mattresses (and the cigarette lighter pump to fill them), two burner camp stove and the tent.  While I don't have a rain fly for the screen room, we move indoors to the "living room" of the tent during rainy times and the screen room otherwise.

I'm taking classes in A) Navajo spinning  B) Introduction to Japanese patterns   C) spinning on a Great Wheel  and D) photography for knitters.  I believe Sara is making a dragon.  Laila is along for the ride (saving pennies for a trip to Australian this winter, with plans to meet David of Southern Cross Fibre.  We have Krysta (Banrion on Rav) and "the other Sara" from Maine (knitmainea on Rav) joining us the last weekend, and even Lisa (knitnzu on Rav) for a day.

I'll be moving Gamma (my daughter Kille's youngest brother - the other two are "Alpha" and "Beta") and his girlfriend into their apartment Saturday morning (using the pickup I now own and the new-to-me horse trailer), then they will follow me to camp to help me set it up.  Hopefully when Laila and Sara get there, it'll all be up and ready, and there will be an adult beverage and hors d'ouevres waiting...Just saying that horse trailers (power washed out) are fabulous pieces of equipment to have when moving college students in and out of places..

I'll be posting the adventures of the nomadic fiber trio as the week progresses..

Hunter-Gatherer

Ever since returning from the Gilead Dye weekend at Gilead Fiber Farm (Etsy shop here) in Vermont last month, I seek dye plant materials every time I venture outdoors.  On my own road, I've discovered burdock (roots can be used for dyeing), stinging nettles, goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace and staghorn sumac (leaves and berries).  I even have a dead apple tree on my land I am considering using for a dye bath.

 

My friend, Sissy, has a number of acres of land, abutting to land of both her brothers and her mom.  I went there (with permission of course) and gathered Queen Anne's lace, tansy, jewel week, rose hips and goldenrod to make dye baths from.  Sissy has been weeding out her jewel weed, but will now save it for me & dyeing.  I am hoping to even do an experiment with the more abundant materials comparing freshly gathered vs frozen vs dried materials and the results.  Kristen of Gilead Fiber Farm mentioned that one can cook down the plants in a dye bath as usual, but store the hot dye bath after straining out the plant matter, in canning jars in a dark closet away from light.  Then when one is ready to dye or has the fiber ready, the dye bath can be used at that time for dyeing.  She has had success storing the dye materials in that form.  Some dyebaths she has had success with even after two years of such storage.

 

So, I splurged and bought myself a huge stainless steel pot for cooking dye materials, a big metal strainer, a large funnel (in the auto department at Wal-Mart), and canning jars in various sizes to use for dyeing.  I was too over-eager to wait for a large stainless steel dye suitable pot to show up at Goodwill or Salvation Army (although I did go looking, but got too impatient).  I am hoping to get these materials cooked, frozen or dried before I leave for my second annual camping/fiber week with fiber buddies Laila and NH Sara next week.  Last year, we stayed in Acadia in my three room tent (a Sam's Club special a number of years ago - suitable only for car camping but perfect for this purpose) in early August.  This year, we are dovetailing into Fiber College of Maine in Searsport, ME at Searsport Shores Ocean Campground.  Still in the three room tent, which also made its appearance at the dye weekend in Vermont, we have the original three of us fiber nuts plus Laila's dog, Lily (a Yorkie) plus on the Fiber College weekend, we will have Krysta and the other Sara (Maine) joining us.  I have a camp kitchen (to keep all the cooking stuff off the picnic table), a screen room (but no rain protection other than the roof there), and the tent.  We have queen sized air mattresses (& a cigarette lighter adaptor pump), camp chairs, nesting cookware, an LED quad light from Coleman, and an outdoor extension cord (who can camp without cell phone chargers, laptops and a Kuerig?)....   come by and chat or have a cuppa if you are there - we have an ocean view campsite and you can't miss the big red Tundra parked there!

 

Last year, Laila was warping her rigid heddle loom using her sideview mirror as a warping peg.  Sara knit on socks we never thought would get done, but did.  Laila worked on her socks that were knit one inside the other (but she hasn't finished them, he he he), and I worked on my Color-On-Color scarf that has been in progress for far too many years.  I am finished now with the scarf but for a ton of iCord embellishments, so perhaps this year will see that project finally finished.  If it does get completed, I am rewarding myself with a black winter jacket of some sort to show off the scarf!

Blizzard Leavings

We got a true Nor'easter last night, complete with this gift at the mudroom door this morning.  That is indeed snow against the door, not a Dutch door left in place.  One can see the divot on the right at the top of the snow drift where the doorknob was.

The boys decided during the storm not to clear the doorway, as we have a guest "from away" arriving later today, and they wanted to let her see it for herself.  The decks around the house were cleared earlier in the storm, of over a foot of snow.  There's maybe 2-3" again.

In the background, one can see the snow against a picket fence - the wind drifted snow up against the door, and away from the fence.  We even have snow on the screens!  LOL

Pre-Nor'easter Blizzard Snowfall

We have a Nor'easter in action tonight.  We were predicted to get 4-8" of snow this afternoon, with an additional 18-22" overnight with blizzard conditions and snowfall up to 3"/hour overnight.

This photo is of my back deck just now.  The red thing on top of a black blob is my 6' 1" son standing at the bottom of the deck steps.  The snow started around 2 this afternoon..... on the mudroom deck, when one opens the door, there is a door imprint on the side of the snow packed there.  And that is in a relatively protected space.  

My sons want to wait until after our last out of town guest arrives tomorrow afternoon to remove that snow so she can see the door imprint on the snowbank.  They did get out the little snowthrower and remove what has fallen so far from the back and side decks, as one can see in the photo (snowthrowing in progress).  It is looking like a white Christmas for us, and we have three more days of snow predicted this week.

Landscaping Continues

I've lived in eight states and three foreign countries.  I've never lived anywhere in my life longer than eight years, and I generally enact my ideas for my homes just in time to sell them to someone else to enjoy.  I've NEVER landscaped for myself.   This first pic is what most of our drive entrances look like here.  Natural.

When I moved here to Maine, I was traumatized, terrified and worn out.  I bought my place in the woods on four acres, on a dirt road some 14 homeowners share the maintenance.  I cannot  see any of my neighbors from my home, and we each have 4 or more acres on this road.  We all have wells, and septic systems.  We aren't off the grid like Farm-Witch, but certainly a far cry from living in cities like Denver, SLC, OKC, Bombay, Alexandria (Egypt) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).

I've been here almost seven years now, almost a personal record for retention.  Three years ago, I began having sections of landscaping done on the place.  I moved in to the house brand new, without even tufts of grass growing.  I found a landscaper with creativity, originality and an artisitic background.  I told her I wanted a beautiful yard, but didn't want to be married to maintenance because of my work schedule.  I didn't want to have to edge the lawn, I wanted perennials in at least one area, and I wanted the place to be welcoming to my family and to visitors.

The first section was all about foundation plantings on the public side of the structure, and about making the entrance welcoming.  Here in Maine, we don't use front doors.  Many houses here no longer even have steps to the front door.  We use the mudroom entrance where snowy and muddy boots can be taken off before entering the house proper, and where there is usually some sort of heat transition into the home to keep those heating $ from flying out each time the door opens.  In my home's case, many people couldn't even figure out where the door was, so I wanted to define that and make it welcoming.  My landscaper added whimsy with awesome bird houses and even a fairy house with custom landscaping which mirrored that in my own yard.

The second section put in a pond with a super filtration system for the geese I used to own.  Three weeks after the pond went in, my dogs did in the geese.  I didn't replace the geese, but I kept the pond.  It has a rock waterfall, a rock island, a bog area with logs and stumps (brought in for interest), and many rocks on the bottom (hides the lining).  I have a rustic bench with an arbor over it which overlooks the pond.  And I have a little gargoyle reading a book next to the rocks.

My latest section just got started, and completed, today.  It was to spiff up the end of my driveway one sees driving up to the drive.  It doesn't get direct sun ever.  It is a LONG ways down my drive, so it needs to be zeroscaped to survive.  And, I wanted a piece of sculpture that would go with one in the first section of landscaping - the shower Buddha.

Mo McGlinn (McGlinn's Wee Gardens, Brewer, ME) found a companion carved tree trunk statue for this greeting section - a Forest Spirit man.  He is the centerpiece of this new section of my place - a landmark and greeter in a natural habitat.  She put in ferns, shrubs, fall flowers, and rustic logs.  Now, we have a landmark people can use to find us, and we've dressed up the road a bit, while we are at it without being over the top.  I'll take more photos in daylight, but couldn't resist getting some tonight as I drove back in.

Megan's Playhouse

My friend Megan has a day job (well, okay - a night job) as a labor & delivery RN.  She is married to a dairy farmer who works on his father's dairy farm.  Together, they have a little barn with a spinner's flock of sheep, some chickens, a couple of farm dogs, and many out buildings.  Most farms' out buildings serve as storage of equipment, animals, or feed.  On Megan's place, the outbuildings seem to be what I like to think of as adult playhouses.  (Get your minds out of the gutter - I'm being apple pie here).

Since Megan lives on a farm, and her husband has all sorts of testosterone toys like real John Deere green tractors, front loaders, trucks (did I mention tractors), etc, they can do things with their little outbuildings most of us can't - like move them around, or relocate them half a mile away for a view of the water.  And so when I visit Megan's farm from time to time, I find the configuration of outbuildings has changed.  And so it was last month when Sam & I went to spend the day at Megan's.

The playhouse I have taken the most photos in and of used to be up next to the barn, near the real house.  This spring, Megan painted the door and window box to remind her  of doors she saw in Ireland last year.  This summer, Robert moved it with the tractor down by their waterfront about 1/4 to 1/2 mile down a dirt road.  So, Megan, Sam & I went down to the water to see the playhouse, walk down by the water and look at lichens and moss and other wonders of the outdoors.  In its original spot by the barn, another little house is now in its place, with a retro bicycle and milk can planters as landscaping.  And on the way to the new location of the fancy playhouse, is Ben's house.  That is a two story little house her son, Ben, built as his a few years ago. 

And so while in the time since I got Sam I haven't gotten to do much in the way of fiber pursuits (he's too interested in customizing my fiber and wheels and other tools), I have gotten to spend time with my friends - Megan and her playhouse, and two other friends have been helping me repaint the inside of my home, clean & organize my storage room in the basement, repair the screens in the screen room torn by dog nails, and clean out my garage.  As much as I love my fiber stuff, good friends definitely surpass it!  (And it is especially cool if they share their playhouses with you.)

PS  These were taken about three weeks ago, and Sam is MUCH taller and longer now than even depicted here.  The water pic was the first time he'd seen a lake or pond, and he seem puzzled over why his paws didn't stay on TOP of the water rather than sinking to the bottom...

You'd Better Watch Out...

We had a special visitor Thursday night here in rural Maine..... he even sat on my friend, Megan's lap (but there was no groping since we didn't want to make it to CNN)....

Adventures of the Bubba Tree

Warning:  picture heavy post ahead.  My apologies to my dial-up readers!

The Bubba Tree story:  My knitting/spinning friend, Megan (whose sheep and chickens you have seen here) is married to a dairy farmer here in Maine, who has a family owned woodlot for their wood heating stoves.  Robert, Megan's husband, and his friend, Billy, were sent out one year (after the dinosaurs died off, but not much after) in high school to find, fell and bring a Christmas tree home for one of their mothers.  They went off to the family wood lot to do so.  It was an afternoon adventure of poor planning and preparation in the way that teenage boys have.  (Mothers out there, I know you know what I am speaking about).

Over the ensuing years, they got driver's licenses, got their trucks stuck in the snow.  They had to trudge back to the farm to get a tractor to pull out the truck.  Illegal underage beer entered into the picture (and reportedly might have had something to do with the truck getting stuck).  They have each gotten married and had kids and even some grandkids.  And still, getting a Christmas tree has remained an annual event for these two lifelong friends and their families.  With a twist.  When Robert married Megan (my friend), Megan wanted to purchase the perfect tree from a tree farm.  She won, but Robert held out for his annual tree from the woodlot, which has fondly become known as the Bubba Tree.  The Bubba Tree is supposed to be far from perfect, and manytimes, several trees are felled for the purpose of finding the perfect Bubba Tree.  (The extra felled trees are used to heat their homes - it is not wasteful cutting).

And as the Adventures of the Bubba Tree matured, even in high school, the two friends learned to take a snack along, which has evolved to red hot dogs.  Initially, the hot dogs were cooked over a fire, and now on camping stoves on the tailgate of a pickup.  There is soda, and other things like Pringles and Twinkies that have shelf lives of at least 100 years.  Nothing healthy on the Bubba outings!   The family dogs come, babies supervise in layers of warmth, and extended family and significant others have joined in.  But, it is only the original two friends along with a third man who actually fell the trees and drag them out of the woods.  A sort of rights of passage underway?  They haven't had the next generation start helping with the work part of this annual ritual.

This year, I was honored to have been invited along on the Bubba Adventure.  My personal preparation rivals Margene's attire for walking Moxie.  We were doing this adventure with predicted daytime highs of 7 degrees F, with a windchill well into the negative numbers.   And so, I pulled from both handknits and well purchased wool items from my wardrobe.  I started with long johns, SmartWool top, handknit worsted weight Watermelon socks, my Orkney Islands aran sweater in North Ronaldsay sheep wool over a shirt, jeans, Ugg boots to my knees, and a heavy Lands End jacket, four layer handknit Malabrigo cap, handknit Malabrigo mittens, handknit Cat's Cradle scarf.... you get the Michelin Tire Man picture!

In honor of the occasion, I had a custom made Bubba wreath made.... and yes, those are empty beer cans in with the North Carolina pine cones, red balls and ribbon on the wreath.  (Many thanks to Mo of McGlinn's Wee Gardens of Brewer, ME for her role in the Bubba wreath!)