Stonehedge Fiber Mill

Located a pleasant distance from the Perfect Cabin is Stonehedge Fiber Mill, where wool is produced, and sheared, and cleaned, and carded, and spun, and dyed, and sold. These people don’t miss a single step.

There is an enormous amount of river rock in the soil around here. It is the material of choice for landscape edging and, in the 19th century, for building. Here is a stone barn,

and here is a stone church.

At Stonehedge, the welcoming committee was waiting for us.

We saw where the wool is washed and dried and weighed,

and where it is carded.

This is the second carding machine featured on this blog in less than a month. It was about 1/6th the size of the antique, but every bit as Steampunk-esque. They build these, if you’re in the market for one.

Roving has more than one use, did you know? Please don’t tell Pudding that I petted this cat. She wouldn’t understand.

The roving is further combed and straightened

then it is spun and plied. This machine impressed me, also… I have seen ones like it in books about Victorian thread factories.

Stonehedge also takes in jobs from other producers. Here are cones of singles, fresh from a certain favorite dyer of mine, all ready to be plied.

When the yarn is all finished, it is sold in the tiny yarn shed on the property… or on the Stonehedge web site. This yarn is lovely and earthy, the colors deep, and if you buy the “almost handspun”, they can tell you what sheep it came from.

Baaaaaaah!

Zimmermania… and Whiskey

Funny that Teeni should tell me to knit a blankie for Pudding… I started one the day I got her, but she has shown such a disdain for all bedding that I gave up. She far prefers to cuddle up on the carpet under the sofa. Anyway, I have finally managed to buck my months-long streak of socks-only knitting by starting a very simple sweater.

It will be a Zimmerman sweater, probably the yoke sweater from Knitting Without Tears, though I may in the end feel inspired to make it a raglan instead. Maybe I will do a little cable going up each sleeve. Maybe. For now, I’m maybe halfway to the armpits and it is just mindless, glorious, soothing knitting.

I saw this yarn a few weeks ago on Crafty Eliza’s blog and fell in love. I just can’t resist those blue-on-brown heathered tones. Yum. It is Reynolds Whiskey, color 059. This yarn is frequently cited as a substitute for Rowan Felted Tweed, and I think that gaugewise, that is about correct. It is recommended to knit it on size US5 needles. I swatched it on US5s and then, feeling suspicious, on US4s. After washing, drying, and steaming the swatches, the two swatches were hard to tell apart with regard to fabric quality. Before washing, they seemed to be too open and loose, but the yarn–yes, the yarn bloomed, mostly when it was being steamed. So everything will be hunky dory.

I am amazed by how fast knitting goes when it is straight stockinette and one never has to turn the work or re-arrange two sets of circular needles. I think that this whole sweater will involve approximately as much knitting effort as two pairs of socks, for me. Let’s hope it will be worth it!

Ain’t misbehavin’

I don’t stay out late
Don’t care to go
I’m home about eight
Just me and my radio
Ain’t misbehavin’,
Savin’ my love for you

Or maybe I ain’t misbehavin’ because I don’t NEED to go out… because I have a YARN STORE in my HOUSE ZOMG PONIES!!!!!!11111eleven!!!!

I win. Admit it. I win.

P.S.: fennel is a lovely vegetable that tastes of licorice. Yes, really, it does. The gratin is a great recipe. I also like to roast it with carrots and zucchini, to have with curried chicken. When I lived in Italy (briefly), the cafeteria in the building where I worked served steamed fennel at lunchtime every day.