Farmer's Market Project #7

I've gotten a little behind on posting the Farmer's Market Project, since being out of town for a few weekends, but I'm back, baby! Renewed determination and commitment to see this through until the end of the season.
This photo was taken 7.19.08 at the Johnson City Farmer's Market. You might recognize the tablecloth from past photos, as this is my favorite booth - always filled with color!

Bright red and yellow shades on mill-ends wool was handspun ultra-fluffy, thick and thin. Plied with a handdyed green hemp thread, the yarn became even fluffier and soft with a squiqqly, fun-in-the-sun vibe.Yellow Tomatoes, available here

I was happy with it, right until my husband looked at it and said "Hulkamania, brother!"
Oh, uh yeah, it does look a bit like it could be knit into a boa for the Hulkster:

Hmmm...

Farmer's Market 7.12.08

Taken by little brother T, at the Johnson City Farmer's Market...purple bell peppers?

It reminded me of this yarn:Irises

So now I need it to inspire a new yarn!

Farmer's Market Project #5

This week's picture was taken at the Johnson City Farmer's Market: ripening Cherokee Tomatoes, from a local farm. Just as the rain subsided, I was smitten with the deep red and receding green of this heirloom variety.


I captured the purpley red on mill-ends wool (rescued wool from what would be thrown out by a commercial spinning mill) and handspun it fluffy, thick and thin. I then wrapped the squishy wool in hemp yarn, handyed the shade of green tomatoes.
The two textures and colors play with each other, like the ripening of a tomato, creating a contrast for your eyes and hands. The knitted (or crocheted) fabric will have a slight tweedy effect with the green just popping up now and then to add some life to the party!

Farmer's Market 7.5.08

Cherokee Tomatoes - also known as black or purple tomatoes, fully ripe their skin becomes a blackish purple. (I bought two - very mild in taste, not tomatoe-y)

Farmer's Market Project #4

Inspired by these peaches, the seasons' first, I handdyed some local fiber 3 shades of peach.



The three shades in this 2 ply yarn create a self-striping yarn that starts with darker peach at one end and moves towards the lightest, peachiest color at the other end of the skein. Knitted (or crocheted), this skein will create one long color repeat that moves from darkest to lightest along the length of the project.

I was/am very tempted to keep this yarn for myself and knit a scarf out of it! It took all my moral fortitude to stick with the Project and list the yarn in the shop!

PS. This is a super busy week with out-of-town family (and pets) staying in my guest room/studio/office and dyeing lessons in my kitchen and knitting night at Jill's. I might not be around too much!

Farmer's Market - 6.28.08

Fresh peaches, Johnson City Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market Project #2

I had to skip the Farmer's Market last week, since I was IN my best friend's wedding, but the week before that I actually went to 2 local farmer's markets. The new Jonesborough market is still small, but all of the produce (of which there was very little by 10:30 am) was local. My favorite local chocolatier was there (Earth and Sky Creations)- and we bought a chocolate for each of us. On the car ride home they both got melty and so we were at a rush when we stopped by the JC market. So rushed, in fact, that I left my camera in the car and it wasn't until the last minute that I grabbed it and shot the brightest thing I found:

While I was out of town for the wedding, I thought about these flowers, so bright amongst the green leaves. I decide to finally break out the banana fiber I've been too nervous to spin and I dyed it a few shades of green. I found some brilliant impatient-orange recycled silk that are the perfect shade of orange. The banana fiber and recycled silk are recycled in the same way: a Nepalese woman's co-op collects the scraps from sari weaving; apparently banana fiber is a very common fiber in India! While the silk is smooth, with all the fibers parallel, the banana fiber is very crimpy and clustered up, tied together is some places. Making it spinable is a time-consuming task and involves "fluffing" it, pulling apart the fibers, cutting or untying the knots, getting it as parallel as possible (I tried handcarding to no avail!). Because the banana fiber is so uneven and I wanted to ensure a sturdy yarn, I chose to use a commercially spun 100% hemp yarn as the base and spun the banana and silk around the hemp yarn (like corespinning).Impatient Orange - available in the shop

The resulting yarn is fluffy and soft and scrappy, while extremely sturdy and strong.

and funky!

PS. The chocolate got melty, but we popped it in the fridge when we got home (just a few minutes) and it ended up tasting SO amazing - PB for Jay, Chili Powder for me.

Farmer's Market - 6.14.08

Bright orange impatients, cheering me up after my chocolates melted!

*I'll be out of town this weekend, so I'm skipping next Saturday & this week's project will be completed next week.

Farmer's Market Project #2

Last week, at the Johnson City Farmer's Market, I was struggling to find some yarn-worthy inspiration. We had slept late and most of the fresh veggies were gone. While the goat cheese was delicious, I didn't think white slabs of creamy goodness were going to translate into an interesting yarn. Just as we were leaving, I caught site of these white stalks, which reminded me of Soy fiber (I don't know why; everything reminds me of some fiber!)

I was thinking of that pale green when I dyed the fiber and those spiky stalks on the round one (what is that?) inspired the way I spun it.

I'm not entirely happy with how the color came out, I was going for something a bit more green, but this ended up in the blue-green range. A little of the natural cream of the soy fiber still shows through, like the barely green of the stalks.
This yarn was definitely a lesson in dyeing soy and in trying to match the inspiration photo!

Fiber Friday - Hobby Knob Farm

On a muggy Friday evening last month, Jay and I had the pleasure of visiting Hobby Knob Farm in Weaversville, NC. Shepherdess Elizabeth met us on her big back porch, where she was working on a fleece, cleaning out the grass as it sat on a big screen door.

Elizabeth gave us a grand tour, past the guard llamas that were being groomed for her daughter's upcoming 4-H show and up to the sheep on a leash.
Yes, a sheep on a leash (a very long leash) in the yard! I knew then that I was gonna love this place!

The flock of sheep all live in several huge fields and are rotated throughout the day. When we arrived, Elizabeth put out some feed in the chicken yard and the sheep (and their constant companions, the llamas) came running.
As cute as the sheep are, that chick in the above picture, might be my favorite - she looks like she's wearing pants!

Hobby Knob is focuses on heritage breeds of sheep: Jacobs, Cotswalds and some Shetland crosses.

Elizabeth breeds with other local, small farms to create interesting, beautiful fiber and fantastically adorable lambs!

The fiber I got from Elizabeth is a blend of her wool and mohair with local alpaca. It dyes beautifully soft colors and spins so easily, so smoothly!

This yarn was dyed with the leftover Easter Egg dyes and spun to a heavy worsted weight. I named this first skein spun the fiber I got at my farm visit after Elizabeth!

Farmer's Market Project #1

Last week,while strolling through the very lively Abingdon Farmer's Market, I slyly snapped this photo of a pepper plants and begonias, while my husband bought some peppers.



Throughout the week, I thought about the photo and what aspects I wanted to caputure in the yarn. I was most struck by the variety of greens and the interplay between the shot of red with the rest of the photo. It took me a few days, but on Thursday I pulled out some gray streaked mill-ends wool and a local wool/alpaca/mohair blend from Hobby Knob Farm. I put both fibers into a dyepot with a medium green. As the temperature rose, I sprinkled in a few more greens (dye will "strike" the fiber quicker when it's already heated, so you can get patches of distinct colors while kettle dyeing).


The resulting fiber was dried outside in the sunshine and spun into a bulky single, shot through with begonia red recycled silk. The scrappy silk offers both a contrast of color and texture, the same contrast provided by the begonia in the picture.

I would love some company for the Farmer's Market Project! Read this to learn more and then leave a comment if you'd like to join me. I welcome anyone who does any craft; I'll make a blogroll of those involved, so make sure you leave your blog address!

Farmer's Market Project - 6.7.08

Romaine Lettuce, taken at the Johnson City Farmer's Market

The Farmer's Market Project is a self-challenge: each week I'll take one picture at the Farmer's Market and will post it here. During the next week I'll dye and/or spin a yarn inspired by that picture and will list the yarn the very next weekend.

Tomorrow I'll be posting the yarn inspired by last week's photo.

Yarny News

• My yarn is being sold at the new Portuguese, online yarn store Knit! Although I can't read much of the website, I'm excited!

• There's a new yarn store in town (sort of). A Likely Yarn opened in Abingdon, VA this Tuesday and I will be working there every other Sunday, starting June 15th. Come by if you're in the area! Jay and I are building the website, so I'll be posting about that once it exists!
• While I should have been working on other projects, I developed this flyer/price list for BCB...what do you think?
• I'm pretty excited about Squidoo, which I'm still figuring out. I started wtih this lens on local yarn, but it's still just a baby! Let me know how you think it could be improved and what you'd like to learn on the subject!
  

Local Lunch

• Spring Salad Greens from Abingdon Organics
• Strawberries from Bishop's
  
• Farm Fresh Herbed Goat Cheese from Oak Moon Creamery
• Dried Sweet Cherries from the guy at the JC Farmer's market (no signage, no business card)

Not pictured:

• Toasted Rosemary Focaccia from Scratch
• Sumatra from Cooper Coffee Co.

PS. After searching for each of these vendor's websites, I am struck that only 1 has a website or even a small little information page! People, websites are imperative! What do you think is keeping these small businesses from embracing the technology? Lack of knowledge? Perceived cost? This is something I would really love to help other small businesses with and I wonder what the barrier to entry really is!

Fiber Friday: Wit's End Fiber

At Maryland Sheep & Wool, strolling through the sheep barns, I came upon a table with some business cards, a skein of yarn and a bag of wool. As I plunged my hand into the wool (ecstasy!), the farmer approached and he and I my mom began chatting about his sheep. It took me about two seconds of admiring the sheep

and fondling the wool before I pounced on it! I was thrilled to learn that Wit's End farm is just a few hours from my house, in rural Virginia. When I returned home, Jay had purchased the first of the season's strawberries. Inspired, I pulled out the local wool, and dyed it in "local" colors.

Strawberry

I set aside 4 oz of fiber to sell and quickly spun up another 4 oz:

Strawberries, already sold!

A few days later, the leaves outside my office door inspired me to dye the rest of the wool:

Leaf

This fiber has been an absolute dream to spin with and serves as further proof that buying direct from the farmer makes for the most satisfying spinning experience!
If you want to find local farmers, search Local Harvest, or just google "sheep farm ___ (your city and state)". If you know of any great local farms, please share in the comments!

Inspiration Monday #10: Alpacas

This week, all my thoughts and daydreams have centered on one thing: Alpacas.
I spent Saturday morning at a Shearing Day, at Silver Thunder Farm. It was fun and amazing and educational and so so memorable and encouraging.
The way the farmers handled their (and their neighbor's) alpacas.
The way the shearers were efficient and kind.
The way the alpacas bleated through the whole ordeal - only to jump up, shake it off and prance around with their friends.

More than anything, it cemented some dreams as I realized: I can do this.

Miscellany and Free Yarn

Miscellany

• A (brand new) local knitting group met last Saturday, in Jonesborough (that's us up there, I'm the one on the far right). I considered not posting the photo, but I figured I'm swallowing my self-consciousness and saying Hello! That's me!
  
• My Storque article is up: all about defining your Target Market.
• Come chat about the target marketing in this thread.
• Sara (of Etsy) has asked me to write an article about the weekly Fiber Friday threads, if you've taken part in the past, leave a comment about why you like it, what you've learned, etc.
  

Free Yarn
When I started to write this post, I had sold 95 items, now it's 97!
I am so very near 100 items, a number that I want to celebrate! So, to show my appreciation, the 100th item sold will be FREE, with NO shipping!
It doesn't matter how many you buy, if you purchase the 100th, I'll adjust your invoice and the 100th be free and the entire order will have no shipping!

If you want to know if your item will be the 100th, just take a look at the shop, on the far right:

This prize is a big sloppy Thank You! kiss to my wonderfully supportive, slightly yarn-addicted customers! To ensure that you get the free yarn and shipping, leave me a note in the "Message to Seller" part of the transaction.

Have a great Wednesday!
(edited because I had a LOT of exclamation points)

Fiber Friday #4 - Silver Thunder Alpacas

When I first started looking for sustainable and responsible fibers to spin, dye and knit with, I mostly focused on organic cotton and recycled materials (mill-ends, recycled sari silk, etc). As the world has become more ‘green’-minded, I find it’s easier and easier to find organic wool and natural-grown cotton. What it’s not so easy to find, is proof that this is sustainable or assurances that these products really are the best I can do. The more I’ve learned, I’ve begun to redefine what I consider ‘sustainable and responsible’. Reading Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral impacted my thinking on supporting the local agricultural economy (and I’m blessed to live in an agrarian area). So, too, did learning that very few people in this area grow sheep for wool, due to its low market value and local alpaca farmers can get more for their crop if they send it to South America to be spun and knit. This excess transportation (fuel) and energy and the fact that the area is losing the community that is built around supplying each other with what we need, has honed my focus on finding local suppliers of fibers. I will still buy mill-ends, recycled fibers (like bamboo and soy) and other things I can’t get locally. But what I can buy here, I will.

It was with this commitment that I sent emails to 10 Tennessean (and a few from VA and NC, since I live near the border) fiber farmers. The first I heard back from were Chuck and Nancy from Silver Thunder Alpacas. Jay and I scheduled a visit for a Saturday afternoon. The drive to the farm was beautiful and the alpacas themselves were more than we could have hoped. Nancy and Chuck entertained all of our (even silly) questions. In the two hours we were at the farm, we learned more about the industry and care and lifestyle of alpacas then we could have imagined. We petted the alpacas, hugged the ones that would let us and gushed over the fantastic guard dogs.

Afterwards I purchased some brown roving and later spun into this week's Ross & Rachel yarn.

I have a lot more photos of the farm, and hope to share more as I get to know these and other local farmers better.