A Day at Adams Farm

The day after we went to the Green Mountain Spinnery, we drove west about 20 miles to Adams Farm.

In addition to building a thriving tourist business around farm life, Adams Farm has constructed what is now my favorite fiber room of all time. There they sell yarn from their own sheep, quilts and quilting material, rug hooking materials, weaving equipment from Weavettes...



...to Tri-Looms,



spinning equipment and an array of fibers,






and assorted dyestuffs.



They even rent drum carders.



Adams Farm yarn is spun from the fleeces of the farm's own merinos. Although they do keep a bit of the fleece for hand carding and hand spinning, most of it is processed at the Green Mountain Spinnery and sent back to Adams Farm for sale on site.

I bought a couple of skeins of this rich chocolate undyed fingering:


I also could not resist these gorgeous colors made with natural dyes, some of which are made from plants grown on the property.


These skeins, from left to right, are dyed with:
1. Logwood, cochineal, and elderberry
2. Cochineal and logwood
3. Onion skns in an iron pot
4. Lac, Logwood, and Hibiscus
5. Rhubarb leaves

In addition to producing this yellowy-green color, rhubarb leaves can act as a mordant due to a particular acid found in them.

Seeing all the naturally-dyed yarn (which included many many more colors such as purples and pinks and even some handpainted, all of which I very sadly left on the shelf)...



...made me want to pull out the alum and madder root I bought earlier this year and try it on the fleece from MDSW. I added a jar of logwood pieces to my shopping bag. That should be an adventure!

I did not just buy yarn and dye. A sampler pack filled with fibers I have not tried yet called to me. In the bag are soy silk, bamboo, silk latte made from milk, viscose, tencil, ingeo, and also some extra-fine merino. I also bought samples of hemp top and flax.








Vermont was a fantastic state to explore and I hope we can go back very soon!

Green Mountain Spinnery, pt. 2

Our adventure continues...

After the Green Mountain Spinnery skeins their yarn, they ship much of it out but sell some in their small front store.

This little creature watched as I stacked my choices by the cash register.

Although the store sells many colorful yarns, it was the pure sheepy colors that called my name. Aren't these gorgeous? I wish I had purchased some of the same yarn in natural gray, too.

This yarn is made from the fleeces of sheep raised organically by Vermont farmers. Some of the shepherds sell their fleeces outright to the Spinnery while others request that Green Mountain process the fleeces and return them as yarn. They then can sell the yarn from their own sheep to visitors to their farms. (More on this tomorrow.)

After the fleeces are brought into the Spinnery, they are cleaned, carded, and spun through a process Green Mountain calls GREENSPUN. Unlike most of the yarn available to knitters, GMS yarns do not use petroleum in the scouring, carding, or spinning processes. Only gentle scouring soap and nonpetroleum carding oils are used. (For the upsetting facts about most commercial yarns, see the Worsted Witch's series of posts about textiles and sustainability.)

The Spinnery is deeply committed to production that is environmentally sound. To meet their commitments, they created a more efficient water-saving scouring system and a lanolin-extracting wastewater system.

Because of Green Mountain Spinnery's developments in sustainable production, the Northeast Organic Farming Association has established organic standards for yarn processing.

In addition to purchasing fleeces from local shepherds, Green Mountain does business in other ways that support the local economy. Yarns not sold in the store are mailed out in recycled boxes from a local mailing company. Waste wool is spun into interior windings for baseballs--by a Vermont company. Mill ends are donated to charitable organizations that teach knitting or donate knitted items. Occasionally, special mill runs are created for fundraising to support relief efforts for national and international crises.

You can learn more about the Green Mountain Spinnery in their stunning book of patterns and history: The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book: Contemporary and Classic Patterns.

This is really my first purchase that answers the Village Knittiot's call to join her in the Summer of Knitting Naturally. Stay tuned to tomorrow's post for details of my second purchase and future plans!

Green Mountain Spinnery, pt, 1

While we were in Vermont, we were able to visit the Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney. (Good call in the comments, Lazuli and Jasmine!) What a treat it was!

As we planned our trip, I was disappointed to realize that we could not be at the Spinnery on the day of a factory tour. But, I thought, just being in their front store would be enough. Of course when we arrived and the woman in the shop talked with Son, she immediately whisked us to the back and showed off the machinery and the products. The workers there were so kind to Son. They talked to him at his level without ever being disrespectful or patronizing or overly simplifying the process.

First, fleeces arrive.




They are sorted...


...and taken to the wash room to be cleaned...


...then go through the water extractor.


What an enormous drum carder! It was made in 1916.


The fleece is carded into batts...

...then go through this part of the machine...


...which turns the batts into pencil roving.


Son tests the strength of the pencil roving and sees how fragile it is compared to twisted yarn.


This machine, bought from one of the New England industrial textile mills, spins the roving into singles.


The yarn spins onto these beautiful old bobbins.


The woman running the spinning frame watches carefully to make sure everything is working properly. After a brief period, she skeins off several yards and weighs that skein to determine if the yarn is the right size. (She gave Son the test skein.)


The bobbins are collected...


...and the singles are taken to the plying machine.


Here the yarn is made into skeins on one whopper swift:


To be continued...

UFO update

Note: Tomorrow I will post about our yarn adventures in Vermont. Incidentally, I did not know about Kaleidoscope Yarns until I got home (when I heard about it from some of my S-n-Bers as well as from y'all)--and I had no idea Webs was so close! The place we went, for those of you who would like to guess some more, is actually in Putney....

But for today, UFO wrap-up:



For this month, following a brilliant knit-along called UFO August, I set myself the goal of finishing some UFOs and WIPs. Thanks to the support and encouragement of the KAL members, I actually finished 6 of the projects I had in my baskets!



1. Icarus
See finished shawl

2. Linen Feather and Fan Stole
Finished

3. Irish Hiking Scarf
Finished

4. Must Have Cardigan
Finished

5. Blue Socks
Finished



6. Laura Ingalls shawl
Finished

A present for a young friend, here modelled by Snow White's evil witch bearing a tomato a poisioned apple and by a friendly pirate.




7. Pi Shawl
While this is not an FO, it has turned from UFO to active WIP. All that is left is about 80% of the edging. It requires a great deal of attention compared to what I have these days, so it is slow going. But it IS going now!



8. Birthday Bunnies in Ballarina Suits
No progress

9. Birthday Fairytale Mice
No progress


Unfortunately, I also seem to have acquired a couple of new unfinished projects:

1. A sock, always a good project to have on the needles:



2. And a knit-in-the-car seed stitch soy silk shawl:



But hey, they don't have to be finished until NEXT August, right?

The Ravenous Raven: Eating in Vermont

This week we ate local in Vermont. One day we stopped by a roadside store and maple syrup production facility to purchase some local foods.


We took them to the Putney green for a picnic.


Blueberries, Vermont-made crackers, a Vermont-made rhubarb soda, and two kinds of cheeses...


...sharp cheddar and maple smoked. The cheeses come dipped in clear wax, wrapped in foil, and then dipped again in colored wax. (Son peeled off the wax and spent the rest of the car trip modelling with it.) The small wooden cheese knife was made at the house across the street from the Sugar House.


We ate well for our whole trip and got to explore some of Vermont's food scene. Wineries, cheeseries, and cider mills abound.


So do fantastic food co-ops. Montpelier's Hunger Mountain is a gorgeous store. We drooled over the displays of vegetables at Otter Creek in Vergennes. We also went by co-ops in Burlington, Putney, etc., and vowed to go in next time we're in town. (There seemed to be a limit to how many grocery stores we should tour on vacation....)


Exploring the beautiful Brattleboro co-op with camera in hand, we were envious to see the announcement of canning classes--including a class for children. I wish we could be there for it!


Co-ops in Vermont place a high value on selling locally-grown and locally-produced foods.


Many state restaurants share that value. Even Italian restaurants advertise that their produce is from organic local farms. Many places display the Vermont Fresh Network sign proudly in their front windows, proclaiming a partnership between local farmers and chefs. I wish we had made it to Hemingway's Restaurant (and could afford it)!

And then there is the Farmers Diner which spends 65% of its food dollar with farmers and small-scale producers in a 70-mile radius.


You know we are in Putney at this point in our travels. Can anybody guess where we will be purchasing more than I should exploring in the next post?

Vermont

We spent last week in Vermont. Driving up I-95 just as thousands of motorcyclists were travelling from DC for the 9-11 ride, we were constantly aware of how urban a world we live in. We crossed over the George Washington bridge in New York City, travelled just a ways into Connecticut, and cut off onto Highway 7. Soon we were in an area filled with farms, covered bridges, old houses, and towns incorporated right after the Revolution. We drove through Connecticut and Massachussets, through the Berkshires on the evening of a Tanglewood concert, until we reached Vermont. We stopped in Bennington for the evening.

In the morning before we began our drive to Lake Champlain, we had breakfast in a cute little cafe in town. We parked the car, dashed through the rain, and stood admiring the paintings on the wall while we waited for our food. Surrounding our table were oil portraits of women, young and old, knitting. I felt right at home.

Staying on 7, we headed through rolling countryside, quaint towns, and farming districts until we reached Grand Isle. David was attending a committee leadership retreat for the United States Breastfeeding Committee. Son and I came with him to enjoy the exquisite retreat center and its lakefront grounds. The estate, a lovely old inn now used for weddings and civil union celebrations as well as small organizational meetings, was a perfect place to relax. We studied the Renaissance while sitting on the wrap-around porch, practiced math, did some knitting, played croquet and bocce, learned to skip stones on the lake, and read and read and read. And we ate incredible food. The chef at the Lake House put together lovely meals with everything from organic produce from a neighboring farm to ice cream made on the island.

David, Son, and I were not the only people knitting at the retreat. One woman was knitting a Christmas stocking for her new grandbaby. Another was knitting a baby blanket. David worked on both his socks and his sweater for Son. During the meeting when the members found errors in their work, they brought them out to me to try to fix. I was officially christened their Knitting Doula. What a perfect title! I think we have to pass it on to the Yarn Harlot.

After the meeting ended and we left the island, we took a few days to explore Vermont. First we stopped at Ben and Jerry's to tour their facilities. (We tried not to roll our eyes too much when they talked about being bought out by Unilever.) After seeing the room where they package two flavors a day, we tried the one they were making that morning: Apple Pie. Delicious.

In addition to the other big Vermont companies like Cabot, Basketville, King Arthur Flour, and the Vermont Country Store (I am obsessed with their merino long underwear), the state is full of small family businesses that produce cheese, maple syrup, cider, wine, honey, apple products, etc. More about that soon.

Vermont is also a state of many fine colleges. We drove by Bennington, Middlebury, the University of Vermont, and the almost-in-Vermont Dartmouth, among others.

When we reached Brattleboro, we went to a show of breastfeeding art in a downtown cafe. There are some incredible photographs displayed there--some clearly intended to be art and some intended to document family life. What a pleasure. If you are near Brattleboro, check it out!

Wedding Ring

This weekend, David and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. As we got dressed for dinner and I pulled out my Icarus shawl, it occurred to me that it might be a true wedding ring shawl--fine enough to pull through my partner's grandmother's ring which I wear always.





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I've been missing you folks! We've just returned from a trip to Vermont. Stories soon!