Happy New Year with Maine Shetland Yarns

 I can't believe I haven't shown up here since September! 

I've missed writing and sharing a bunch so I've made it a New Year's resolution to commit Monday's to writing. 

I've set a few writing goals for myself for the New Year that are energizing me. 

Along with a few exciting endeavors I've been thinking about but those are still secret. For now. I'll give you a hint though, they involve the words "color" "school" and "Peaks Island".

Stay tuned!

Today, I'd like to get you caught up on my latest making. 

Our little guy is now almost 19 months old! It's like two steps forward and one step back with how easy/ difficult day to day life can be. 

Add living on an island plus sub zero tempts, fevers, and ear infections, and we don't get out too much. There's been a whole lot of snuggling AND climbing the walls. 

However, I am getting better at carving out time for just me and the things that give me life and feed me. 

Like working with wool. 

handspun maine shetland fingering/dk weight. 

These beauties will be available in the shop soon. 

Something I don't normally do for the shop is such fine spinning. 

But this wool told me exactly what it wanted to become. 

I had to listen because the wool is always right.

When I buy a fleece, I never know what it will end up looking like once spun. 

As I spend all this time with it from 

selecting it

skirting it

washing it

drying it

carding it

by the time I start spinning it, I've had ample time to become familiar. 

By that point I've formed a bond with that wool. 

I know I may sound a little nutzo but I'm really serious. 

I have no idea why I love wool so or why it feels me with such a primitive mothering instinct, but it does. 

Anyway, 

I wait for the moment I bring the huge fluffy batt to the wheel, spin a few yarns, play, and through all that, it whispers to me what it needs to become. I swear it;)

And this last fleece, a very dark soft shiny charcoal Shetland just NEEDED to be spun into the finest singles and then plyed into a sport weight. 

I then knit up a swatch of it, something I'll be doing from now on with every single fleece I spin so I can better understand and communicate to you what you're getting. 

But OH! 

IS  THIS  YARN  

*D   E   L   I   C   I   O   U   S *

It will be available in my etsy shop soon. I promise.

Next up at the wheel is a Maine Icelandic, same color and has been enjoying long slow soft twirls onto the bobbin. I'd say light worsted weight with a bit of fluff. 

Icelandic is one of the trickiest for me to work with at times. 

There is so much downy fluff but also long shiny, not too scratchy hairs. 

It kind of wobbles in between wanting to be finely spun, which can feel like wire, in my opinion.

Or thick rope. 

It really is a slippery slope with this wool. 

I'll let you know how we get on. 

In the mean time, R and I try and get out every day to explore a part of the island. 

Sometimes, I get out a few extra minutes to myself before getting on the boat and I find these:

foot prints left by our 4 island resident geese. Who I might add, aren't that friendly and like to chase me off the beach. 

December skies out here on Peaks are always beautiful too. 

What wool are you spinning this winter? 

Fiber Prep Season; for the love of the process

I just love this time of year.

The cooler weather, the leaves changing, the goldenrod still lingering, and wearing layers. 

It's also the time of year I pull out my acquired fleeces and go to town. 

Since I went full time with my yarn making business two years ago, I've also been in the process of tweaking and streamlining my entire process. 

Turns out I have a thing for lining up several projects at once and building up such a momentum it feels almost meditative. 

It may seem danuting but breaking it all up into little bits, it's quite managable and simple. 

In this age of Etsy's new guidlines of allowing outsourcing and now most recently Amazon Handmade, I continue to stick my toes further into the sand in order to stand up for what I believe in when it comes to a creator's creative integrity. 

I've also just recently (and finally) added a much needed tag line to my business title 

44 Clovers

: heritage yarns; hand spun & plant dyed :

Why "heritage" you might ask? 

To me, the word heritage stems from age old traditions and techniques and processes that I hold very dear to my heart. 

When I started spinning 15 years ago (this month!) I had been wanting to do so as a way to bond with the past when it came to textiles. 

Since then I have worked with all kinds of textiles especially fibers when it comes to spinning and I found I started to ask the questions of "where did this wool come from?" "where was it grown?" "Who worked on and took care of this animal?" The more I asked myself these questions and went seeking, the more I ended up being drawn towards raw fleece which I can easily find in my surrounding communities.

skirting a white shetland fleece

shetland before the wash

I love using my double kitchen sinks, a scoop of orvis paste, and the hottest water from the tap for gentle soaking

This shetland came out

A few weekends ago I was taking advantage of the warmer weather by skirting, drying and carding my fleeces on the front porch. 

skirting a finn fleece

carding a scottish black face fleece

spinning and plying my first skein of white new mexican churro wool


So far I've managed to get all fleeces washed and two carded.
Once all is carded I'll be ready to settle in for the winter to spin in front of the fire.
Then just like Fredrick, I can dream about the colors they will be come spring. 

Finding My Feet; life with baby and wool

For the past 3 months, my life has been all about establishing routines. Something I find very grounding. 

Our babe has quickly become a 3 month old. And I know next time I blink, he'll be a 4 month old. 

I have been loving every bit of figuring out motherhood and forming a family.

I've also been learning that raising a baby and working with wool, go so nicely together. 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about and missing showing up to this space to share my work. 

As we figure out routines, care for, play with, and generally stare at our baby waiting for him to wake up (which is happening right now), I've been wanting to show up here but also feeling too scattered to do so in a way that feels right to me. 

But this past Friday I was given the gift of time to travel on my own up tp the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine as my husband took charge of our R. 

It was blissful and I was giddy as I moved through the fair with an energy I don't quite remember happening since long before I was pregnant.

Once there, I bee lined it for the fleece tent and people in there must of thought I was nuts as I darted around with my cart looking at every single fleece. I smooshed 5 fleeces into my cart to open up and decide upon. 

I went home with 4.  

On the way out, I found this dye garden with a weaving project in the middle. Dream dye garden. 

dye garden by the wednesday spinners. very inspiring for my soon to be dye garden.

I was so so pleased with the fleeces I found. Three of which are from Eolian Farm~ a brown/ grey finn and 2 very light grey/ very light tan shetlands. And a beautiful brown icelandic from another grower- name is escaping me at the moment. 

The following day I started my fiber prep process. This fleece is also from Eolian Farm that I purchased this past June at the Fiber Frolic. I was way too pregnant to do any prep- then my water broke one week later. 

I soak my skirted fleeces in a my double sinks. Giving them several baths until the water is clear.

Just look how snow white that comes out!!! 

I use Orvis paste for the soap. 

Washing fleece is really easy and you can even have little ones help. 

I fill up my sinks, or you can use basins or bowls, what ever size. I found I'm able to fit a pound of fleece in one sink. 

I fill it up with the hottest water from the tap, shut off the water, add a scoop of orvis paste (I found mine on amazon), stir it around, sink the fleece in- dirty tips down if your able. 

Let sit for a few hours to over night. I'm impatient though and I only let mine for for a few hours and then change the water. 

This is the brown/ grey Finn I mentioned. So so lovely!! I can't wait to spin it up. I've already envisioned making a little cabled sweater for my R. 

I typically go to the Frolic, Common Ground, or help put farms with skirting for all my fleeces to produce my yarns for my etsy shop. But I've had a super sad realization about my work. That is, I never spend time knitting these yarns I work for hard to make! That is changing now. From each fleece I'll be keeping enough yarn for myself to make at least something small. Especially to showcase what this yarn looks like to help encourage you along too:) 

As I started washing all my raw fleeces, I also started to set up my carding operation outside on my porch. I have 7 fleeces left to card. Some are only 1 pound where others are up to 8!! My goal is to have all these carded up before the weather turns too cold to do it outside. Then, come winter, my work will switch over to spinning 10 fleeces by the spring. Let me tell you what they all are, because I'm so proud of my selection this year. 

But before I do, here's a Scottish Black Face fleece on the carder. Speaking of carders, I have an extra wide Fancy Kitty and it's a dream to work with. Once my fiber is weighed out, I'm able to card up 4 ounces in 5 minutes. 

So these 10 fleeces I've got:

Scottish Black Face from Nina Fuller at Lily Brook Farm

A Cheviot mixed breed from Wolf's Neck Farm

A white Shetland and two grey/tans and a brown Finn from Jenni Johnson at Eoilan Farm

A brown Icelandic from a place that's escaping me at the moment. 

and a creamy alpaca, also can't remember where it's from

A white churro from New Mexico from Pat at the State Fair

And a creamy cinnamon Churro from New Mexico from a lovely weaving center, again, my brian is starting to take flight. I will post about all these later as I'm working on them so stay tuned. 

That's my work for this week. 

I wonder what I'll get up to next week. 

What are you working on?