Solitude Wool | Breed-Specific Wool Yarns, Rovings, Patterns & Kits

honeycomb fingerless mitts pattern

$ 5.00

This knitting pattern for long fingerless mitts designed by Kathy Reed are modern essentials for all of us who need to answer a phone or punch at a GPS in wintertime. Worked in woolen spun Clun Forest yarn, the mitts are soft and very gift-worthy quick knits.

Yarn: 1 skein Clun Forest
Sizes: small (medium, large)
Skills: knitting in the round, increasing, simple cables, reading charts
Level of difficulty: Intermediate
Needles: size 4 / 4 mm double pointed needles

Designed by Kathy Reed

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Swatch Along 1: redux

Free

This was our first swatch along in 2017. As we prepare for our second one, we wanted to make the information available again. We have prepared a limited number of kits, but the free e-version without yarn is unlimited. Hope you enjoy learning about these four breeds as much as we did. Sign up for Swatch Along 2 will begin at Maryland Sheep and Wool and online May 9.

Want to learn about different breeds of sheep and how their wool looks, feels and performs differently? The best way is by experiencing them first hand: knit, test and share in our first single breed swatch along. Working with four different types of wool: Fine wool (Targhee), Medium wool (Montadale), Primitive (Icelandic) and Longwool (Border Leicester) learn some breed history, what makes them special, the farms that raise them and what you might want to create with their wool.

Three of us are contributing information and our points of view. Together we will lead the swatch along:

Deborah Robson, co-author of the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, past editor of Spin-Off and Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot magazines; advocate for rare-breed wools and currently leading Explore 4 retreats in Friday Harbor, Washington.
Gretchen Frederick, shepherd, dyer and founding partner of Solitude Wool and
Kathy Reed, new Solitude Wool partner and our Chief Knit Knut. Kathy is a certified knitting instructor and also raises cashmere goats and alpacas.

There are two choices on how to join in:

Free virtual swatch along
Receive all the emails and electronic files with ten swatch patterns (easy and advanced choices), score cards and knit notes. Follow or join in the Ravelry discussion threads to compare observations and experience with each yarn online

Swatch along knit kit
Includes emails and Ravelry discussion threads as in the virtual plus a skeinlet of Solitude Wool, all American yarn, from each breed. Also included is a cover to create your swatch reference. Kits will ship on April 19th.

Schedule:
Emails will be sent to you beginning on Sunday, April 29th and continue for the following three Sundays (last one on May 20th) studying one breed per week.

Participants: if you would like to create a pdf of your email do it from the archive version of the campaign by clicking view in browser > print option > save as pdf. Here is a link to more in depth instructions

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roving dyed colors or blends

$ 12.00

description
details

preparation: the fleece has been scoured, picked and run through a large carder at a one of many small mills we work with here in the mid-Atlantic and other areas of the US. Most are carded roving has fibers going in many directions, loosely organized. Appropriate for woolen or semi-worsted spinning techniques. A few have also been pin-drafted for semi-worsted spinning.
dyed-in-the-wool: the fleece was dyed prior to processing at the mill. This allows blending of different color fibers in the picking and carding process, sometimes with undyed wool as well to create interesting blends of heathered colors with more depth and easier drafting.
kettle dyed: the finished roving has been dyed in a vat. Roving doesn't draft as easily and is a single color
4 oz /113 grams bag