A Day With The Green Mountain Spinnery

April 11, 2010 at 12:10 pm 1 comment

Here we are at the Grange watching the presentation. Can you see the sheep in the picture?

We just had a wonderful event with folks from The Green Mountain Spinnery in Vermont. The setting was perfect (the East Sandwich Grange Hall), the topic was fascinating (a worker owned cooperative making natural fiber yarns from local wool) and the company was great (60 friends of Titcomb’s Bookshop both new and old).

Two of our guests look through the "yarn snacks" that were passed out as a treat

They presented a very interesting slideshow of photos that showed the steps in the yarn making process from the actual animals to washing, drying, carding, spinning and dyeing the wool. Making yarn is a LOT of work! They use many different types of natural fibers and in fact recently worked on a custom blend for a client using sled dog fur! (They said it actually turned out gorgeous.)

Vicky was our safety conscious parking attendant (snazzy duds, huh?)

Their yarns are so touchable and the patterns in the book (“99 Yarns and Counting: More Designs From The Green Mountain Spinnery”) so beautiful that it made even non-knitters like me want to try my hand at making a lacy scarf, a delicate shawl collared sweater, or a gorgeous pair of patterned mittens.