I just love the Vermont Sock Yarn from Wing & A Prayer Farm, so when Tammy let me design another pattern for socks I jumped in with both feet (literally and figuratively). The Bethel Socks are based on my popular hat and mitts pattern, and the cushy texture makes...
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Field Trip to Scratch Supply Co. and LolaBean Yarn Co. Trunk Show
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Tamara and I headed across the border to New Hampshire for a party with Scratch Supply Company for their third year, and a trunk show with Adella of LolaBean Yarn Company. It was great to celebrate independent businesses, women entrepreneurs, and, of...
DiploMEADic CHAImunity – Braggot
DiploMEADic CHAImunity gets its start and origin from a recipe by Rob Friesel, whose blog Rick has been following for over 15 years. The recipe was published along with his article in Brew Your Own magazine on the Braggot style. Having done a few meads this past winter we...
Garden State Sheep & Fiber Festival: Sheep, yarn, and fiber friends.
We had a great time at our first Garden State Sheep & Fiber Festival, an event with a small-town and agricultural focus. Big thanks to everyone who came by to say hello and chat with us – it’s nice to be able to do that at some of these...
Overdye effects: depth of shades vary by starting tone.
By a change of mind, or by accident, sometimes we end up with yarns that we no longer like the color of. Often, this can be a great opportunity to create a new custom color. In a previous post I discussed over-dyeing a variegated yarn to unify the color...
Eco-printing on sock blanks: direct dyeing with plant parts
Eco-printing is a method for directly transferring the shape and color of whole plant materials to fabric or paper. I’ve tried this technique in the past, but only on cotton fabric. I knew it must work on wool as well, and immediately thought of using sock blanks as a...
Dyeing wool with black hollyhocks: blue made easy
This year has afforded several opportunities to try new-to-me natural dyes, and this week I’m discussing my first trial dyeing with black hollyhocks. The flowers resemble a very dark purple, verging on black in the center of the flowers. Use the petals only for dyeing. If you want to...
2019 VT NanoFest – Small Breweries with Big Ideas
VT NanoFest is a tiny festival celebrating some of Vermont’s smallest breweries, and it’s held at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds, which means it’s right in our back yard. In this week’s video we’re sharing our impressions of old favorites and new brews that we sampled this year. The 2019 Vermont...
How to dye yarn with Black-eyed Susans
For a while now I’ve been aware that Black-eyed Susan flowers can be used for natural dyeing, and they’re specifically used to achieve a pale or sage green. But I admit, I’ve been skeptical. Green is a difficult color to dye on it’s own, and past attempts on my...
Dip Dye Yarn: An easy technique creates striped or variegated effects
One of my favorite dye techniques to date is dip-dyeing. I love self-striping yarns for socks, but dip-dyeing can also be used for subtler effects. There are a couple of ways to do this depending on which colors you are combining and how you want the final yarn to...