Spinnery News

Old friends

Even though Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring earlier this month, our forecast has been full of ice, snow and rain this week.  While we wait out the inclement weather and for the plow to free up the roads, all we want to do is hunker down with a great project and get stuck in.

In our efforts to keep up to date on what’s new and fresh, we can occasionally lose sight of great patterns that got lost in the shuffle.  This week we thought we’d look back on a couple of timeless stranded colorwork sweater patterns that we released a year ago that could easily move back to the top of our knit-next list.

Maureen Clark’s Stella is a classic yoked pullover pattern that is worked up in our Alpaca Elegance for a three season garment with beautiful drape and softness.

Maureen’s great grand mother Stella was born around the turn of last century on Prince Edward Island. She’s notorious in family legend for drinking rye and playing the horses. This yoked pullover was designed with her in mind. Perhaps by trying a yoked construction or stranded knitting for the first time; or by casting on with an adventurous color scheme you’ll celebrate the creative renegade that lies in each of us.

© Gale Zucker

Melissa Johnson’s Bea’s Cardigan is an eye-catching boat necked sweater with an unusual construction.  This pattern has you casting on at the cuff and working sideways towards the center.  When both halves of your sweater are complete, they are joined at the back with a three-needle bind off in pattern that forms a beautiful geometric motif.

It is shown above in a subdued monochrome palette of Jet Black, Raven, Blizzard and Edelweiss Mountain Mohair that reflects the winter landscape that surrounds the Spinnery on these cold days in Februrary.  This yarn is our favorite choice for cold weather knits.  That delicious halo (thanks to the mohair in the yarn) buffers the stitches against pilling and keeps us as snug as we could wish.

These two designs make for delightful projects that can help you while away the last few storms of the season.  If clouds are filling your forecast as well, we invite you to cast on and wait for Spring with a project on your lap.

From head to toe

Ten great big boxes of custom spun yarn is leaving the Mill this week to head to Bollman Hat Company in Pennsylvania.  This delivery of gorgeous Merino wool that will eventually become high fashion headwear, inspired us to share a story with you about another employee owned company that we partner with.

Bollman has been in operation since well before the Spinnery was founded.  “Three generations of Bollmans expanded the business before selling the company to a group of managers in 1974. In 1985, Bollman adopted an employee stock ownership plan.”  They count this as one of the secrets to their success.

We started working with them decades ago when we began using their scouring services.  Originally we were able to send fiber to them to scour in Pennsylvania; they have since moved that work to a new facility in Texas that can clean hundreds of pounds of wool in a fraction of the time it would take us to clean it here (where our capacity tops out at about 250 pounds a week).

This fall we began collaborating with them on an exciting new project that brought several of our favorite fiber friends together. Don Rongione of Bollman reached out to Dominique Herman at Catskill Merino to source hundreds of pounds of her buttery Saxon Merino fiber grown in upstate New York for a new entirely US based hat project.

Believe it or not, a camera crew went to the farm to meet Dominique and the sheep, and even followed their fiber to the Mill here in Vermont so that they could capture the entire story of this new venture.  That video will eventually become public as the final hats are made available for sale which we estimate should be before the end of this year.

In the meantime, for a deeper dive into both the history and current impact that both Dominique and Don are having in the larger US based fiber community you may want to treat yourself to a great read.

© @catskillmerino

Clara Parkes’ newly published Vanishing Fleece tells the rather epic story of another bale of wool from Catskill Merino.  “In 2012 she purchased a 676 lb. bale of American Merino wool and began a crowd-funded project known as The Great White Bale, in which she chronicled the process of turning the raw wool into finished yarn.”

Her bale was scoured at the Bollman facility in Texas.  And we return full circle to where we started.  Our fiber world is a very small one!

© Vogue.com

We are very happy to play our small part in collaborative projects like this one.  We look forward to seeing how the yarn we produced is transformed into practical, stylish and  hardwearing hats by the folks at Bollman.  We’ll let you know when we learn that they become available for purchase.

 

Special Delivery

With the new year, comes the release of the four patterns that have been exclusively available to the members of our 2019 Mystery Project Club Members!

We’re pleased to share with you four new accessory patterns.  These projects allowed us to introduce our club members to four gorgeous yarns that we’ve spun for fiber producers we partner with.

Clockwise from the top left is Dominique’s Tuck Socks, Margeau & Rebecca’s Cowl, the Nezinscot River Hat & Mitts, and Jill’s Boots.  These designs have paired our yarns with theirs to highlight scrumptious fiber blends, and unique hand dying.

Our members received seasonal packages that included the pattern, all the yarn needed to complete their project, and a little gift. Their first delivery also includes a Spinnery project bag to keep everything organized. What could be more fun than finding such a precious package waiting in your mailbox?

With that in mind, we have developed a new idea to continue that pleasure of a surprise package arriving just for you.

Do you remember the joy of opening a letter from a pen pal? Or receiving a care package when you were away from home at school or at camp? What about the fun of selecting a mystery grab bag at the candy shop?

For 2020 we are curating a collection of seasonal care packages that will ship out with gorgeous skeins, a credit for your choice of pattern available on Ravelry, and a little sweet treat that will bring a smile to your face as you swatch with your new yarn and consider what you’d like to make! We’ll also have a limited quantity of additional skeins available for separate purchase, so if you find that you’d like more yardage to complete a larger project, we can send you what you need to get started.

Our first Mystery Care Package is available to pre-order now! It is inspired by springtime crafting and will include fingering weight 100% wool yarn. In order not to spoil the surprise, we won’t divulge any more details except to offer you four rough color themes that will customize your package to include shades you prefer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you’ve selected your color, and placed your pre-order, Melissa Johnson will handpaint your yarn and your package will be mailed to you in time for St. Patrick’s Day.  We’re offering these special packages for a limited time, since each one is custom assembled.  Purchase your choice before the opportunity vanishes on February 29th, 2020!

We hope that you’ll take advatage of this fun offer, and that you’ll take another look at our four newest accessory patterns.  We love giving you new ideas and beautiful new skeins to enjoy!

Baby, it’s cold outside!

We have a snugly warm Nordic inspired sweater pattern to share with you, that is just what we want to be wearing while temperatures hover below freezing.  We introduced this new pattern at Vogue Knitting Live last weekend, and the makers there were raving about it!

One of our very talented sample knitters, Elinor reached out to us this fall to share photos of a sweater she made for her brother.  It was a careful recreation of a beloved sweater that was more than 60 years old.

We were so delighted with her work that we asked her if we could partner with her to share this pattern with you.  After many weeks of grading, tech-editing and testing, we’re pleased to introduce you to Terry’s Sweater.  This unisex ski sweater is worked up with our Mountain Mohair and is as warm as a hand-knit gift from a sibling can be.

Shown here on David, the main color is Midnight Blue and the contrast colors are Blizzard and Claret.  At the top of the page, the same design is knit up with Claret as the main color with Blizzard, Maritime and Vincent’s Gold as contrast colors.

Elinor’s pattern includes a generous sizing range: 32 (36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60)”/ 81 (91, 102, 112, 122, 132, 142, 152) cm.  The yardage requirements are:  Mountain Mohair 6 (7 ,7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 12) skeins MC; 1 (1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2) skeins CC1 & CC2; 10 yds for CC3.

While temperatures are still at their lowest here in the Northeast, it is a perfect time to work up this warming garment.  We hope that you’ll enjoy working on it as much as we have.

Announcing our next Knittter’s Weekend

We are pleased to announce that Angela Tong will be the featured instructor for the Spinnery’s 2020 Spring Knitters’ Weekend Retreat.  Our workshop will be held in Brattleboro, Vermont from Friday, April 3rd to Sunday, April 5th, 2020.

Angela Tong is a knitwear designer and instructor. In her former career, she was a jewelry designer with a jewelry design degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. After she had her first daughter, she started designing knitting patterns and has never stopped.

Master Angela’s Tips and Tricks for her Monsoon Shawl (modelled by the designer above). This design is one of Angela’s most popular shawls from Interweave Knits. It is knitted on large needles in a luxurious worsted weight yarn. The half-circle shawl works up quickly and plays color runs against a variety of lace and texture patterns.

In the class, we will work through all sections of shawl; the garter stitch tab, garter ridge eyelet section, lace section and the knitted-on edging. By the end of the class, students will have all the necessary skills to complete a Monsoon shawl at home.

Skills needed: Students should know how to knit, purl, yarn over and cast on.

Your registration fee of $395 per person includes three meals (Friday dinner, Saturday lunch and dinner) and nine hours of instruction. This Spring, we are delighted to be able to host the event at the Hampton Inn, in nearby Brattleboro. They are offering us a special rate of $99 / $109 a night for us.

Registration Forms can be found on the Spinnery website, here.

Soon to be released

As you may have seen on Instagram, a new issue of By Hand Serial is due to be released later this month and it focuses on our neck of the woods!

“In Issue #11 of By Hand Serial, we visit New England as we travel through Vermont and New Hampshire at the peak of the fall foliage season.

The New England makers we meet have a great love and deference for their land, their communities, and the region’s history and traditions. These artists pair local resources with traditional forms of creating: milling yarn, weaving cloth, sewing garments, making baskets for daily use. Form and functionality mesh seamlessly, creating beautiful materials that find use and purpose in our everyday lives. It is a joy to learn more about these makers, their materials and motivations, and the work they do to keep alive the values of hard work, handcraft, and artistry.”

© Jenn Bakos Photography

We are thrilled that this issue includes a new pullover sweater design by our dear friend Amy Christoffers.  Her Spruce Peak Pullover calls for Spinnery Mewesic!  “Mewesic yarn, a 100% wool with just the right amount of heft and texture to show off the lace stitches that make up the body of this garment.”  ⁠

The pattern is worked in the round from the bottom-up and features a readily memorized lace pattern.  The front and back are split at the armhole to be worked separately and then joined at the shoulder with a 3-needle bind off.  The stitches for the sleeves are then picked up and worked down to the cuff.

You’ll be as delighted as we are with her generous size range.  This sweater is designed to fit bust sizes 37-72″ with between 2-12″ positive ease.  The yarn requirements for the sizes 37 (41, 46, 50, 54)(59, 63, 68, 72)” call for 5 (6, 7, 7, 8)(9, 10, 11, 12) skeins of our DK weight yarn.

We got so excited about this new design that we asked Amy to share an early copy of the pattern with us.  Our scourer Megan has made quick progress on her version of the Spruce Peak Pullover with our new Touch of Grey color.  We hope to have this beauty ready to display at our booth at Vogue Knitting Live in New York City next weekend.

You can pre-order a copy of Lookbook 11: Vermont & New Hampshire from us. It will ship to you on the official release date, 1/25/20 without delay!  In the meantime, we hope that you’ll be able to join the fun of the fiber festival in Manhattan.  We have all kinds of fun new things to share with you there.

Planning ahead

We have a new design for you to consider adding to the top of your queue so that it is ready to wear for Spring.

Cap Sease’s Stansfield vest harkens back to Vermont’s agricultural past when practical knitwear needed to transition from town to field and back. The rugged texture of this lightweight layering piece is created with a simple repetition of knits and purls, rendering a lofty fabric that is an instant classic.  (While we have shown it here modeled only by men, this pattern is intended to be unisex and will be equally useful and appealling for women.)

This pattern features bottom-up construction that is worked flat up to the armholes.  The two front sections and back are worked separately until they are joined at the shoulder with classic three needle bind off.  The piece is finished with a garter stitch border at the armholes and along the neck, where button holes are placed evenly along the placket.

 

Designed to be worked with our fingering weight yarns, this vest will make an ideal lightweight layering piece that could work equally well for him or her.  Cap’s pattern includes sizing from 34 (38, 41, 46, 50, 54, 58, 62)”/ 86 (97, 104, 117, 127, 137, 147, 157) cm and calls for 3 (4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6) skeins Lana, Meadow or Forest (400 yds each).  It is shown here in Plateada Lana.

You might also want to consider working with our Moorit Singles or Simply Fine skeins that are put up at a more generous 450 yards per skein for the three undyed colors. Our Simply Fine Skinnies are put up at 224 yards per skein and would allow you a larger palette of fresh spring-like colors to consider.

We hope that you enjoy this little preview of Spring.  It will be here before we know it!

Coming soon

Before you know it, it will be time for our January Sale!

Soon to arrive in your mailboxes (email or actual) will be our annual Sales Flyer! From Monday January 13th to Friday February 14th, 2020 we’ll have special discounts available on some of our most popular yarns!

You can find a digital copy of our flyer here. You may want to plan your purchases by reviewing your pattern options and making sure that you’ll have the yardage you need!

For those of you shopping online, be sure to shop among the SALE ITEMS, to ensure proper savings. (those listings won’t be visible on our website until our sale begins on January 13th). You’ll find additional options of single project quantities (less than 20 skeins) from the yarns and colors listed on the flyer.

The happiest of seasons

All of us here at the Spinnery Co-op would like to wish you and yours a most delightful and peaceful holiday season.  We hope that you have ample time on your hands to enjoy with friends and family doing what you love most.

We’ll be closing the Mill on December 25th and January 1st to spend time with our loved ones.  Our Mill shop will be open with modified hours over the next couple weeks.

Tuesday December 24th and 31st: 9 am – 4 pm

Wednesday December 25th and January 1st: CLOSED

Thurs & Fri December 26th & 27th and January 2nd & 3rd: 9 am – 5 pm

Saturday December 28th and January 4th: 10 am to 4 pm

Sunday December 29th January 5th: 12 pm to 4 pm

We hope that you’ll be able to plan your visit to arrive when we’re here to help you pick out the perfect skeins.  We look forward to seeing you soon and sharing the joy of the season with you in person!

 

A new and improved Ice Blue!

Back in late August of 2018, we announced that we would be downsizing our Mountain Mohair color range and discontinuing 7 shades.  That news elicited a strong response from some of our fiber friends who have been working with our Mountain Mohair for years.

At least one of those shades had such a strong following that we decided that instead of removing it from the line, we would improve it.  We’re pleased to announce that Ice Blue Mountain Mohair is back and better than ever!

The new color recipe is a bit more complex, with a bit of green and gold, hinting at depths of color deep within an ice flow as well as the glimmer of sun shining through icicles.

Now is your chance to cast on for Cesium designed by Sachiko Burgin and featured in a past issue of Pom Pom magazine (from 2016).  Our Ice Blue color was used for her design and is shown on the model below.

© Amy Gwatkin

We may be preaching to the choir, but we feel that this yarn is ideal for stranded color work.  The lofty woolen spun construction allows the yarn to bloom beautifully when blocked, making your stranded designs crisp and clear.

For example, our friend Emily’s Vintersol by Jennifer Steingass shows off the possibility of this shade. We love how her sweater pairs this soft blue with undyed neutrals for a dramatic effect.

© SlvrSprngWanderer

The possibilities are innumerable!  A quick search through the dozens of projects on Raverly that have been crafted with this shade will take your breath away.

What would you like to get started with this lovely new and improved shade?

Other takes on a perfect pullover

A pair of new patterns that call for Spinnery’s Mewesic have been published in the past couple of weeks; and we think that you’ll want to take a closer look at both.

Fresh from the pages of the newest issue of Taproot Magazine 36: WEAR, is Beatrice Perron Dahlen’s Sabellica, shown here modeled by the designer and her younger sister.  On the left is a cropped version made with Brickhouse Mewesic and on the left is a longer version made with Mean Mr. Mustard

@threadandladleThe design is named for the latin term for kale, one of Beatrice’s favorite cooler weather veggies. Sabellica’s pattern includes sizes from 30 (33 1/2, 38 1/2, 40 3/4, 48, 50 1/2, 53, 55 1/4, 60, 64 3/4)” /  76 (85.5, 97.5, 103.5, 110, 122, 128, 134.5, 140, 152.5, 164.5) cm and calls for between 4 and 11 skeins of our DK weight yarns depending on the size and length you choose.

Her design has you working the pullover from the top-down, so you’ll be able to try it on as you go adding length where you prefer.

On Beatrice’s Instagram feed she shares her thoughts about this design.  “Sabellica is knit up in Green Mountain Spinnery Mewesic, and I’ve already been living in this pullover. It includes a top down construction, a circular yoke with an eyelet pattern throughout. It’s great over a long sleeve for functional warmth, but it has options for a long sleeve as well.  Photos by the ever talented Hannah (@mindfulfolk) in one of my favorite Maine places!”

If you’re looking for a whole new outfit, and are as comfortable sewing as you are knitting; you could layer this sweater over Ellen Mason’s Smith River Tunic (whose pattern is also included in this issue)!

For those of you looking for a great pattern geared towards men, you might agree that Carol Feller’s new Corcra Pullover is a winner!

© Joseph Feller

Shown here (with approximately 4 inches of positive ease) in Purple Haze; this top-down sweater features a beautiful textured thermal stitch to create an interesting and wearable knit.   The saddle shoulders and short row set-in sleeves it will fly from your needles!

Carol’s pattern includes a broad range of sizes: 38.75 (42, 45.5, 50.5, 54, 57.25, 62.25)“ / 98.5 (106.5, 115.5, 128.5, 137, 145.5, 158) cm with a recommendation for 4-5” / 10 – 12.5 cm of positive ease.  It calls for  8 (8, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13) skeins of Spinnery Mewesic, but you could substitute any of our DK yarns such as Alpaca Elegance, Cotton Comfort, or Sylvan Spirit.

While these sweaters may be better suited for 3 season wear here in wintery Vermont, these could be terrific layering options for our friends in warmer parts of the world.  We hope that you agree!

A feast for the senses

Happy Holiday!  We hope that your day will be filled with delicious traditions to be shared among friends, family and neighbors.

Over the Holiday Weekend after Thanksgiving, the Spinnery will be open special hours as a participant in the 41st Putney Craft Tour.  Over this special weekend local artists and craftspeople open their studios to the public, offering you a unique opportunity to see them at work, learn more about their creative process and find artfully made holiday gifts that support their endeavors.  While you are exploring the area, we hope that you’ll be able to visit our Mill to share in the exciting wooly offerings that we’ll have on hand.

We’re releasing a new FREE pattern for the holiday knitting season.  Our Gathering Hat is a very quick knit, making it a great option for last minute gift making.

This sturdy topper calls for bulky yarn and can be worked up in just a few hours with a single skein of Yarn Over or our Capricorn yarns.  The hat is worked from the bottom up. featuring slipped stitch ribbing and clever decreases that form a five pointed star at the top.  The pattern is charted for your ease.

We’ll also have a fresh stock of our very popular Ugly Christmas Hat Project Kits.  This fun project kit includes all the yarn and the pattern to make an ugly holiday hat of your own for just $32.75. If you aren’t a knitter, but know someone on your gift list who is, you may want to pick one up as a gift that will certainly bring some laughter to your holiday gathering.

And last but certainly not least will be our annual Sample Sale! We’ve selected dozens of beautifully handknit items that are ready to find new homes.  These items were made to test our patterns and provide several color or sizing options among our sample selection to help visitors plan their projects.  We are bursting at the seams with gorgeous samples that can now be retired to make room for what’s next.  You’ll be able to find sweaters, hats and more!

This offers you an amazing opportunity to purchase hand knit items made with Green Mountain Spinnery yarns at unbelievably reasonable prices.  Plus, a percentage of the proceeds from these items will go to benefit the Putney Food Shelf: our local foodbank that needs our support especially during the holidays.

We hope that we’ve succeeded in enticing you to come and visit.  The Spinnery will be open 10 am – 5 pm Friday November 29 – Sunday December 1st; and we can’t wait to see you!