Spinnery News | Page 31 of 32 | Green Mountain Spinnery

Meet the Designer, Maureen Clark

August 14th, 2012

Designer Maureen Clark

Like most Spinnery Cooperative members, Maureen Clark does a variety of jobs. She is in charge of our shipping and inventory systems, assists with our 1916 carding machine, works with customers, and coordinates our knitters’ events. On top of all that, she is the main force behind organizing everything that comes with going to shows and festivals from booking the space to driving the truck to designing displays. Shows are very rewarding for Maureen because she gets to talk to so many knitters and find out what they are making and which yarns excite them.

Maureen learned to knit as a child from her grandmother, whose grandmother was a native of England’s Channel Islands – a region rich with knitting history. While raising her four children Maureen taught knitting classes and ran her own yarn shop in Carver, Massachusetts. This was how she discovered GMS by stocking the yarns; and then by attending one of the first Spinnery Knitters’ Weekends in 1992. That was the visit that changed everything. Maureen was in love with Putney and Vermont and was determined to move. It took several years for the right opportunity to come along. The family moved to a home on Putney Mountain in 1998 – and Maureen has been entwined with the Spinnery ever since!

When asked about all that she does being part of the Spinnery she says, “I love working at the Spinnery and I’m proud of the quality of our yarn, which comes from the way it’s made. The Spinnery has always felt like family to me. Every day there is something new waiting for me!”

Friends and fans of the Spinnery may already be familiar with Maureen’s pattern designs. Maureen is known for creating elegant functional designs with a straightforward knitting experience.

Catalina Wrap

Maureen says “designs just show up in my mind” Her process is to cast on and start knitting, changing elements as she goes. Her colleagues have looked on aghast as she rips back ¾ of a sweater because she has changed her mind. The challenge with “designing on the needles” is making sure changes are recorded so that the pattern is written properly. Maureen’s tendency to jot notes down in no particular order on the back of an envelope has been a source of challenge to our tech editors. However this process has resulted in great designs including Maureen’s Cardigan, Kelly, Riley’s Hat, Capricloak, and many fun socks: Jelly Beans, Wessagussett Waves and Hanna’s Sock.

Maureen’s 2-color Tunisian Crochet, in progress

Maureen also loves crochet and finds the recent crochet revival quite inspiring. She has come up with several crochet/knit combos designs including the Kristy sweater and the Happenin’ Hat, as well as crochet only shawl Catalina. Maureen is working on a cute new top for spring, the Bella Veste. Her latest challenge is mastering a new technique – 2 color Tunisian crochet in the round – and inventing a new sock pattern. We are all looking forward to the results.

Are you a fan of Maureen’s designs? Beginning August 11 through the end of September there is a Jelly Bean Socks knit along taking place in the Ravelry group. There is still time to sign up for the Knitters’ Retreat Weekend, you are sure to find it just as inspiring as Maureen! As always, we love hearing from our readers and fans! Come chat in the Ravelry group and like us on Facebook!

Spotlight on Cotton Comfort

July 17th, 2012

Wool, like all the animal protein fibers, has the natural ability to retain heat. This makes it a natural choice for cold weather garments and accessories. When the weather turns warmer and the summer heat sets in, you do not have to put down your knitting needles and wait for the return of cooler days. Plant fibers, such as cotton, conduct heat away from the body, making it a great choice for warm weather projects. The oldest cotton textile fragments date back to 3000 BC. More cotton is used in the world than any other fiber!

Photo by GMS

GMS introduced Cotton Comfort in 1995. The blend is 80% fine wool and 20% organic cotton. The first batches were natural colored and processed using our GREENSPUN petroleum free methods. Over the years we have expanded the line to include yarns commercially dyed with low-impact dyes. The yarns come in 16 dyed and 3 natural GREENSPUN colors. Dyed Cotton Comfort is one of our yarns that is dyed after spinning as opposed to having the colors blended as loose fiber. Cotton Comfort is great for children’s items, the warmer days of summer and the cooler times in sping and fall.

The Spinnery uses two types of Certified Organic cotton in our Cotton Comfort yarns. Our white cotton, used for our GREENSPUN colors, Silver and Unbleached White, as well as all the dyed colors, comes from the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative of Lubbock, Texas. The fiber is of very high quality, scoring in the “premium grade on fineness, staple length strength and whiteness. Cotton fiber quality is dictated by the growing conditions. The severe drought conditions in Texas over the past few years have had an impact on cotton prices and availability. We are happy to have such a good relationship with our supplier co-op.

Photo by Sally Fox / Vresis, LTD

The natural brown cotton we use in the GREENSPUN color Winter Beech comes from Sally Fox and Vreseis LTD. Colored cotton does occur in nature and was used extensively in ancient times by native weavers throughout Central and South America. Sally Fox worked to develop commercially viable strains of cotton in a range of natural colors from reddish-brown to green. Her strains are able to do well under organic growing conditions reducing the need for both pesticides and chemical dyes.

Are your needles ready to work up a Cotton Comfort project? Check out these patterns for inspiration! Top left: Saucy Sunhat, top right: Pebble Yoke Sweater. Bottom left: Alpine Lace Shell, bottom right: Playful Sweater.

Would you like to have a chance to win a skein of Cotton Comfort and the Saucy Sunhat pattern? Click here to leave a comment on Saucy Sunhat photo on our Facebook page. A winner will be drawn on July 23. Maybe you have a project in mind and need the yarn to get started? We are currently having a cone sale on select colors of Cotton Comfort! Stock up now – the sale ends on July 21.

Spotlight on Simply Fine

June 28th, 2012

In our last blog post, we told you about the mohair used in several of the Spinnery yarns. In this post we will shine the spotlight on Simply Fine. This is a fingering weight yarn that softly stripes in a range of subtle natural and handpainted colors. The natural dark and natural white skeins are solids; the white would be lovely for wedding accessories.

Fibers for this yarn are GREENSPUN using vegetable based soaps and oils in the processing and then washed gently to keep the natural sheen and resilience. This yarn will bloom and become fuzzier with use.

Each skein of Simply Fine is unique as it is dyed in small batches. One 100g skein has about 450 yards giving you many options for selecting a project. One or two skein shawl projects are perfect for summer as they are easy to travel with and work up fairly quickly.

Photo by Green Mountain Spinnery

The Catalina Wrap, designed by Maureen Clark, is a fashionable crescent-shaped shawl worked in easy crochet with short row shaping. The two shown here are the Grassy and Cherrycolorways.

Continue reading Spotlight on Simply Fine

Mohair & Joe David Ross

June 11th, 2012

Joe David Ross has supplied GMS with mohair since the mid 1980s. We met him through local farmer Deb Pamplin, a mohair grower in Wethersfield, Vermont. Deb had introduced the Spinnery to the possibilities of mohair when she started bringing fleeces to the Spinnery for processing.

Goat of fine fibre farm, Wethersfield, VT Photo by Marti Stone

Soon after, as we developed Mountain Mohair yarn, we soon outgrew our local supply. Joe David became our main source for superior quality yearling mohair. The Spinnery has always been able to depend on the Ross Ranch in Sonora, Texas for fibers that meet our specifications, and Joe David goes the extra mile to make sure all the fiber he sends is well prepared to meet our needs.

The soft, fuzzy halo of our popular Mountain Mohair is the result of its mohair content. Over the years, many customers asked, “What’s a mo?” Mohair comes from the fleece of the Angora goat, an animal prized through the ages for its luxurious fiber. Angora goats took their name from the ancient Turkish city of Ankara; the term “mohair” apparently derives from the Arabic, mukhayya, which means “cloth of bright hair from a goat”. The Turks thought so highly of these special goats that none were exported until the sixteenth century. The first exports landed in Spain and France and none went to America until 1849.

Goats of fine fibre farm, Wethersfield, VT Photo by Marti Stone

Today, small flocks of Angora goats are found in New England and throughout the U.S., but 90% of American mohair comes from Texas, where the dry temperate climate is very suitable for the goats. The animals are generally sheared twice a year and yield on overage a three-pound fleece. Fiber of the youngest goats (kid mohair) is the softest; the fiber becomes coarser as the animal ages.

In 1992 we introduced Green Mountain Green, a blend of kid mohair and fine wool processed without petroleum. Again, Joe David was the source for the luxuriously soft kid mohair that makes the yarn so special. Today we have added Simply Fine and Sock Art Meadow to our products that include kid mohair. To create these yarns and Mountain Mohair, we use about 2,000 pounds of mohair a year. That is equal to the fleece of about 600 goats! We are grateful to Joe David and his network of Texas mohair producers that are able to continue to offer us superior materials for our yarns.

We love to see your creations with our yarns – please share them with other Facebook fans or join our Ravelry group!

Meet the Dyer, Melissa Johnson

May 21st, 2012

Melissa Johnson has been working with the Spinnery since the beginning. She learned to weave at the Putney School from Libby Mills, one of the Spinney founders, and now teaches Textile and Fiber Arts as a member of the Putney School faculty.

Melissa was commissioned to weave samples from the first yarns GMS ever made to test their strength and qualities as weaving yarns. The first colors were Natural Grey, Natural White, Indigo and Garnet. Melissa has been hand weaving all of our sample cards and assisting the Spinnery in the creation of our color palette ever since.

The Spinnery has always offered limited amounts of one-of-a -kind yarns in the shop. Melissa started dying odd lots in small batches. Visitors to the shop may find baskets of painted Green Mountain Green in the Fall or Sylvan Spirit in subtle variations in spring time. Once we developed our two sock yarns Spinney Sock Art Meadow and Forest, Melissa had to start dyeing year round. She added new colors to the Sock Art line as well as Simply Fine, and Capricorn.

All of these “hand paints” are created in very small batches of 6- 8 skeins. Projects from these are truly one of a kind.

Her designs and dye work are inspired by nature and the textiles of her childhood spent in Istanbul, Turkey and Vermont. Although she likes all colors, folks here know that she is very fond of red. A prolific knitter and knitwear designer (GMS has published more than 20 of her designs) Melissa is known for her color sense and attention to detail. The “Stained Glass Sweater” on the cover of The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book and the cover art of 99 Yarns and Counting are part of Melissa’s eye-catching work.

A sample of her designs can be found in the Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book: Stained Glass sweater (for children & adults), Stained Glass Hat, and Putney Gardens Sweater. In our 99 Yarns and Counting book Melissa designed the East Putney Aran, Istanbul Aran, and Switchback Hat. Several of her patterns are available for purchase on our website as a hard copy or PDF digital download: Melissa’s Hat and Mitten, Painted Hats, Ascutney Aran Hat (This pattern has the most “hearts” on Ravelry!), Great Meadows Cardigan, Playful sweaters for Children, and Lisa’s Hat.

Have you been inspired like we have by Melissa’s work? We love when you share with us by commenting here on our blog, a post in our Ravelry group or on our Facebook page.

GREENSPUN for Good

April 27th, 2012

In a previous post, we shared the steps involved in creating our yarns, from raw fleece to spun yarn. Today we would like to share with you the extra steps we take with several of our yarn lines to lessen our environmental impact. The GREENSPUN process is an extension of the environmental concerns basic to our founding in 1981.

In the early -1990s, the Spinnery switched to non-petroleum-based biodegradable soaps for scouring fibers. We also developed a spinning oil formula based on organic canola oil for processing fiber. The first experiment on using unconventional soaps and oils grew out of a request from Espirt the sportswear manufacturer. They were looking for yarns that were completely petroleum-free for their “Ecollection” line of clothes. The Spinnery worked to develop a petroleum free process for the Esprit yarns and then integrated these gentle and ecologically safe practices into our GREENSPUN processing method. No chemicals are used to bleach, shrink-proof, or moth-proof. Used for all our GREENSPUN and Certified Organic yarns, these methods enhance the unique qualities of the natural fibers. Customers with chemical sensitivities have been relieved to find and are enthusiastic about our chemical-free natural fiber yarns.

Our first GREENSPUN product was Green Mountain Green – a luxurious blend of 40% premium kid mohair and 60% fine American wool. The yarn comes in 3 natural colors a white and natural dark gray and a variegated grey to white. Its softness and warmth make it perfect for hats, scarves like the Ascutney Aran Hat and Emilie’s Hooded scarf.

The next GREENSPUN yarns were the natural colored Cotton Comfort , Silver, Winter Beech and Unbleached White. This versatile DK weight blend of 20% organic cotton and 80% fine wool was featured in the very successful 2006 book Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding . Knitters really want to know what is in their yarn how it s made and are very eager for a “green” option especially when knitting for babies. Popular patterns from the Spinnery include Peanut by Cap Sease and Grandma’s Delight by Libby Mills. Other GREENSPUN options have quickly followed including the natural colors of the Alpaca Elegance line and the perfection of our Certified Organic processing.

How about more pattern inspiration for the GREENSPUN yarns? First up, one our most “hearted” pattern on Ravelry.com, the Turkish Rose Mittens knit in Alpaca Elegance. Designed by Cap Sease, these are luxurious mittens inspired by a Turkish Sock Pattern. Our newest mitten pattern is the Bumpity Mittens, also designed by Cap Sease. Its deep texture is deceptive, making it look like four colors are used instead of just two. Speaking of color, we have six natural colors and six heathered colors of Alpaca Elegance available.

Alpaca Elegance & Skyeview Alpacas

April 11th, 2012

The folks at the Spinnery cooperative are excited to share with our friends a bit about the farmers we work with. This post was completed and released before we heard of Jim King’s unexpected death last week. Our deepest sympathies go to Sue and all of Jim’s family, friends and colleagues in the fiber world.

Creating yarns using fibers grown by local farms has been an important part of the Spinnery’s work since its founding. Alpaca Elegance, a blend of 50% New England grown alpaca and 50% fine American wool, has been part of our yarn line since 1996! The first colors we offered were derived from the tones of the naturally colorful fleeces of alpacas that range from white to black with warm browns and silvery gray as well. One of our most consistent suppliers of alpaca fleeces has been Sue and Jim King of Skyeview Alpacas in Elkins, New Hampshire.

Photo by Marti Stone

Skyeview Alpacas is a 40-acre farm located in central New Hampshire, an area prized for its beautiful lakes, forests and mountains. It was the first alpaca farm started in New Hampshire, established in 1992 with the purchase of three alpacas. Sue had developed a love for fiber arts, especially hand spinning, and had raised angora rabbits for a few years before meeting her first alpacas in the late 1980’s.

Jim & Sue King of Skyeview Alpacas

Jim and Sue are serious livestock farmers, but admit the alpacas are “extremely appealing” animals. People tend to fall in love with them as well as their warm soft fiber. Over the years their herd has expanded in diversity and quality and has grown to 130 animals including 26 rare suri aplacas whose fleece is prized for its length and silky sheen. The Kings continue to breed and show their alpacas and supply breeding stock to other farms but also focus on alpacas as fiber animals. The number of alpacas in the United States is still small compared to the numbers in South America. Alpaca yarns have become more prevalent in the marketplace as knitters have learned about the unique qualities of the fiber. Mills that can use and promote American alpaca fiber are important to the future of alpaca farms in New England and around the country.

Photo by Marti Stone

According to the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association, alpacas were a cherished treasure of the ancient Incan civilization and played a central role in the Incan cultures of the Andean Plateau and mountains of South America.

Alpaca fleece, once reserved for Incan royalty and still treasured in the Andes, is lighter and stronger than wool and comes in 22 natural colors, more than any other animal fiber. Alpacas were first imported to the United States in 1984. They have grown in popularity due to their calm nature, small size, economical grazing habits and their beautiful fiber, and they are just plain cute!

Each 2ounce (58 gram) skein of Alpaca Elegance has approximately 180 yards (165 meters) of 2-ply DK weight yarn.

Photo by Green Mountain Spinnery

Knitted fabrics created with alpaca yarns are warm and resilient, perfect for sweaters and shawls as well as cozy hats, mitts and socks. Our six natural colors of Alpaca Elegance, Cream, Chai, Cappuccino, Earl Grey, Cocoa and Dark Roast are spun using our chemical and petroleum free GREENSPUN method. Our six heathered colors, Dragonwell, Sencha, Blue Lotus, Ceylon, Hibiscus and Rosehip are “composed” by blending natural colored fawn, black or grey alpaca with dyed fine American wool.

We love to see your creations with our yarns – please share them with other Facebook fans or join our Ravelry group! There is a giveaway for our Ravelry friends for two skeins of Alpaca Elegance yarn and a pattern- entries are welcome until April 18! Fiber friends are sharing their color choices and there are even more cute photos of alpacas!

From Raw Fleece to Spun Yarn – A Tour

March 23rd, 2012

Photo by Marti Stone

At our s pinning mill, in Putney, Vermont, we make thousands of pounds of yarn each year for fiber fans like you as well as for yarn shops and individual farms. Before you transform our yarn by the work of your hands, the transformation of raw fleece from flocks from Vermont, Maine and New Mexico into certified organic yarn takes place in several steps.

Photo by Green Mountain Spinnery

Scouring begins by soaking the fiber in very hot, soapy water using non-petroleum based soaps. After soaking, the fiber is moved through a series of squeeze rollers and basins of hot water until it is clean. The wet fiber is place in an extractor which is much like the spin cycle on your home washing machine. After a spin and one more hot water rinse, the clean fiber is moved to an industrial dryer. The lot size, from 50 to over 300 pounds, dictates the length of time for this process.

Photo by Green Mountain Spinnery

The clean fiber, having been scoured, now undergoes the picking phase where the fiber locks are opened and blended. This is repeated two or three times over the whole lot. Organic spinning oil is lightly sprayed over the fibers, adding moisture to prevent the clumping of fibers as well as static electricity build up. This is the step where the different types and colors of fibers are combined according to the Spinnery’s individual recipes for our yarns.

Photo by Green Mountain Spinnery

Carding is the next step where the picked fiber is conveyed to a series of rotating drums that first blend the fibers into a web and then separate the web into pencil roving. This looks like yarn, but it is without twist or tensile strength.

Photo by Green Mountain Spinnery

The carded pencil roving is wound onto spools which are carried to the spinning frame for the spinning stage of the yarn production. 96 roving ends are threaded onto the machine by hand. This machine turns the roving into yarn within a few hours or several days depending on the lot size. Bobbins of the yarn are placed in the steam box for two or three hours to set the twist. The plying machine is the next stop for the yarn where again, it is threaded by hand. The Spinnery’s own plied yarns, including Maine Organic and New Mexico Organic, are 2-ply but we do produce 3-and4-ply yarns.

Photo by Green Mountain Spinnery

In the finishing department, the yarn is skeined or coned. The skeining machine winds twelve skeins at a time. The skeins are weighed, twisted and labeled by hand, ensuring that each skein is seen and felt as a final quality-control check. The combination of utilizing our venerable machinery, respect for the liveliness of the natural fibers and hands-on finishing touches, creates wonderful yarns that are ready for their next transformation into the project of your choice!

Be Our Neighbor!

March 9th, 2012

©Marti Stone

We’re celebrating 30 years of bringing hand-crafters the finest organic and natural fibers yarns. If you’re new to the Green Mountain Spinnery, we’re glad you found us! You came along at an exciting time, and we’re thrilled to be able to introduce you to the people who create the yarns you love right here on this blog.

We’ll be sharing many stories in the months to come through our “People in Your Neighborhood” series. Today, we’d like to introduce (or re-introduce!) you to the history of the Green Mountain Spinnery.

The Spinnery began to take shape in 1975, when Claire Wilson and Libby Mills encountered beautiful skeins of yarns from overseas, the likes of which they hadn’t found stateside. At the same time, David Ritchie and Diana Wahle were in a study group with Claire that focused on revitalizing rural economies by creating small, local industries. Over the next six years, these two ideas began to intersect and grow, fueled by a growing Vermont Sheep population and the gas shortage of 1976 (most imported yarns were petroleum-based) – clearly, a locally-made yarn would solve a multitude of problems! After extensive research and gathering the support of friends and neighbors, the mill store opened for business in 1981 (for more details, you can read the full story in The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book).

Their vision to create a workplace committed to sustainability, the responsible usage of natural resources, and of course, the creation of high-quality yarns, has remained steady over the years.

How does this translate to the yarns you hold in your hand?

All of the fibers we use – alpaca, mohair, wool and organic cotton – are grown in the United States; we make every effort to purchase directly from individual growers, and to feature fiber grown in New England
Unlike most commercial mills, we do not use chemicals to bleach, mothproof or shrinkproof yarns.
Our yarns are carefully created in small quantities using vintage equipment
Orders are often shipped in recycled boxes
Waste wool is put to many creative uses including home insulation, mulch and oil- spill spill clean up
Mill ends are directed to charitable organizations that teach knitting or donate knitted items

Our staff tends to each and every aspect of production, from initial contact with the fiber grower to the final labeling and approval of each skein of yarn. The Spinnery founders have always worked collaboratively, making decisions by consensus and often involving the entire staff in this process, but it wasn’t until 2006 that a worker-owned cooperative model (a founding goal) became a reality.

We’ll be introducing you to the people behind the yarns you hold in your hands; look for future installments of the “People in Your Neighborhood” series right here on our blog!