Tag Archives: Gilead Fiber Farm

Special Bowls!

Posted on June 1, 2014 by | Comments Off on Special Bowls!
As many of you know from reading my blog I am a potter who loves to spin!  Last Fall I wrote about my trip north to Vermont to visit my friend Kristen and her little piece of heaven, Gilead Fiber Farm.



Kristen works hard at a 9-5 job, comes home and works her second job caring for her animals; Angora and Cashmere goats, Finn and Shetland sheep, Leah the guard llama (Astrid will join her soon),  new piebald bottle babies, the kitties Fred and Ginger and her constant companions pups Max and young Rufus.

She has a loyal group of fans (I am definitely one of those) who follow her ups and downs through her Ravelry group devoted to the Gilead.  We hear about worm and parasite issues, read about her ram's unfortunate forays into the burdock patch, drool over pictures of the fleeces as they grow and see pictures of the lambs, quadruplets this year!



When shearing time comes and Kristen is able to see what her harvest looks like for the year she plans the year's "Harvest Shares."  Rather then a traditional CSA model she waits until she can inspect the quality and quantity of fiber, decides on yummy blends (often she blends her own wool with other breeds found locally to her farm in Vermont) and which will be sold as roving (wool ready to spin) and which will be processed into yarn. Then she announces what her products will be for the season! While we all scarf up the shares online, she drives the fiber to the mill for processing.  And then we patiently (!?) wait!  Good mills are notoriously overbusy.  But the good mills are worth waiting on.



Each year Kristen and I come up with a piece of pottery special to the farm.  The first year I made extra special tumblers.  Remember these?



This year I made these sweet ice cream or snack sized bowls.





The black sheep is in honor of Atlas, born two years ago, and Kristen's first lamb at the farm.  And a black one at that!  (And the wool in the background is some of the luscious roving I received in my share box on Saturday.)

Atlas in the front all grown up!


Because not everyone can afford to buy a share, or might have missed out when they went on sale.....I once again made extra bowls to post in my Etsy shop.  Kristen will get a percentage of each sale, so you are helping her feed these fine animals so they can provide us with more of their yummy wool!

If you are interested, don't wait too long as I would not be surprised to see these snapped up quickly.  And thank you so much for supporting Kristen!


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Ah. Vermont!

Posted on October 30, 2013 by | Comments Off on Ah. Vermont!
Where do I start??


I haven't been on a solo trip for YEARS.  Like maybe 20 years.  Greg and I enjoy visiting new places together, and except for easy local visits to family I just haven't done much on my own.  For a long time.  Now with an aging dog with horrible anxiety issues I just never felt ready to tackle it.  But this year I turned 50 and my brothers decided it was time that I did something just for me and they sent me the cash meant ONLY for a train ticket to Vermont. 



"...adventure funds; not clay funds, artist space funds, paint the doghouse funds or Greg's Beer Supply funds!  These are Adventure Funds."

My family knows me well enough that once given the funds earmarked for a trip I would finally make the move and DO IT.  And I had been talking all year about the possiblity of going to Vermont on my own, on the train, to attend the super secret 50th birthday party of my good friend Kristen of Gilead Fiber Farm.  And I would get to see the farm!

And.  I mean.  VERMONT.  IN THE FALL.

So as the birthday plan would go, Kristen would know I was coming.  By staying with her we avoided her making big farm plans that would keep her in her neighborhood while the super secret arrangements were being made.

TWELVE hours on the train.
(I won't whine becuase the idea of driving north on I95 is oh SO MUCH worse.)

But 12 hours is a long time.  The last 2 were killer.

It was rainy when I left DC (there were flash flood warnings the entire time I was gone.)  And still wet and dreary when we went around NY. 



I tried to get some knitting done....


But once we hit Massachusetts the rain had lifted and the colors were just too fantastic.



I arrived in Randolph VT after dark with Kristen (and her loyal dog Max) to meet me and whisk me away to dinner.  (On my brothers.)

I just had so.much.fun.  It was glorious.

Here are pictures. :)



We spent the day out and about (avoiding the neighbor hood to keep the big secret...)

I got alpaca kisses. :)




The party was a total success!  Secrets kept!


Morning chores.  (Actually a mix of days...)

I milked a cow!!  (But not very well!)




Kristen was surprised that the usually reserved llamas came so close.  I think the hay was calling!





Iris the (very vocal!) cashmere goat.



Atlas (on the right) and his mom.


Knitting break!


Ginger


Lotus and Leah, guardian llamas.  This is coyote country....




Yea, that's the spot!  Ecstasy!




Moving huts to the new pasture.  And I didn't just watch and take pictures...I moved one too.


Good Morning All!




Boo


My buddy Fred.


And next post....POTTERY!





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All the Pretty Colors!

Posted on May 10, 2013 by | Comments Off on All the Pretty Colors!
Last weekend was Maryland Sheep and Wool.  The fiber lovers' version of Woodstock.  But better since it is an annual event!

My plan was to be very controlled.  But the birthday money burning a hole in my pocket (and God help me the bright colors) meant this is what came home with me!


To make the day even better I finally was able to meet up with a couple of friends known only to me via Ravelry!  If you had told me 10 years ago (I originally typed 20 but then realized the internet is really not that old!!) that I would be making such wonderful friends over the internet I would have told you you were crazy.



As if that was not enough, Kristen, second from the right and of Gilead Fiber Farm for whom I made these cups, made an extra trip down to Fredericksburg to hang out and have a dye day!  And until MDSW we had never even met in person.

So dye day.





Kristen, shepherd and dyer extraordinaire....



"Seymour" from Gilead Fiber Farm.  Finn lamb and kid mohair





 My new screen porch turned dye studio!  I was very careful (this time anyway) to keep from dripping dye on the new concrete floor...
The colors are SO much more vibrant then these photos.  But pretty here nonetheless I think.


The above picture and the picture below is a product of the same dye pot.  The wool/mohair blend on the left was a light brown, while the wool/mohair on the right was a natural cream.  Both came from RJ in Oklahoma.






Above and below center is named "Veritek" and is a blend from Gilead.  I think it is coopworth and mohair if I remember correctly.  It was a last minute gift as Kristen left to start her drive north....she left at 2:30 but I was still waiting on my last pot of goodies after dark!



Cormo.

The ironic thing is that I have planned a series of dye workshops for our local fiber guild to be taught by a local University professor for this Summer.

I think I am warmed up and ready!

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Susie’s all spun up

Posted on February 14, 2013 by | Comments Off on Susie’s all spun up

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The shetland roving from Gilead Fiber Farm was a delight to spin up. It was probably the fastest yarn I’ve ever spun, start to finish. I filled two bobbins in an afternoon and plied it the next morning. It washed up brighter and stunningly lustrous and so very soft. I’m not sure what I’ll make with it but I definitely want to get some more. EDIT: I had two unlabeled rovings that I brought home from SPA and it seems this may actually be Varitek. Confirmation will come in a week when I visit the farm. This will be great news as there is plenty of Varitek left.

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That Surprise that I mentioned earlier…..

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on That Surprise that I mentioned earlier…..
So many of you know that I am also a spinner and a weaver.




I love to spin....love the feel of the wool, and the smell, and the colors....it's so relaxing. And like clay I am creating something functional from such a basic material!  I am only a novice knitter. But I keep on spinning. Soon I will weave with all that handspun, but that is a story for another post.

Over the last year, as a new resident of Charlottesville the knitting site Ravelry has been an amazing resource of patterns, inspiration and friendship and professional networking (I've sold ALOT of pots because of this group. They are my most faithful fans!)  But for me there are two specific groups that helped me through the lonely days (and nights) in a new house and new community, Juniper Moon Farm (of which you have heard me speak many times) and Gilead Fiber Farm in Vermont.

As is appropriate, it was THROUGH Juniper Moon that I "met" Kristen and Gilead Farm. JMF was having a (it's first...there is another if you are interested!!!) flock give away and Kristen won the contest of a life time! So of course I trotted on over to her website and found her forum on Ravelry.

It's been a year and there have been alot of changes. I've become a regular visitor to the ACTUAL farm at Juniper Moon. I've been making their own small line (mugs and yarn bowls) of pottery AND enjoying the sights and smells and sounds that is The Farm. I've met so many wonderful people both AT the farm and again, through Ravelry.

One of these new found friends is Kristen. Though we have never met, and only this week have even spoken on the telephone (!) I've loved following her ups and downs as a new shepherd. Reading about  her joy at finding her first new baby goat in the barn, her painful flock losses from parasites or mineral deficiencies (the things you can learn on Rav!), her battle with winter and ice and summer and Hurricane Irene..., her crazy dog with the voracious appetite and her dream of a complex of tiny houses for all of us to finally come and hang out in the field with her and her flock.  All while working a full time job at the local John Deere dealership.  There are many of us who read her forum feeling as though we are shepherding vicariously through her while at the same time being amazed at her tenaciousness and love for what she is doing.

So Kristen has been contemplating some changes in her farm "model".  She and I have been "talking" about pottery.  How I am always trying to come up with ways to combine my love of fiber with my love for clay....and we came up with these:






I am so excited to be selling these tumblers!  My interpretation of the pictures I've seen and the descriptions I've read of Kristen's Gilead Fiber Farm.  She raises both sheep and and angora goats (Skippyjon, the trouble maker is the black sheep portrayed on many of these cups) Anna is a black faced sheep that I think of as I decorate..and then we have the angora goats...imagine them nibbling on the trees and cavorting amongst themselves.  (And yes, cavort is the perfect term to describe the antics of an angora goat!)

I've posted these tumblers on my etsy site.  A portion of the sales will go directly to Kristen.  My way of  being a shepherd!


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