All Sold Out

The 2016 clip of Doc Mason's Wool is all sold. Thank you for your support! If you are in a yarn-chicken emergency, please send me a note on Etsy: I have a few 2 ounce emergency cakes I can send to get you through.

The girls have been shorn, and their fleeces are waiting their turn at the mill.  The next batch will be ready in September of 2017, and this time it will be spun solely from the wool of our Clun Forest flock, plus one Cheviot. Yay!

If you are in the Boston area, check New England Farm to Fiber at the Boston Public Market. They might still have some stock of Doc Mason's, but if not, you will surely fall hard for any of their other farm yarns!

Doc Mason's Wool is Back!

Hop on over to my Etsy store if you're interested in Doc Mason's Wool! The 2016 clip is back from the mill. Thanks a million for your patience and your support!

Warmest Wishes!

Scotland, a Pattern, and a Lambcam

I'm home from Scotland, what a Grand trip! I spent a week in Edinburgh with friends Thea Colman, Kirsten Kapur, and Sonya Philip.  We explored a castle, and roamed the streets, cemeteries, and alleys. We spent two glorious days at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.  And we met people, the folks I call my invisible internet friends, and hugged them in real life. Above all, the people are always my favorite part of an adventure.

I stayed on a little longer than my roomies, spending a few extra days with my friend Jeni and her husband Archie, a visit long overdue. We visited the Verdant Works Textile Museum (heaven for me, including the smell). I have a thing for equipment and moving parts. 

chain stitch industrial machine

skein winder for which I pine 

an early automated loom

 The Great Tapestry of Scotland was on display while we were there -- mind blowing embroidery.

 You can see more photos from the trip on my Instagram account.

My etsy store is open again, featuring my first sewing pattern, The Ann Carolyn Smock. Thanks everyone for your encouragement and your patience. The making of this pattern was labor intensive, but a great deal of fun learning. I want to make more sewing patterns!

This weekend, April 9th at 8PM, Tammy from A Wing and a Prayer Farm will be live on her lambcam. If you visit her blog and leave a comment you will be entered to win either my Ann Carolyn Smock pattern or my Fried Chicken Mittens two-at-a-time pattern + a skein of mitten yarn! You can find more details about her lambcam there and her life as a farmer. She gets a lot done.

Wishing you an excellent week.

Travel Plans

Hey! I wanted to let you know that my etsy store will be closed until March 28th. I am going on a trip to Scotland! I hope to be able to send you some pictures while I am there. Take a look at my Instagram for the most recent stuff.

I will be releasing my Ann Carolyn Smock pattern the last week of March. I am nervous and excited for that event.

In the meantime, here are some photos of Doc Mason's sheeep being shorn a couple of weeks ago. I wish you could have been there.

Best,
Ellen

Etsy Store!

Open for business, a new etsy store under the same name I use in many other places, Odacier. Also, I have named the yarn that I have been having spun for the last few years:

I have long admired Julia Farwell-Clay's Nordic Star Cowl featured in Knitscene a while back -- so much that I often use it as a teaching example of best use of variegated yarn. Julia has translated that design into a sweater pattern. It is Spectacular I tell you, called Winter Traveller, and it is worked in Doc Mason's Wool!

I uploaded the remaining yarn from the 2015 clip to etsy, but it sold out before I made this post. There are a few skeins of yarn left from the 2014 clip though.

I have also been picking away at writing my first garment pattern, called the Ann Carolyn smock. It's the same yoked smock that has seen many iterations here and on my instagram. 

The learning curve is big, but big learning curves are fun to me.

I plan to release the paper pattern as soon as I get back from a trip to Scotland (I am going to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival!), that will be the end of March. It will be for sale in my etsy store.

There are more, but you get the idea. 

Enjoy your day!

Foxhill Farm's Polka Knot Hat

I do not knit enough hats.  Hats are fun, and quick, and economical, and they make splendid gifts. Even to one's self.

Thea makes hats often.  She's smart like that (and in many other ways). So this summer while she and her girls were visiting, we hatched a plan to coordinate three hats just in time for Rhinebeck, worked up in Foxhill Farm's lovely yarns.  

This is my Polka Knot Hat, worked in Foxhill Farm's 3-ply bulky wool. It is knit in the round from the bottom up. 

The polka knots are fun to work and provide an opportunity to showcase a special yarn, maybe something you already have in your stash. In the sample they are worked in Graceland Farm's Alpaca, which has a dreamy halo. Imagine the confetti effect that could be created with a multicolor variegated yarn!

Our hat patterns are $4.00 each. If you have the good fortune to visit The New York Sheep and Wool Festival next week, please check out Foxhill Farm yarns, and say hello to Alice and Sue.

Suggested Yarns

Main color: 1 skein (90 yards, 4 ounces) of Foxhill Farm 3-ply bulky weight, “Bucks Plus” 100% wool

Contrast color: approximately 30 yards of worsted weight or 60 yards of sport weight held double, shown in Graceland Farm 100% alpaca

Gauge

13 stitches and 18 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch

12 stitches and 18 rows = 4 inches in polka knot pattern

Skills Used

Carrying a second color, working a small circumference in the round.

Needles

US size 10½ (6.5mm) suggested to obtain gauge.

Needle styles: 16-inch (40cm) circulars for the hat body, and your preferred needle style for working a small circumference in the round (double points, two circulars, or one long circular).

Notions

• 1 Stitch marker

• Tapestry needle

• Pom pom maker

And check out Thea's hats! 

Daisy's Hat

Buck's Hat

Wishing you a grand weekend, wherever you are.