Mindful Maine Retreat

I am beyond excited to announce a wonderful collaboration between Hannah Thiessen Howard (author of Slow Knitting and Seasonal Knitting) and myself this Summer here on the farm!! We hope you’ll consider joining us in July for a magical experience of connection, slow crafting and mindful living. Read more below, and full details can be found on the signup page!

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Capture the magic of high summer during a weekend retreat at Mindful Folk Farm in pastoral coastal Maine. Immerse yourself in nature with a handful of other passionate crafters ready to slow down and recapture the magic of a carefree childhood, filled with creativity and friendship. You’ll play with new materials and techniques under the guidance of natural dyer, herbalist and shepherd Hannah Welling, explore mending with a guest teacher, and lean into the peaceful rewards of slow crafting, watercolor painting and more with Slow Knitting author Hannah Thiessen Howard. Walk away renewed, energized and connected to the land and newly-discovered friends.

The Itinerary: 

Arrive Friday afternoon and settle into your lodging (options here) or set up camp on Mindful Folk farm, then meet the group for a kick-off bonfire and welcoming ceremony, where you’ll receive your class kits and commemorative goodie bags, meet other attendees and get to know your instructors on a personal level. 

The next morning, we’ll gather around coffee and tea, begin our day with a restful yoga flow, and then tour the project stations, allowing you to explore tea blending, natural dyeing, mending, fiber crafts and watercolor painting throughout the day. We’ll break for a farm-fresh lunch and then spend the afternoon in free-flowing session, allowing you to revisit the crafts most intriguing and exciting to you from that morning. 

Sunday, we’ll do it again, with a fully free day where you can be guided by your own interests and dive deeper into specific projects you’d like to finish or begin. For lunch, we’ll hop over to a favorite local shop to pick up provisions for a picnic lunch at the site of America’s First Fiber Mill. If the weather permits, attendees will have the option to take a break for a dip in our secret swimming hole! Upon return to the farm, we’ll wrap up our projects and close out the evening with a celebration. 

Freedom to explore: 

Unlike traditional retreat and event setups, Mindful Maine gives you the option to chase what’s most exciting to you. Spend time in each of the craft sessions offered, or focus entirely on a project that has captured your imagination. This retreat includes several areas of focus for you to explore: 

Tea Blending

Gather everything you need to make beautiful, hand-blended teas with the abundant herb and edible flower garden at the farm. Start your morning with something fresh and vibrant and bundle your own tea blends to take home. Provided in your class kits you’ll find our hand-written guide to herbs and flowers and compostable tea bags to prepare your concoctions. 

Natural Dyeing

Hannah Welling has made a name for herself providing exquisite farm yarns dyed in an array of stunning natural color! Discover the secret world of plant pigment with a prepped selection of mordanted yarns and fabrics, ready for you to dip into cauldrons of color from foraged and collected botanicals. Each student will receive a set of mini skeins and fabric fat quarters to experiment with, and guidance from Hannah to achieve the best results. 

Plein Air Watercolor

Before she was a fiber crafter and book author, Hannah Thiessen Howard was a painter, studying Fine Art throughout her most formative years. Students will receive a ready-to-go palette of watercolors made from natural dye sources, brushes and paper in their class kits. Hannah will guide students through watercolor painting techniques and tips, then you’ll be turned loose to capture the scenery of the farm and beyond. 

Mending

Help your projects last a lifetime by learning mending techniques from our guest instructor Maggie Ruth Haaland. From simple stitches to stabilize and secure, to celebrating the art of patching and repair with embellishments and decorative detail, you’ll be ready to approach the art of mending with new eyes after this class! Students will be provided with all materials needed to learn the stitches and techniques.  

Needle & Fiber Crafts

No retreat would be complete without time spent with fiber, especially a retreat at a fiber farm! Students may bring their own projects to make progress on, or can try their hands at something new: spinning, knitting, crochet, and quilting, using materials available for purchase from Mindful Folk Farm. Crafting time is anytime our attendees need down time, throughout the retreat. 

Trip Details

Mindful Folk Farm is located in New Gloucester, Maine, approximately 35 minutes from Portland, ME and 45 minutes from Augusta, ME, where our closest airports are located. We will connect attendees in a small chat group prior to arrival, where you can coordinate car rentals if desired. We are unable to pick up or transport attendees to or from the airport or lodging: please consider your own transportation needs when planning to attend.

Lodging & Transportation

How you’d like to stay with us (or visit for the day) is up to you. The farm will have a grassy knoll prepared for on-site tent camping, or you can snuggle up at one of the nearby bed and breakfast or rental options. Lodging on-site (tent camping) is free to attendees; off-site lodging needs to be arranged separately. Attendees are responsible for their own transportation to and from the farm. 

Meals

Mindful Folk will provide the following meals to attendees: 

• Morning coffee and tea bar. 

• Friday night, bonfire-ready eats like hot dogs and s’mores for our evening celebration.

• Saturday lunch on the farm, including homemade egg salad, fresh veggies and more. 

Attendees have the option to bring their own food for snacks, or can pick up items at Pineland Farms, a nearby market and deli with a great selection. On Sunday, we’ll also be visiting this same spot for our picnic lunches, which students will choose and purchase on their own.

Attend the Mindful Maine Retreat

Reserve your spot today–spaces are extremely limited to keep the intimate setting of this retreat and allow attendees the most time with instructors and materials. 

Dates: July 26-28th, 2024

Location: Mindful Folk Farm, 288 Morse Rd, New Gloucester, ME 04260

Retreat Cost: $600 USD per student

Register here!

2021

As I sit here, the temperature outside is 16 degrees (downright balmy compared to the -30 we had a short time ago) and I am praying that none of my ewes goes into labor until this bitter cold has passed. I always feel as if I should have more time than I do to get caught up on blog posts, newsletters and social media posts, but alas…the farm is about ready to explode with activity once again, and I will be right in the middle of it. I will try my best, however, to fill in the gaps of 2021!

Last Spring we welcomed our lambs as usual…except every single one of them, save one, was a ram. We’ve never had that happen before, and are still quite positive that we could not make it happen again if we tried. Kidding season followed, with some ridiculously cute babies being born from both our Angoras and Cora’s Dairy goats crossed with one of our Angora bucks.

Lots of other babies were born too…bunnies, chicks and ducklings to name a few!

We held a few workshops and classes, which were wonderful and successful. This summer was the first time I participated in a local farmer’s market, selling lamb, fiber, flowers, duck and chicken eggs, and a few vegetables. I am excited to return to market this summer with expanded flower options and more lamb and eggs!

And, in the midst of all the summer business; incredible harvests, the addition of a sap house and an outhouse, children close by our side, dyeing yarn from our flock with the plants we grow and forage, and trying our best to embrace every minute of a fleeting season by slipping away for occasional hikes or dips in our secret swimming holes.

We lost a dear friend, Crusoe…the big black dog many of you have been greeted by when you arrive here on the farm. The loss of his presence has left an enormous hole in our hearts.

The loss of the Common Ground Fair this past fall brought to light the importance of our community of friends, supporters, fellow farmers and family. After our “Harvest Moon Festival” we set to work putting the farm to bed; which was much delayed after a very late frost!

This year, we had the honor of our yarn being featured in many new knitting patterns! We introduced two new yarn bases, “Haven” and “Kindred”, both of which contain fiber from our animals here on the farm with the addition of a little something extra from other local fiber producers! “Kindred” is a Cormo yarn with Angora bunny added to give the finished product the most exquisite feel…squishy, oh-so-soft and a little bit fuzzy. It gives you all the feels!! My very good friend Alicia designed a stunning cabled hat with matching mittens specifically for this yarn. These patterns can be found at the above link.

“Haven” is a blend of Cormo from our lovely brown girl ‘Fly’, and a bit of local Alpaca to tame the squish and lighten the colour a bit. Alicia also designed a hat and mittens for this yarn base! These patterns can be found on her Ravelry page here.

And, Alicia also presented a re-release of a very successful pattern using some of our straight brown Cormo! That pattern can be found here!

And, my dear friend Beatrice at Thread & Ladle very generously designed the perfect cowl to show off any hand-dyed yarn! Our very first yarn base we ever created, ‘Phinela’ is featured in this wonderful, quick knit. That pattern can be found on Bea’s Ravelry page here!

Harvest Moon Festival!

I hope you’ll join us for this super special event here at the farm! Masks required for both vendors and visitors, regardless of vaccination status!

*** UPDATE: We are still on for Saturday the 25th of September! There may be showers, but we’ll still have fun!!

Lambing Season Roundup

It was clearly the year of the ram lamb. We had only one ewe lamb this year, which is crazy…but the lambs were no less beautiful! A few of our favorites:

Duck Egg & Bone Broth Soup

This recipe is basically my go-to for a super-nourishing and quick meal. I actually love it for breakfast, and it’s delicious on a long hike. It tastes just like chicken noodle soup, but much easier to whip up if you’re short on time. Good chicken bone broth is essential in this recipe; we make our own, but it can be found at most grocery stores nowadays.

Duck Egg & Bone Broth Soup

Ingredients:

• One Pasture raised, organic duck egg, scrambled in a dish

• 10oz (or more) high quality, preferably organic, chicken bone broth

• Salt to taste

Instructions:

• Bring broth to a simmer in a small pot

• Gradually stir in raw egg

• Season with salt to taste

• You’re done!

Super easy! I’ve also added fresh spinach, mushrooms, thin sliced carrots, etc. Enjoy!

Duck Egg Chocolate Mousse

This is the first in a series of recipes highlighting the versatility of duck eggs. Fair warning; this dessert may not last long in your house!

You can find our duck eggs at our farm stand every day of the week, but if you're not local, most natural food stores carry them.

Ingredients

- 1 cup chilled heavy cream

- 4 large duck or chicken eggs, separated

- 1/4 cup espresso or strong coffee, chilled

- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

- 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 for the mousse, 1 for the whipped cream

- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

- 6 ounces or about a half bag of high quality dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips (or a combo of both, Ghiradelli works well)

- 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar (optional)

1. Beat 1 cup chilled cream in cold metal bowl until stiff peaks form; cover and chill.

2. Combine duck egg yolks, cold espresso, vanilla, salt and 2 Tbsp. sugar in a large metal bowl. Whisk to combine.

3. Set up a double boiler (about an inch or two of simmering water in a large pot with the metal bowl placed on top. Make sure the hot water doesn’t touch.)

4. Whisk constantly as the mixture thickens until a thermometer reads about 155-160 degrees. The color will look muddy. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth.

5. Remove from water. Let stand, whisking occasionally, until cool to the touch. (Very important not to rush otherwise the heat will deflate your whites).

6. While you are waiting for the chocolate to cool, using an electric mixer, beat 4 egg whites on medium speed until foamy. With mixer running, add 1 Tbsp. sugar and cream of tartar. Let the mixer do its thing until stiff peaks form. About 2 minutes.

7. Working in batches, gradually fold in the stiffed whites, scraping the sides of the bowl and gently combining towards the center of the bowl (DON’T MIX!). Try to maintain as much of the air as possible.

8. Fold about 1/3 of the whipped cream into mixture just to blend. Divide mousse among six teacups, ramekins or small mason jars. Use whatever you’ve got!

Cover and chill until firm, at least 2 hours. Before serving, sprinkle the tiniest bit of kosher or sea salt and a little extra white sugar on top, then dollop whipped cream over the mousse. Garnish with berries or a sprig of mint!

The duck side.

Have you ever tried duck eggs? I think, for the most part, people either love them, as I do, or they really, really don't. However, the sad thing is that many of the folks I talk to that claim not to like them have only ever had them prepared once, and chances are, they were on the runny side of fried or scrambled. Duck eggs are so much more than a breakfast food! I encourage you to try them, and not just for their myriad health benefits.

Our journey with ducks began seven years ago when we needed a solution to our snail problem. Snails are one of the primary hosts of coccidia, which is a parasite that can take down a flock of sheep or herd of goats in the blink of an eye. Chickens will not eat snails, so, ducks to the rescue! But, what to do with all the eggs?!? In my recovery from Lyme disease, my acupuncturist helped me to see how valuable they really were. Here are some nutritional facts:

• Duck eggs are especially high in vitamin B12, which is required for the synthesis of DNA and the health of your red blood cells. B12 is also very important for your nervous system; low levels of this particular vitamin can cause issues with balance and memory, as well as fatigue. One duck egg gives you about 60% of your daily value of B12 - that's more than five times that of a chicken egg!

• Each duck egg contains more than 1/3 of your daily value for Selenium; also required for the synthesis and repair of DNA. Selenium also helps regulate metabolic hormones and plays a role in fertility and helping to ensure healthy pregnancies.

• Choline is an essential nutrient that helps your cells communicate. It's particularly useful in helping your body create neurotransmitters and facilitates nerve communication throughout your body.

• According to a 2015 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, peptides in the whites of duck eggs can promote and enhance the body's ability to absorb the essential mineral calcium in your digestive system. This is important since calcium helps your body's muscles function properly and maintains the health of your bones and teeth.

• Duck eggs are also rich in antioxidants. According to a 2014 study in the Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Journal, the egg whites of duck eggs contain different antioxidants that can potentially help prevent various diseases, including heart disease and neurodegenerative conditions.

• There is twice the amount of iron in a duck egg than in a chicken egg! And that's not just because the eggs are bigger.

* Info courtesy of the Livestrong Foundation

You can pretty much do anything with a duck egg that you can with a chicken egg. In addition to eating them straight up, they are very popular with bakers because they have a higher ratio of egg yokes to egg whites. The larger amount of yoke makes baked goods richer and gives cakes a fluffier consistency.

Throughout the next few blog posts, I will be highlighting various recipes using duck eggs. My hopes are that you will learn to love them as much as I, or perhaps find some new favorite recipes utilizing this amazing ingredient!

With gratitude,

Hannah

Goodbye, 2020.

Well, I suppose this blog post is more of a round-up of everything that happened this past year on the farm! After the Holidays seems to be the only time when there are enough quiet moments to catch up on paperwork, letters, taxes, etc. and therein am I able to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, what we hope to achieve in the coming year, and dreams for the future.

We had some new critters join the farm this year! The first being a few baby goslings. They are Sebastopol geese, which are unusual in that their feathers are curly, therefor taking away any ability to fly. They are gentle and docile, and look as if they are wearing wedding dresses as adults! As babies, they pretty much just slept all the time :)

Coco was a young duckling hatched out in our incubator. The only one, as a matter of fact, out of about 50 eggs we tried. I have no doubt that our inexperience coupled with a possibly faulty humidity gauge were the culprits, but…Coco made it! As a baby, she lived in the house with us, and would peep loudly when she heard our voices. Eventually, she moved to an outside pen, and followed us around when we did chores. She is now happily settled in with our other ducks as an adult!

Lots of lambs, or course!

This handsome guy, Goliath, is our newest Angora Buck. He hails from champion bloodlines and will increase the quality of our mohair by leaps and bounds! He came with a lovely doe as well, who we expect to see great things from!

And, along the lines of mohair, we recently crossed many states to pick up five incredible new angora goat babies that will be bred in the fall of 2021. While I haven’t yet taken any photos of them, the trip out to Montana was beautiful (and long!) We made a stop or two along the way, and I fell a little in love with North Dakota.

A new kitten, Merlin!

Two milking goats from our friends at Coppertail Farm, Nibblet and Fern. Our daughter had asked for milking goats for her birthday, and promised to do all the milking, so we figured we’d try it out. She has more than proven her capabilities with other animals, and has since done a beautiful job with these girls. She milks faithfully twice per day, and hands the milk to me to do with it whatever I like! Cheese and yogurt has been very popular!

And last, but most certainly the best, according to my daughter, is Duncan.

Duncan has fulfilled not only Cora’s desire to have a horse of her own, but also my own long-lost little girl dreams of an equine companion. He is a perfect gentleman, sweet, but also has lots of spunk. We are all very much in love with him!

The New Year is upon us, and I daresay that for the majority of the world, it is welcome. We will be settling in as a family to do some deep cleaning, baking, and enjoying of the relative quiet for a little while. There is yarn to be skeined and dyed, pregnant mamas to keep an eye on, seeds to be ordered, and dreams to tend to. This is the season of rest, and I forget sometimes that that applies to me as well. See you next year, friends!

Lambing Season

So many lambs!! We are up to our eyeballs in absolute, pure, snuggle-able cuteness. We have one mama who adopted two rejected lambs to bring her count up to six nursing babies…she will forever have my respect. However, with all this beauty comes a doubling of the workload! And, in the midst of all this chaos…I am surrounded by piles of gorgeous, soft, lustrous yarn as payment. Not too bad a trade, I say.

Winter on the Farm

Awaiting the arrival of the first lambs, I thought it about time to share some farm updates! Of course, these updates come in the form of photographs for me. I am such a visual person, and I think they can tell a better story than my words could. There is lots of general fiber busyness at the moment; skeining, washing and dyeing yarn in preparation for the upcoming Boston Farm and Fiber Festival on February 9th.

I absolutely love dyeing yarn! Because every batch is hand-dyed using either farm-grown, foraged or sustainably sourced botanical or insect dyes, not one is like the other. It keeps the job so exciting and satisfying, and I have such pride in seeing a product from our animals through to its finish as a beautiful skein of yarn.

Farm Yarn - Naturally colored Cormo with Suri Alpaca

‘Phinela’ yarn in three natural shades

‘Phinela’ yarn, ‘Mary’ yarn, and 85% mohair/15% finn yarn all naturally dyed with Avocado pits

Farm Yarn - Natural colored super-soft Cormo with Angora Bunny

Farm Yarn - Natural colored Cormo with Suri Alpaca

A cone of white ‘Phinela’ awaiting skeining.

My greatest helper on the farm…

The ducks have started laying!

That time again!

Come join us this year for Christmas on the Farm! As always, the support of our customers and friends enables us, and other small farms like ours, to keep moving forward. Besides, what could be better than animals, holiday cheer and local farm goods all in one place?!?

Shetland: Part II

More photos from Shetland.

Shetland: Part I

Yes, it’s been that long. Almost a whole season has gone by since I’ve posted anything. I suppose sometimes those breaks are necessary, especially during what amounts to the busiest time of year here. This year, the garden took a bit of a backseat to our trip to Shetland, and boy does it show now. However, this trip that we fundraised for for over a year, finally happened. All that busking, all those benefit dinners and concerts and auctions amounted to one amazing fiddling trip of a lifetime.

Not only did we fall in love with the Islands, but being a part of such a rich musical tradition (however briefly) solidified it in our memories as a trip we will never forget, especially for our children. We could never have done it without the help of many friends and family members, and for that will be forever grateful.

Spring on the Farm

Come join us for this fabulous day on the farm! Free and open to the public, but all donations and proceeds from the seedling sale and bake sale go entirely to the Pineland Fiddler’s trip to Shetland in July! Beck and Cora have been playing violin for over half of their lives, and this trip is an amazing opportunity. Please come by and support them and their fellow fiddlers!

Farm to Fiber.

This year marked the second year of the Boston Farm & Fiber Festival. Last year was so successful, I thought it surely couldn’t get any better. But it did! Between the hours of 10am and 5pm, I all but sold out of yarn. It just about made my mad dyeing scramble two days beforehand worth it. We’ll definitely be back!

March.

Well, as far as we’re concerned, Spring is here. We have 12 lambs on the ground and more to come…all of a sudden it feels as if our tiny barn is even tinier! Our big barn holds the Angora goats, who will be kidding later this month, so the sheep are a wee bit tight for space at the moment. Today began with a beautiful soft March snow…warm enough to spend all day outside in it. The children are no doubt feeling the change as well. They are playing in the woods outside in the dark by lantern light as I type.

I managed to get a few photos during the snow (with much help from my assistants!), which always gives me joy. It puts things in a light that helps me to remember how much I love farming. Some days are hard, but having a single evocative photograph eases the pain of our Border Collie killing one of our two remaining ducks, or stillborn quadruplets, such as we had this morning. The ewe was just too young, and her body couldn’t handle that many babies. They never developed beyond about 2 months. Such things happen, and we suspected she would abort at some point given that she never developed an udder. Grief arrives nonetheless, but is softened by all the life around us.

Lambs!

Oh goodness, it has begun! And with a bang, no less. One set of quadruplets and a set of twins today. Everyone is happy and healthy!

Christmas on the Farm

We have something very exciting happening here on the farm this Holiday season! The first annual Christmas on the Farm event is going to be a day filled with all kinds of activities; wreath-making workshops, animals, kids crafts, food, giveaways, and goods from local farms! We are honored to be partnering with Taproot Magazine for this special event, and hope it is the first of many!

Location: Mindful Folk Farm, 290 Morse Road, New Gloucester, Maine

We will be joined by:

• Buckwheat Blossom Farm, selling all manner of wooly items including socks, yarn, comforters & lambskins.

• Milkweed Farm, selling farm-made herbal remedies, seeds, and handmade leather goods.

• Coppertail Farm, selling handmade goats milk soaps, caramels, and more!

• Lazy Acres Farm, teaching wreath-making workshops and selling handmade wreaths, greens & flowers

• Taproot Magazine, selling goods and magazine subscriptions

• Turtle Rock Farm, selling amazing specialty canned goods made from Maine grown produce

• Mindful Folk Farm, of course! We will be selling yarn, greeting cards, hand-poured beeswax candles, food and more!

Wreath making workshops:

Sign up to learn how to make a stunning 24" fir wreath, 6' garland, or rustic grapevine wreath with Sarah Lutte of Lazy Acres Farm! Create a lovely work of art using foraged and natural materials, adding your own embelishments and decorations under Sarah's watchful eye and guidance. Preregistration required. Follow the links below to sign up!

1:00 - Fir wreath or garland, $60 per person, sign up here

3:00 - Rustic grapevine wreath, $60 per person, sign up here

We will be updating this page throughout the next two weeks with more vendors, and details about what to expect. In the meantime, you can visit the Facebook event page here, or follow us on Instagram for frequent updates!

Phinela: Part II

When we first moved to our town, we did not have any farm animals besides chickens. I did not come from a farming background, but after struggling with Chronic Lyme Disease and being rendered all but immobile, fiber became a passion. After we had lived here for only about one year, we found three angora goats on craigslist (I wouldn’t do that again!) and the rest is history.

During that year after we acquired the goats, I began thinking about sheep, as a way to use up all the mohair the goats were producing. So, we then found ourselves with two finnsheep. One day my husband came home from a run and asked if I had seen the ruins of the mill around the corner. I said no, and he began to tell me about how this mill was the first water-powered fiber mill in the country, and that it had a crazy story to go with it. So I went to check it out.

“Beginning a mill in 1791 along Collyer Brook in what is now Gray, Maine, Samuel Mayall's operation became the first successful water-powered woolen mill in North America. Establishing the mills in Gray was not easy. Woolen interests in England had prohibited the production of goods in the colonies and worked diligently to prevent British wool-making technology from being put to use in competition with them. Realizing this, Mayall smuggled plans for his machinery out of England hidden in bales of cloth meant for trade with Indians. When British woolen guilds learned of his deception, they tried at least twice to kill him. Once they sent him a hat in which they had hidden pins laced with poison and another time a box with loaded pistols rigged to fire when the box was opened. Suspicious of both packages, Mayall managed to avoid the untimely death his enemies had planned for him.”

“In time, the original single wooden structure grew into a sprawling mill complex, featuring two large buildings known as the lower mill and the upper mill, each powered by the water of Collyer Brook. Built in 1816 to expand Mayall’s production, the Upper Mill continued to produce woolen cloth until it was destroyed by fire in 1886. Despite the fire and decades of decay, one corner of the Upper Mill still stands.” A photograph of the Upper Mill can be found here.

“After Samuel Mayall died in 1831, his daughters Mary and Phanela took over the milling operation and built the Lower Mill in 1834. This building continued to produce cloth in all but a few years until 1902. This photograph shows the Lower Mill and the buildings that once surrounded it. These include the original 1791 structure that was converted to a carpenter shop when the Upper Mill was built, the Picker House, where wool was picked, cleaned, and graded before being spun into yarn and the old Picker House.”

It felt serendipitous, at the least, to discover that the area we were living in was once home to not only an incredible piece of history, but many farms that raised sheep for fiber production. This beautiful, serene location has also become our family’s favorite swimming hole. It is so far off the beaten track, and without any signage to point visitors to the spot, that we rarely see another soul. There is a lovely path that winds around the ruins of the mill and along the water’s edge, and the current is usually a great deal slower, but perfect below the mill for young children.

So there you have it. The story behind the names of our two lines of yarn; Phinela and Mary. It felt only right to honor them in some way, and what I imagine to be two smart, capable, and somewhat unusual, women. They ran a very successful business during a time when women were rarely known to do such things. I occasionally imagine them around as I am working, and wonder what they were like, if they would approve, or if running a business to them was merely a means to an end. In any case, their intrepid spirits live on in our yarn!

* All information above was found either on location, by way of informational signs, or here.

Phinela: Part I

One of the things I love most about being involved in the fiber world, is the people I get to meet. I feel like the luckiest woman in the world that I get to wake up every morning and be outside with the animals I adore, in all kinds of weather. Most days I have my hands in the dirt, and the rest of my time I get to enjoy not only the fruits of my labor in the garden, but also the fruits of working with fiber animals. Producing a fiber product from start to finish is a lot of work, but incredibly rewarding. Along the way, I work with other farmers, a shearer, veterinarians, animal supply store owners, apprentices, farm helpers, fiber mill owners and employees, vendors, knitters, artists, and pattern designers. It truly takes a village to create a farm-to-fiber product.

One incredible woman I have had the opportunity to get to know is a very talented pattern designer by the name of Beatrice Perron Dahlen (@threadandladle). She knew exactly what to do with my yarn, and created a lovely, luxurious shawl that is truly perfect for everyday use.

Beatrice decided to call the shawl “Phinela”, after the name of our staple yarn blend, which is made with next-to-skin soft 60% finnsheep and 40% kid mohair, all from our flock/herd. Although I am partial to our own fiber, there are so many sport weight yarns out there that would be stunning as well for this pattern. And as Beatrice states, and I concur, knit with something you truly love! As the second half of a two-part post, I will be talking a bit about where the inspiration came from for the names of our two lines of fiber; Phinela and Mary.

As many of you out there know, my background is actually photography, not fiber or farming. So, another part of my job is getting to occasionally put those skills to work. Most often I use them for my own products, but I LOVE photographing knitwear! This photoshoot was particularly fun, and Beatrice was a trooper when I asked her to go wading in the ocean to get to where the light was most beautiful.

I am just itching to get this shawl knit up for myself in a couple of our naturally-dyed skeins. (See the previous post…I’m thinking that beautiful goldenrod…)

If you are interested in knitting this shawl, please head over to Beatrice’s ravelry page, and snatch up the pattern. Also, while you are there, take a look at some of her other stunning work; she has also written a wonderful book!