Author: Lisa Check

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sometimes I get wild ideas

So, dear reader, you already know that all the yarn shops are closed. The restaurants are closed. The fiber festivals are closed and going virtual. There aren’t any sports. And our homes are now our offices and schools.

I always do a special colorway for large festivals. And Maryland Sheep and Wool is in 2 weeks. I had to get up off the couch and put together a special colorway.

My wild idea was to make a corona virus colorway. But then I thought, Lisa that’s really weird. Maybe people will be upset or put off about it.

Corona colorway on Chinook

Then I thought some more. I relied on my Biology Major background and thought about viruses. And it lead me to think about how miraculous our bodies are. How our bodies make antibody particles that basically neutralize the virus or bacteria that has invaded the body.

So my corona colorway uses the colors in the electron microscope image that we see online and on the news every day. And my antibody colorway uses complementary colors that “neutralize” the virus colors.

Antibody Colorway on Chinook base

I’m taking pre-orders for these. I am offering them in the Chinook base, Corrie Sock base and Sparkly base. Click here to grab a few for yourself and gifts for your knitting friends. I will be dyeing these to order. I will keep you in the know about when you can expect them. I expect to be able to dye and dry within 3 days of your order, then out in priority mail so from the date of your order you should have this yarn in your hands in one week.

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virtual fiber festivals

Have you heard? At least the Spring and Summer festivals and tours will be a virtual experience. This is a whole new world for vendors, festival organizers and you, the public. There have been a couple of these so far. And it is really a learning experience. This is what I know to help you have a good experience for Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and my own Fiber Art Studio Tour.

  1. The “festivals” will be held in special facebook groups. Here’s link for MDSW. Here is the link for FAST. Join these groups. You need to be checking on the posts in these groups. Any news, video or discounts won’t just come to your feed. So when you are ready just enter facebook and click on the group.
  2. Many, many vendors will be having special discounts and/or free shipping. The information will be listed during the virtual event. You can also just look at a vendor’s website as well. I will be offering 15% off your entire purchase AND free shipping on orders over $100. Those of you who are on my email list, will be getting the code early for pre-ordering. You can go here to sign up to be on the list.
  3. Many vendors have been making videos so that you can see for yourself what is available. I have a youtube channel where I’ve posted the complete colorways for each base. You can go here to see them.
  4. Many of us yarnies will continue to have a special colorway for the event. Stay tuned. I’m working on mine this week for MDSW.

So I hope you come out and “see” us at the new virtual fiber festival experience!

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what’s happening on the farm

As we start WEEK 5!! of the stay at home orders…quarantine. I’m not sure what to really call it. It’s not a lock down, it’s mostly voluntary, right? We can still get in our cars and go to the store. I hear that people are just wandering around Home Depot and grocery stores. We are so used to going 24/7, never having a minute to slow down and just be. And now we are forced to just be.

Even Gus is thinking about this all being over

I’m doing okay with it all. But I’m an introvert. What about you? How are you handling it? I have my animals and a partner here. And I’m connecting with friends and family on phone calls and zoom calls.

BLT’s for breakfast. You can use grape tomatoes thinly sliced.

I don’t mind all the quarantine cooking, but I am making plans for some great dinners out at our favorite restaurants. I sure hope they don’t go out of business.

Local Distiller is now making hand sanitizer. We had to buy some booze to get it…..but what a treat all three are

So here at the farm, the apple trees are in bloom this week. The plums and apricots have been pollinated. I picked my first asparagus this week….but the bed is SO FULL of weeds. I really hate to weed, but I’ll have to get on it, if I want to find the asparagus. We have a couple of new keet’s (baby guineas) that were hatched by a couple of moms. The sheep and goats are munching on beautiful green grass.

Forest Rock Colorway on Sparkly yarn

We hope to see you in person soon. In the meantime, if you want some new color or texture in your yarn collection, you can always stop by our online shop and find just what you are looking for!.

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question answered: how did I get myself into this

I was asked this question on Instagram and I promised to answer it. So here goes… I’m not from a farming family at all. But really my maternal grandfather was a citrus rancher around the time of the Depression. And my paternal grandfather was a subsistence farmer in N. Carolina. And my Bill’s maternal grandparents were farmers in the Poconos and he has lots of great memories about growing up harvesting and canning vegetables. So maybe our farming roots really do run deep.

Really early FGF dyeing

I grew up in S. California and worked in healthcare and travel and loan origination and apartment owner until I met Bill in the early 90’s. Also during that time, I learned how to weave and dye and began my creative journey in the textile world.

We moved from California to Oregon and then on to Maryland. And when we came here, I told Bill that I would love to have a little farm with goats and chickens. Little did I know that he had always wanted to have a small farm as well. So we did just that.

Our first 2 goats: Winter and Inkblob

So remember I’m a weaver, spinner, dyer and cat owner. I didn’t know anything about goats. But I liked how Angoras looked. So one day at the Howard County Fair I found a set of goat for sale. Our thinking was that we would just get 2 and we would see how we liked having them. We got a small Amish building that served as a barn and fenced in our large lawn for them. I thought that I would just have some fiber to spin and I could weave with it.

I love this photo!

Soon we were buried under lots of pounds of fleeces and I realized that there was no way I could keep up. I had to send them out to be made into roving and yarn. And from there the business of making farm yarns and dyeing them and commercial yarns has grown and grown.

Our first two sheep: BFL named Puck and Cormo named Viola

Thanks Kyle for asking the question. Do you have a question? Add it to the comments and I promise to answer them in the future.

Just the beginning of the FGF yarn business
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books I’m reading: True Colors

I don’t really know how I found this book. I bought it for myself and added it to the mastery books I plan to read this year.

This book is fun to dip into. You don’t need to read from front to back. Each “chapter” is devoted to a master dyer. There are indigo dyers and cochineal dyers. There are dyers from every continent, except Antarctica, of course. There is a loose organization by dye type, for example there are several dyers profiled who work with Indigo in various parts of the world. I’m enjoying reading about how these dyers learned their craft. The stories of family and of place.

The photographs are wonderful. It truly is a coffee table book. And it is well written and interesting.

This book has made me think about mastery. Some like those dyers in the story learned their skills and mastered them within the confines of their cultures and families. My journey to mastery has been much different. My expertise has developed through years and years of practice. Lots of great results and also heartbreaking failures as well.

As you know I’m working on some online ecourses to help you on your way to learn dyeing techniques so that you can get the yarn that you dream of. You can be first to be able to enroll if you are on the Learn with Lisa email list. Click here to sign up.

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widn *what I’m doing now*

So life is not normal and will probably never be normal. We, individually and as a society will be permanently changed by the social distancing, the fear of the virus and the uncertainty about how long this will be and will we be safe or will we be sick….

January through mid-March were full of new colorways and lots of creativity in preparation for the Spring shows. If you are a long time reader of my blog (or even if you’re new) you can see all those fun colors on new bases. But as you all know, festivals are either cancelling or going virtual.

I spent a couple of weeks feeling down and trying to figure it all out. And I started to read more and to take a few classes online. But I had an angel. An angel that helped to get me out of my funk and to allow the creativity to flow again. Rose is my angel. She had a lot of yarn made from the fleeces of her Coopworth sheep. She didn’t want to dye it herself.

So I started a custom order for her skeins. She brought fingering weight and worsted weight yarns. We decided that the fingering weight yarn would be variegated and fun for socks and some scarves. And the worsted would be done in sweater quantities in more semi-solid colors.

I’ve had so much fun working with this wool and working with Rose to make her color dreams come true.

Do you need a custom dye? Do you have a yarn in mind that you can’t find at a shop or show? Well send me an email and maybe we can work it out together, while we are staying apart.

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working on new online dye workshop

Hey, due to these stay at home orders, I’m taking my really popular dye workshop into the cybersphere. I’m working on a 4 week workshop that will lead you to dyeing the yarn that you envision. We’ll go from inspiration to finished product.

Are you interested in being the first to know about it? Join this email list and I’ll keep you in the loop as I work through the lessons and figure out how to get the supplies to you.

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WIP Wednesday

Well, I think we all have a lot of time to knit. Even if you are working from home, you can now knit through those meetings because they are conference calls and no one can see you. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been changing from night pajamas to day pajamas. It’s hard to actually put on real go out in public clothes, right?

So my WIP today is a new shawl that I’m working on. I’m using my Chinook yarn which is a blend of Superwash merino , cashmere and nylon. It is soft and has a great drape to it.

A while back, I asked my Instagram followers to pick the set of skeins for this shawl. These grey, green and purples edged out the blues and the pinks.

When I design a shawl, I have to make it something that I can knit. And I’m not the most skilled knitter. So this shawl is great TV knitting so far. It is mostly garter stitch with some eyelets thrown in for some spice. I do plan on adding some lace bits, but they will also be something that I can handle. And not too difficult for people. Because the yarn is so pretty, I want it to do the work.

What are you working on? Add a comment to let me know.

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reinventing: pivot to distancing

So we are starting week 3 of self quarantine/social distancing and it is weird. It has turned our home upside down. While I spend my time at home, working in my studio. Having DH home all the time changes my way of life. I now have to make more meals. I feel like I have to be a better listener. The dogs have also been changing. We had our rhythm. The knew when they would get to go outside. They knew when they could expect a treat and when they should just lay down and fall asleep. All that is different with both of us at home, ALL THE TIME.

And I know if you have children, your world has changed even more than mine. This week starts distance learning at the schools in Maryland. If you have grandchildren, your universe is also probably changed. Maybe you don’t get to hug them. Maybe you have to see them over FaceTime and not face to face.

A big part of my Winter and Summer months is in-person workshops here at the farm. And I think I need to pivot those as well. We had some great winter workshops dyeing yarn and roving. I have one workshop slated to go April 18th. It is a shibori-Indigo workshop. I’m not sure if it will go or not. I have limited this workshop to 3 students, so social distancing can be accomplished. And if you need to get out of the house and do something creative, click here to grab one of the 2 remaining spaces.

indigo class

I am currently working on distance eclasses for you. I will be converting my popular yarn and roving dye workshops into a series of 3-4 sessions. Are you interested in eclasses like that? If so, enroll in my Learn with Lisa email list. Members of that list will be the first to hear about the new eclasses. You can enroll here. You can also see my current array of workshop here.

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FO Friday–Shawl Edition

So here is a snapshot of the shawls that I have knit in the last few years. I know it’s not a lot. But you also know that I’m the slowest knitter in the world and maybe in the universe.

Shawls that I’ve actually knit in the last couple of years.

All of these are available on Ravelry. Front left to right: Striche, Shard, Camau, Raddiant, Conflagration and Maryland, my Maryland. Some of these are available as kits in our webstore: Strisce, Camau, Raddiant and Conflagration. You can find them here.