Road Trip Report

Thanks for your kind thoughts yesterday. Jim is beginning to see a pattern to his "episodes" of illness. It's rather fascinating what patterns emerge when you start to really track what's going on. He was out with his friends on Friday night and told them that he was wearing a wire, so they'd better watch what they say.

The road trip was a great success and a wonderful escape. I've got just a few pictures to share, so hang on to your hand knitted socks...

We toured the mill at Wellington Fibres, which was a clean well lit facility. They are quite clever in using solar power to heat their water for washing fibre, and in recycling that water as heating, by pumping it under the floor of the mill and barns. How green!

Our tour guide is the son of the owner (Kevin I think), who loves his job, but confessed that he doesn't knit. I told him he ought to and he replied "That's what my mother keeps telling me."

Here he's showing us how they put together cleaned, picked and dyed fiber to create their rovings for hand spinners.

And here it comes out the other end, ready for a turn at the wheel:

Wellington Fibres dyes their own, in the fleece for hand spinning and as yarn for knitting.  Doesn't this look like a fun place to play?

After the mill, we checked out the kids.

And their moms:

It's wonderful to see the bearers of the fiber, but I'm glad I'm not a goat farmer. And that's all I've got to say about that.

The store at Wellington Fibres was as tempting as you could wish. With four people in my car, I left with a trunk load. Only this was for me: red hot, 50/50 mohair/wool blend. My eyes will bleed when I spin this!

And the most royal skeins for color work:

I"m not sure if they'll be mittens or socks yet. 
After that, it was high time for lunch. We went to Cora's in Waterloo, cause everyone loves breakfast so we could all agree on that. Then it was on to Shall We Knit? for further retail therapy. 

Dare I confess? I did buy more yarn.  I love the socks in the book Around the World in Knitted Socks but there are a few patterns that I think require quite specific colors in order to re-create their charm. So I bit the bullet and bought the yarn:

Now, can you guess the pattern?