Wool Dreams And the End of a Car Era

On Tuesday I participated in a Yarns and Yarns webinar which inspired me.  I learned about it from an email from Uist Wool, a mill in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.  Here is the recording of the event.

The first speaker was Meg Rodger talking about Crofting, Hebridean sheep & Audur the Deepminded.  She spoke of the Icelandic Tale of Audur the Deepminded who has an incredible story and her making a vararfeldur shawl.  This shawl is absolutely incredible.  It is made with a rock weight loom.  It uses different northern sheep breeds’ wool, sheds water and is warm.  As soon as I saw a photos of it, I wanted to make one.

Then there was a presentation from Osteroy Museum about Varafeldur viking cloaks and Norwegian knitting.  This is a textile museum north of Bergen in Norway. She described the history and use of the rock weighted looms.  There is a video from their museum of making a varafeldur shawl.  She helped write the book The Warp-Weighted Loom which is reviewed here.

Then there was a presentation by Dana MacPhee – Uist Wool mill in Grimsay.  I love this mill and would love to visit.

So now I am inspired to make one of these shawls although for now I will use my floor loom.  I found more information about making them from Reba Weaves and Robbie LaFleur.  I even ordered some wool warp yarn from The Weaving Works which is sadly going out of business. I am thinking about making two shawls with wool from my sheep: black one from my Shetland and Gotland cross sheep and a brown one from my Shetland sheep.   I am also inspired to try to read the Icelandic Sagas again.  I did watch the video of the first Yarns and Yarns event as well.

Yesterday I got my drum carder working again.  It had stopped working because the drive bands were old and stretched out.  So I ordered two more from Duncan Carders, and they arrived quickly.  I was able to replace them easily and was back in business.

I am carding my Shetland wools in hopes of making a tribute shawl for my beloved animals.  I have wanted to make a James Herriot scarf since I first saw it.

So I am thinking I can make a wider circular stranded scarf with sheep images made with the different shades from my animals.

So those are my wool dreams.

In car news, Tom sold his purple Dodge Challenger today.  We have not been using it, especially since we have the beagle.  So he wants to get something more practical and useful.  But it was sad saying goodbye today.

In other news, I made Lihapiirakka, Finnish meat pies for dinner.  I figured they would pair well with Kraken hockey.

Go Kracken!!!!

This entry was posted in Farm, History. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Wool Dreams And the End of a Car Era

  1. Denise says:

    that shawl looks amazing. will have to watch the video and find out more about the process. thanks for sharing- I’d not heard of the Yarns & Yarns thing before

    • Donna says:

      I think it looks incredible and I love the history. I had no idea about the strong connection between the Hebrides and Iceland. I didn’t know about the series either but they are only on the second one.

  2. Jeanne says:

    Hi, Donna,
    I enjoyed reading this post. I’m sorry that the the beautiful purple Dodge Challenger! The picture with Steve standing beside it, with his reflection on the side of the car, is perfect!
    Your drum carder looks like it’s quite large. It must be nice to have an electric one.

    • Donna says:

      I loved Steve’s reflection in the car as well! I wondered if part of him stayed with it. The drum carder is large, and the electricity is wonderful. I need to use it more and am focused on trying to do that. It looks identical to the ones they are still selling.

  3. Jeanne says:

    Ratz! I didn’t do a very good job on my comment. I hope you can make sense of it.

Leave a Reply