Here at Keldaby we raise the beautiful, gentle and shyly friendly angora goats that provide Moonshine Design with the cloudsoft and highly lustrous mohair used in our fine selection of hand dyed, hand woven goods. Wrap yourself in a throw, toss a scarf or shawl around your shoulders or luxuriate in our fabulous ruanas. Step back to a more romantic era in a Western Isles hood. Discover the magic of mohair socks dyed in every color of the rainbow.
This is my second attempt to add photos of my watercolors. The previous–a “page” not a “post”–seems to be inaccessible and I wonder if I will ever comprehend how to do this! So I’m just going to go ahead a create a new post and hope it can be found easily. Most of these watercolors can be purchased and many are available as 5 x 7 cards.
Summer at KeldabyBlue Moon Night
Here are scenes of Colrain followed by some of Sicily, some of Orkney and finally a few of Oaxaca where I visited this past May. More–and older–watercolors can be found at Adventures in Watercolor.
Peaceable Hill FarmSnowy DayOrange Ball: Up Franklin HillM’s PlaceFirst BaptistBill’s Garden
Just a Memory Now Siracusa HarborMoonrise Over the Ring of BrodgarOaxaca Street with IsabelleBright StorefrontsMuseum of Culture
Our annual Crafts of Colrain Studio Tour is almost here! It would be great if our fabulous October colors and warm days would last until Veterans Day weekend—too much to hope for, but we can’t wait to see you soon!!
NOVEMBER 12th AND 13th 10 TO 4 o’clock
Here are a couple of news items:
This is the LAST year we will be selling our wonderful mohair socks. I know this will be a blow—and an incentive, perhaps—to many of you. Our supplier has retired and there are NO substitutes that I am willing to sell. These socks were always the best!
I also have several pieces of equipment I would like to sell:
A 36 inch Leclerc Artisat loom (4 harness) with a sectional beam, bench, tension box and warping board (which of course does not pertain when doing sectional warping but I’m throwing it in.) $1000. The same loom, new, is $2220
An Ashford 7 or 8 inch drum carder $300 (8 inch new is $675)
…since I last wrote here! First a nod, no, a curtsey to the late Queen. And God save the King! Seventy years ago when she assumed the throne I received a letter from a friend of my Mom consoling me on the death of my Dad (hers, much older of course, had just died as well) and sending me many souvenir booklets and cards, which I still have, from the coronation. Eight years later my Mom and I were in Bath and the Queen Mother walked by with her retinue no more than eight feet from us. These are some of my bona fides for my anglophilism!
AND, after two years of trying to get back to Orkney and the stone cottage in Stromness, we five–Lynn, Jill, Jen and Orkney-newbie and longtime friend Susan–will be boarding our flight to the UK! I do intend to write a daily blog as I have in the past (never did quite complete the one from 2019) though it won’t get published until we’re back unless I can figure out how to do it on my Kindle. So, stay tuned!
BUT, more importantly, we are getting ready for the 19th Crafts of Colrain Studio Tour (Veterans Day weekend, 12th and 13th November) as well as our 2nd Crafts of Colrain Pop-up Show (8th and 9th October) on State Street, Buckland side of Shelburne Falls. And here’s an advisory for you legions of mohair sock lovers, this is the last year–barring a miracle–these beautiful hand-dyed socks will be available!!
Hats, hats, hats!Nuno scarfThrowsJapanese braid on ruanaRuanaThrow, 56 x 72Back of mobiusAnd finally, and for the last time, socks!
Come visit us here at Keldaby this Sat or Sun, Nov 13th–14th, 10 to 4 o’clock. Two of my best friends, Jen Kapitulik from Rag Hill Farm (upper left hand image) and Inge Jockers (lower right hand image) will be right here at Keldaby. Park once, visit three of us here–and then walk down Heath Road to our neighbor Tony Palumbo to visit his gallery and see his latest work.
During the weekend I know I will be asked at least once, probably more often, “How long does it take you to make a _____?” So finding myself just 10 days ago without any ruanas in my studio, I decided to actually learn the answer to this perennial query. The bottom line: It’s a labor of love!! The quick answer is that when weaving a run of six ruanas, one ruana takes seven hours. There’s a certain economy of scale here; it would take nearly as long to dress the loom for one as for six. But if you’re interested here’s my breakdown of the time I spent over the past week and a half:
10-12 hours to design the warp, fill the bobbins and dress the loom (wrapping the yarn on the sectional beam, threading the heddles, sleying the reed and tying on to the back beam)
3 1/2 hours to weave each ruana; that is, if there are no major screw-ups!
3-3 1/2 hours to tie the fringes on all six pieces
Next comes washing (a very gentle fulling of the fabric) and trimming the fringes
1 1/2 hours to measure the 96 4-yd lengths of yarn needed to create the six kumihimo braids that will support the neck of each ruana
1-1 1/4 hours to make the braids for each piece
And another 1/2 hour to sew the braid on and sew in a label
All this adds up to about 42 hours, hence my estimate of seven hours apiece.
I have also been busy knitting hats–here’s just one
Visitors also often ask, “But my cat (or my dog) will ruin these pieces.” No, not unless they are truly demonic! Mohair is a very resilient and durable fabric. Don’t forget, it has long been used for military dress uniforms and for upholstery, especially for theaters as it is fire resistant.
This message has been approved by Tommaso (left) and Elli (right)
I have been busy–at last–at the loom. Here are my newest throws. Below these are photos of the run I made back in January when I was already sick and tired of winter–it doesn’t take long! These were woven on a mainly undyed (both white and grey) warp. These make perfect wedding gifts as they will go well with nearly any color theme.
Green 2
So here is the earlier run of throws–bright, happy throws in warm cuddly colors. These are real morale boosters! Here are some shots of them.
So this is the time of the year when nothing appeals more to me than knitting a new hat or…
…just plunging into watercolors. Here are a few of my new ones.
Colrain barn going down………………….a Conway barn…………………………………………and a farm on Rt 116
And of course dreaming of when we will be able to travel again. Our next Orkney trip, scheduled for this May, has been postponed until May 2022–but we already have our cottage reserved in Stromness! The anticipation and planning will give us lots of pleasure this coming year…….
Today I began to arrange my studio so visitors will be able to come here safely and spend time properly distanced! I spent part of the afternoon tying up dozens of pairs of socks which will be set up in baskets under the two tents leaving plenty of room inside for everyone to look at the rest of my items. And I am hurrying to finish one last hat–it’s a beauty–before Saturday morning. The goats were shorn last week during our lovely late Indian Summer days and will have enough fleece grown back before the really cold weather arrives.
Here they are just before shearing
If you are planning to visit the farm this weekend I recommend that you arrive by 3 in the afternoon. Keldaby Farm lies below Catamount Hill–a feature we failed to notice when we were buying the farm–and the sun is already sinking below our horizon by 4 o’clock this time of the year.
I’ll finish this hat tomorrow. Look at these beautiful ringlets from our little flock of colored Angoras
Too bad it wasn’t the weekend for the CRAFTS OF COLRAIN TOUR but it was a time for getting so much accomplished in the dye studio. I spent two full days in the beautiful Indian Summer weather dyeing mainly yarn but also quite a few socks. And here’s the proof!
I can’t wait to weave these yarns into throws and shawls. And knit with them too. And of course, I do sell the yarn, which is made for us at the Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney VT –65 percent our mohair, 35 percent wool, both single and two-ply–as well.
Fenris, our perfect Keeshond
and our crazy terrier-corgi Elli
Our super friendly pooches are ready to greet you!
What a spectacular day today has been!! Bright blue sky, gentle breezes and prospects for a happier future. I am already planning how I will set up under my tents so everyone will have plenty of space for social distancing because we’re just one week away from our CRAFTS OF COLRAIN STUDIO TOUR–oh please, Lady Luck, let next weekend will be as beautiful as this one! I decided to take a few photographs of my latest work, several nuno-felted scarves. As you probably know already, this is the process of felting wool and mohair onto silk, creating one pattern on the front and an entirely different design and look on the back. Here are my three new scarves:
