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.
…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)
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!
Just two weeks out and I’m trying to finish up several projects. Yesterday was a glorious fall day–we’ve had so many this year!–so I decided to work out in my dye studio. Also I had to finish up a special order hat. Aced it!!
Our annual studio tour here in Colrain Massachusetts will go mainly online this year, Saturday and Sunday, November 14th and 15th, from 10 am to 5 o’clock. And if you haven’t, be sure to go to the tour website at https://craftsofcolrain.com
HOWEVER, weather (and we’ve nearly always been lucky) and COVID restrictions permitting Moonshine Design at Keldaby Farm WILL BE OPEN for visitors. There will be baskets and baskets of socks set out under our tents!
A limited number of people will be allowed at a time into the studio to see the rest of our items. All the studio doors and windows will be open and everyone must be wearing a mask.
After a great deal of procrastination I have finally assembled a gallery of products that I make here at Keldaby. Although some of these specific items are still available, this series of photos is really meant to give you an idea of what I offer. Of course you know me, the colors are always changing. If you are interested in a specific piece or in a general category put it into a “Comment” or “Contact Form” and I will be happy to photograph what I currently have here in the studio.
Virtually all yarn used in these products is 65 percent Keldaby-raised mohair, 35 percent wool. Unless specified as hand spun, my yarn is mostly made at Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney VT. I do have to purchase the boucle yarns which I like to use interspersed throughout my pieces or as the weft; however, I always buy white and do all my own dyeing. I sell yarn here in my studio and at the shows we go to but it is possible to order from me if you don’t live in our area. Mill spun is $20 to $28 per 4 oz skein and has approximately 220 yards. Hand spun skeins are priced according to weight and composition but are generally $9 to $10 per oz.
The day begins very slowly. Jill doesn’t want to drive and no one else feels competent on these very narrow streets, my toe throbs and Michael wants to knit. When the rain finally stops however we venture out to explore the shops, many of them listed in the Crafts Trail booklet. Jill as usual wanders off and is soon lost to me and Lynn. Michael is where? We have no idea. We look at sweaters at Quernstone–beautiful but machine knit so we stroll out. We find a very nice North Ronaldsay sheep pelt (these are the sheep that live on seaweed and kelp mainly, at least on North Ronaldsay) and chat with the storekeeper and we find our way to the Harray Potter (not Harry or Hairy for that matter) which we have heard a lot about. We’re holding off on buying anything yet, just sizing up the many crafts. Lynn is yearning for an Orkney chair.
The wind is brisk and after a quick trip to the pier where I can get my email we head back to the cottage and after cooking up some of the Scottish bacon ( a far cry from our over salted version) we make BLTs for lunch. In the afternoon I beg Michael to attempt to teach me how to do the netzpatent knit pattern which I have watched other folks in our spinning group try to do without mistakes…or barring that level of perfection, learn how to unknit correctly. It’s not that difficult but it is incredibly hard for me to remember which row I am on. Here is the pattern. The yarn is North Ronaldsay wool from the Woolshed.
NETZPATENT
After casting on an even number of stitches, knit the foundation row on the wrong side: K 1 (YO sl 1, K 1) repeat to final stitch YO sl 1. Now the pattern begins:
Row 1 K 1 (K 2, sl 1) repeat to end YO sl 1
Row 2: K 1 (K 2 tog, YO sl 1) to last stitch, YO sl 1 This row requires a full counterclockwise wrap (a full circle) on the final stitch
Row 3: K 1 (K 1, sl 1, K 1) to final stitch YO sl 1 Be sure to K knit stitches & Sl slipped stitches!
Row 4: K 1 (YO sl 1, K 2 tog) to last stitch YO sl 1
Easy enough…and so easy to switch pattern in the middle of a row when distracted!!
Netzpatent
After an hour of this we decide to go out and explore the town leaving Michael behind in the peace and quiet. He is still trying to figure out why we can’t get WiFi. The password has been written on three separate stones left conveniently around the sitting room. We walk off the main street we live on–it is actually six streets more or less end to end, Ferry Rd, Victoria St, Dundas St, Alfred St, South End (we’re at #4) and Ness Rd–and walk up the hill.
Here is a view of the harbor looking off toward Hoy (the name means High Island)
Jill asks a couple of young mothers with their babies in prams what people do for work here in Stromness. There isn’t a lot. The fishing industry has collapsed as it has everywhere, there’s farming and tourism
There aren’t a lot of trees on Orkney so the rooks make use of those there are! Here’s one nest
Stromness loves its cats and they are all very friendly. This one looks like my Muizza
Jill and I make dinner. It hasn’t been a very exciting day and dinner isn’t very exciting either:
Frittata Stromness
2 large potatoes, sliced and parboiled, layered with
a large onion, sliced very thin
3 mildly hot peppers
a crumbled slice of bacon left over from lunch
1/2 a head of garlic sliced…all sauteed for about 10 minutes
6 eggs, well beaten poured over the vegetables, a bit of chili powder, herbes de Provence, salt & pepper
Cook covered an additional 5 minutes
Serve with a good bottle of Beringer’s 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon
After dinner it’s more Spite & Malice and this time Lynn is really on a roll. She wins all three games: in all three games I draw exactly four wild cards, not exactly winnable hands. Michael is stoic in defeat
A bright, sunshiny day, windy and no rain in the forecast. We head out early, north toward Birsay, watching our map which has all the studios and shops selling local crafts noted. Then we see a sign for the Barony Mill and we decide to check this out first.
It’s a lovely collection of farm buildings and the man who greets us is clearly happy to tell us all about grains and the milling process. We learn about the various grains in Orkney, especially the primitive form of barley called bere.. There are paper bags filled with barley, wheat, oats, bere and he asks us to identify each (we do fairly well) and then he takes us on a tour of the mill itself.
By the way the lower left bag contains the bere. Bere isn’t grown much now but had been the staple of Orcadian baked goods up through the 19th c. Jill buys a booklet of bere recipes and a bag of ground bere to bring back. The mill is about 150 years old–the building of it, especially the amount of wood which needed to be brought in, cost the family three generations to pay off–and is water powered. I get to open the sluice gate that starts the belts and then the various grindstones turning. Our guide explains the different gear ratios for each step of the process.
After we leave Barony Mill we head up to the village of Birsay, a rather rag-taggle place, wind-swept and very remote feeling. The ruins of Earl Robert’s mid 16th century palace (half-brother to Mary Queen of Scots and not a pleasant fellow) is here, much of it surrounded with scaffolding and some desultory reconstruction going on. His son Earl Patrick found the palace insufficient, abandoned it and built the more elaborate, more Renaissance palace in Kirkwall.
The kirk From there we drive out to the headland of Birsay and although we can look across to the Brough of Birsay on an island just a few hundred feet away, we can’t get there because the tide is high and the causeway is under water. We walk along the beach but it’s very windy so we sit in our Focus, eat our BLTs and Michael and I share an Orkney Dark Island beer. We will be back another day after we’ve checked the tide times.
At the Yellowbird Gallery, where following my own tenet that if you take up someone’s time in a shop you should then buy something, I acquire several cards, reproductions of larger prints. They (husband and wife) also make small ceramic “rocking robins”, lovely little birdlike forms that do indeed rock back and forth. Then we’re on to Fluke Jewellery (www.flukejewellery.com) where Jill buys a couple of silver charms for her granddaughter Fayley’s charm bracelet. Michael, who has previously found a tiny cowrie shell, learns from the artist that such shells are tokens of good luck. But what we are most interested in finding is The Woolshed where we meet Denise Dupres and where we know we will find yarns, roving and finished goods made from the North Ronaldsay seaweed-eating sheep.
The fleece is not particularly soft and there is a fair amount of kemp but nonetheless it makes very handsome sweaters. Jill buys a vest, Lynn and I each buy a sweater and a skein of rainbow-dyed yarn. (I know I’m going to need my sweater as the weather continues cool and windy even with all the layers I’ve brought with me.) Michael buys a kit with yarn and a pattern for a scarf and hat. We cut across the West Mainland and drive into Dounby where we find a cafe in the small local hotel and although we have had our BLTs , we stop in for a pick me upper.
Afternoon snack in Dounby where we find good coffee
Dounby
The coffee is good and the teenage boy who serves us bobs a little curtsy as he sets down the cups. Then we go across the street to the Dounby Butcher where we buy lamb chops and pork sausages from the owner’s farm. The farm turns out to be one we saw when we were at Skara Brae and we learn from a passerby who happens in that the shop has just been named “Best in Scotland” …the owner proudly shows her plaque to prove it.
The Dounby Butcher
We think this may be the herd belonging to the Dounby Butcher
Nearby is the Harray Potter studio where we meet up with the potter himself, Andrew Appleby, and see a much greater range of his work. Among his several styles he has studied the neolithic art very closely and incorporates many of these motifs into his pots, mugs, buttons. (www.applepot.co.uk) We also admire his chickens…
Back in Kirkwall we park again near the main shopping street and spend a lot of time in the Sheila Fleet Gallery (Jill orders a ring) and other shops. And finally on a more practical level we shop at the Tesco supermarket, finding everything we will need for the coming week. As guardian of the kitty (we had each put in 200 pounds) I find that after this foray into Tesco we have about half our joint account left. I must mention that although all of us are certainly familiar with sheep and cows and by now have seen thousands of ewes with their babies and cows with their calves we continue to ooh and aah every time we see more (which is all the time!). They are dotted everywhere in the landscape, often grazing around abandoned farmsteads.
Back in Stromness Michael and I go to the library because there are signs saying “Free WiFi” and a “Open 2 to 7 PM” the window…but inexplicably it has closed early.
Barony Mill Supreme
4 fresh pork sausages, sliced and fried in the wok, then set aside
1 chopped onion
2 sliced parsnips
3 large cloves garlic….sauteed together
1/2 head of savoy cabbage
2 Bramley apples (Granny Smiths would do) sliced
Combine all with rosemary, salt and pepper and cook until the cabbage and apples are slightly carmelised.
Serve with mashed potatoes and healthy dollops of butter and yogurt.
We had a very nice Chilano tempranilloand, while playing our usual Spite & Malice, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce (50:50 ratio of dark chocolate and yogurt).
