In my constant search for a local yarn shop, I recently visited Yarnologist and Whimsical Wool Gallery. These two new shops relatively close to me both opened in April, 2024. When I got back from Europe, I visited both in the same week, so it was easy to compare them. I’ll start with Whimsical Wool …
From Knit Bits
Rust Belt Fibershed
I recently attended at talk by the organizer of the Rust Belt Fibershed, sponsored by the Central Ohio Weaving and Fiberarts Guild. I joined the Guild in 2022 and manage to get to one or two meetings a year, usually when they have speakers I want to hear. Living sustainably is important to me, although …
2023 Weaving: A Little Loomy
Although the name of this post is 2023 Weaving, I am going to cover the last 18 months of weaving because I haven’t written much about it for a while. I have been very busy weaving a variety of things with one ambitious project and lots of the same old thing. Last year, when Tom …
2023 Knitting Update
This is my 2023 knitting update, although I haven’t really been knitting enough to have much of an update. This summer, especially, was a bad time for knitting. I usually knit when I am watching television and we went four months without television. Which meant four months with only a couple of national park hats …
Autumn Fiber Festival in Mansfield, Ohio
The third weekend in October is the Autumn Fiber Festival in Mansfield, Ohio. Despite its proximity to my parents, I had never been to the Autumn Fiber Festival. The last couple of years we went to the Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Wooster, but I missed that this year. I needed some roving – I …
Processing Flax from Plant to Linen
I have been practicing processing flax during my time here at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. My focus in doing Colonial Living History is textiles and I have a detailed talk from my time at Fort Frederica. But here at Cumberland Gap I have been able to do some hands on experimenting in processing flax. …
Knitting the National Parks by Nancy Bates
During our time at Fort Frederica National Monument I enjoyed knitting hats from the book “Knitting the National Parks” by Nancy Bates. My friend, Chris Ferlinc, gave me the book for my birthday and I really got into it while I was working at a National Park site. As soon as we got to Fort …
Colonial Towels for Sale at Fort Frederica
This year at Fort Frederica National Monument was the year of the colonial towels. Last year the bookstore manager, Ellen Provenzano, started selling some of the towels that I wove while I was demonstrating living history. I only gave her ten towels, but they sold so well that she let me know, before I even …
Ranger Jamieson Learns to Weave
During the two months I have been at Fort Frederica National Monument, Ranger Jamieson has been learning to weave. Ranger Jamieson is a young ranger who is trained as an archaeologist. She was hired at Fort Frederica to work with the archaeology program. But she really enjoys the living history program as well and has …
Yesterdays Ewes Yarn Shop in London, Ohio
In my continuing quest to find a great local yarn shop near me, I visited Yesterdays Ewes in London, Ohio. London is about halfway between Westerville and Dayton, so it isn’t really close. It is too far to go for a regular knit night or to grab a ball of yarn. But if I can …