Wyoming Breezes

Fiber Guild members gather at Nancy J.'s house for a Christmas meeting approximately 2011 For years, the Fiber Guild met at Nancy J.'s house for its December meeting. Many times, members would bring a wrapped skein of yarn for a gift exchange. Often Nancy would organize some musical entertainment. One year, several of the Riverton ladies performed  attempted to perform Christmas carols accompanied with Boom Whackers ; another year, one of Nancy's piano students entertained the members. Santa even showed up one year with treats for those in attendance. Refreshments often included mulled cider, an egg casserole, and Julie W.'s  famous cranberry coffee cake. Gradually, the group outgrew Nancy's house, and we met in larger venues. To give you an idea of what Boom Whackers sound like, here's a video for your enjoyment. The Riverton ladies had a lot of fun playing the Boom Whackers, but we spent more time laughing than actually playing.

Nancy's 100% cashmere sweater December 2017 At the December meeting of the Fremont Fiber Arts Guild, interested members exchanged thrifted, wool sweaters for an Upcycle Challenge. You can read about the challenge and see the before photos in this post . The package I selected contained a 100% black cashmere sweater with a white stripe down the front and at the bottom.  I've been procrastinating, and decided last week that I needed to just get it done. Since Sue had some difficulty felting the cashmere vest she received in the swap, I knew it would require several cycles in the wash. I put the vest in a pillowcase and pinned the top because I'd read lint from the item would be a problem, added some towels and liquid dish soap.  I stopped and started the wash cycle three times, to keep the felting process active. I added some boiling water to the washer in the second wash because I doubted the water temperature was hot enough to felt. Once I thought the sweater was f...

Cinde P. plans a Fiber Retreat at Togwotee Lodge twice a year when the Lodge is officially closed (between seasons) in November and April. This year's November retreat was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I considered going to the retreat in the past, but life always seemed to get in the way. Sue asked me a couple of weeks ago if I wanted to go with her for just the day - Saturday. I agreed. WYDOT webcam of Togwotee Pass Friday, November 4, 2017 Then Thursday it began to snow in the mountains, it continued to snow on Friday, and on Saturday, the snow was still falling.  The roads looked pretty dicey on the WYDOT webcams and. . . Togwotee Mountain Lodge webcam Thursday, November 3, 2017 the webcam at the Lodge didn't look any better.  I've lived in Wyoming nearly all my life and have driven in some nasty conditions during the winter, so I tend to avoid being out on the roads when they look like this. The weather report for Saturday predicted even more snow on th...

sock yarn and tea After the tour of the woolen mill on Saturday, we drove north to Sheridan, WY to visit The Fiber House , a wonderful yarn shop, stuffed with luscious yarn. With great difficulty, I kept my stash enhancement limited to one fun-colored skein of sock yarn. The tea from Mystic Monks Coffee  - also located in Wyoming - was purchased at the woolen mill. More information about the monks can be found here . To help break up the three-hour road trip, we played games on the bus (thank you, Sara for this idea). I selected a skein of sock yarn (big surprise, right?) and a cute box to store knitting notions from the prize bag. The trip was enjoyable - I did some knitting, chatted with friends, learned a great deal about the processing wool into yarn,  and saw a lot of Wyoming through the windows of the bus.

Mountain Meadow Woolen Mill  is one of the few mills that processes wool from the raw fleece to the finished product of roving or yarn.  Saturday, I joined several Guild members for a three-hour bus trip to the Mountain Meadow Woolen Mill in Buffalo, WY.  We ventured over the Big Horn mountains and encountered snow on the summit, but once we arrived in Buffalo, the roads were dry and the air crisp. The mill is small but inclusive: they process from fleece to yarn in the large warehouse building. I hope you enjoy seeing the photos from the trip.  Guild members began the mill tour by learning some of the background on how and why the mill was started ten years ago. Mountain Meadow Woolen Mill,  Buffalo, WY September 16, 2017 The skirting process was explained  Ben explained how the skirting process not only removes vegetable matter but also short cuts that can occur during shearing  wool grease is a by-product of the scouri...

Latch Hook Wool Roving Chair Pad class Fiber Guild Spring Retreat May 2017 (click collage to enlarge) The afternoon class at the annual Fiber Guild Spring Retreat was a wool roving chair pad. The woman who taught the class has made numerous pads and brought them to Guild meetings for show and tell. We finally convinced her to teach a class. The base of the pad is latch-hook canvas, and the pad is constructed with a crochet hook and wool roving. Working the roving and the crochet hook through the doubled edge was tricky and somewhat difficult. After the edge was covered with roving, the process went much faster for everyone. I got about three rows finished on my pad. More to come as it progresses, but it may be awhile so don't hold your breath.

Annual Fiber Guild Spring Retreat dyeing wool with Kool-Aid and food coloring May 2017 (click collage to enlarge images) I had a great time at the Guild's annual spring retreat earlier this month. The morning class was dyeing wool yarn with Kool-Aid and food coloring. The Guild purchased all the supplies and paid the instructors, but the class was free. I had a great time. The class gave me the confidence that I needed to jump in and try the process. I've been wanting to do this for ages. I had some off-white wool that I reclaimed years ago and took two skeins to the class. skeins of wool that I dyed in the class Top - the skein provided - 100% wool Middle and bottom skeins are reclaimed wool  85% wool and 15% mohair The instructors had seven large crock pots available for steaming or stewing the yarn. I chose to use the same technique for all three skeins - hand-painting. Others in the class dyed in a bowl in the crockpots as well as using Mason jars for ...