There is one major announcement you are not going want to miss!  Our buzzreel is complete and available!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD_-dfKohwQ&feature=y…

We are working on a series of shorts but for now this is the essence of what we are doing, there is of course room for improvement, but it feels incredibly satisfying to have this out there, like there is a reason Tyler and I jumped off the cliff and whoa-ho look at that, the parachute opened! We’ve not landed yet!

I decided to take the blog to another level this time with the addition of a short video cast.  And I know the quality of the picture is bleck, so here’s a tip don’t click the full screen button! I did not want technology to stifle the momentum however so onward and outward to you.  I, with the help of my dear husband, am working on a variety of solutions…lets hope the marriage survives.

In this episode there is a little mix of Fiber Trek progress as well as knitting.  I also talk about a few yarns and continually make a silly face, is it a twitch? I don’t know but its there and with any luck your computer won’t freeze at just the right moment to capture it as a still!

Yarn Links:

Blacker Yarns (I say in the podcast she is in Wales but in fact she is in Cornwall, England.)

Upton Yarns

Starcroft Fiber

SeaColors

Mary Jane Mucklestone

Where you can find us:

Instagram: Fibertrektv

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/FiberTrek/151314518282844

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FiberTrek

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/fiber-trek

Patterns:

Marin by Ysolda Teague

Such a Winter’s Day by Heidi Kirrmaier

I can be a sap, so this little story may not be surprising to some, those who know me. Those who know me know that roadkill can make me cry. Pretty much the drop of a hat, especially if it concerns ANIMAL RESCUE, will make my eyes well with tears, my nose turn red, and instigate an overwhelming moment where I know I am being silly but really can’t help myself.  But this story concerns none of those triggers…no roadkill, no dog in need of rescue, no family with a child with special needs overcoming great challenges, no I thought I was in the safe zone because this story, concerns a knitting podcast.

I know, I know!  But here’s the thing…and it’s going to sound sappy…but touché right?  I love knitting. I love yarn. I love talking about yarn, researching yarn and generally collecting yarn, same goes for fiber for spinning. You get the picture, I love the fiber arts, we’re flying the geek flag high here folks! Needless to say, I was an unsuspecting victim in this incident.  I just wanted to get my ski done and listen to a podcast while doing it.  And did I happen to tell you it’s cold, like 5 degrees cold on this day with pretty gnarly windchills? This is not a day to be crying outside.  You see where this is going.

I dialed up the Yarniacs Podcast episode 55, an interview with Jeanne Carver of Imperial Stock Ranch.  Now if you have read my post, Soulful Stash, you’ll remember that I have strong attachments to yarn and place. In fact, it is the major impotence for Fiber Trek.  In this interview with Jeanne she expounds upon cultivating both her sheep and their products as well as the landscape of the ranch. She draws beautiful connections between the fiber and the land and in a way  describes the sheep as a conduit through which we can harvest sunlight.  Now, that is serious stuff.  So serious that even as the wind blew the skin off my face, I started to cry.

As this interview unfolded, as I skied along the ridge overlooking the lake and the mountain, my landscape, I attempted to wipe away frozen tears with my mittens. I thought about those mittens, my home-reared, homespun, handknit mittens and just nodded my head in amazement and continued to cry like a right nana.

I didn’t see anyone out there that day which is just as well.  There is something about frozen “verklempt” that is frantically scary. Suffice it to say, I was not crying about yarn, of course, in this story but you already knew that. You knew I was inspired.  I was inspired by Jeanne’s commitment to landscape, her place knowledge, her allegiance to something greater like sunlight and salmon (you have to listen to get this reference). Her description throughout this interview of the process on the ranch progressed my craft beyond it’s existing boundaries and further strengthened my commitment to place-based yarns.  I absolutely love the idea of harvesting sunlight. I like it so much that from now on instead of stashing yarn & fiber, I will be gathering sunlight instead. This is concept no one can argue with and really can there be too much sunlight?  Should you be living in Maine right now, you’d think not.  So get gathering, bring it on home, every last ray and beam.  Stockpile it away for a rainy day, because they will come and you know what?  You’ll be able to dash upstairs, into closets, bins and baskets and pull forth- sun.

Windschief knit with Imperial Yarn

I am sure this conversation will be continued but for now, I am knitting with a little Maine sun in the form of lovely Romney from Log Cabin Lamb & Wool. It will soon be transformed in to Such A Winter’s Day by Heidi Kirrmaier.  I plan to be very warm and happy in a sweater of sunlight.

I know there needs to be Fiber in the Fiber Trek blog, but with this initial introduction to the world, I felt like a recap might be helpful for those interested just joining us. As Fraulein Maria says…”let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start” (I know you can hear Julie Andrews singing right now!).

The story really starts with white water rafting, northern Maine and a marriage.   I married Rob, a Baxter State Park Ranger, and moved to T3 Indian Purchase in 2010.  A year later I found myself working for an outfitter coordinating guest experiences in environmental education and outdoor skills. Part of my project development was an internship program, enter Tyler.  The first day that Tyler and I met we drove up the Penobscot River in the pouring rain. He was interested in interning in the rafting world and utilizing his media skill.  I figured I better show the river where most of our summer activities take place.  In our exploration of particular rapids etc…we both got soaking wet…sopping, soaking, wet. And if you know me at all…there is nothing better to talk about then the properties of wool when you are sopping, soaking wet and freezing.  I commented on Tyler entire cotton ensemble including socks and launched in to my “why wool is always better” speech.  It is not hard to make the leap on how Tyler and I came to talking about textiles and the possibility of pooling our talent to film a TV show dedicated to exemplifying the textile world and landscape of said world.  That was the first day we met.  Three years later, we are still committed even though the universe has thrown us a few beautiful curve balls. Our conversation last week consisted of some pretty technical planning but at the end of it, the basic gist was “we’re going for it”.  Tentativeness, fear, judgment, failure…ahhhh, they can take the sideline right now. We decided to play ball with hope, potential and belief.  And since Fraulein Maria is one of my hero’s I will leave with you her take on uncertainty: You can replace  (I with We and Me with US)

Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries If I don’t I just know I’ll turn back I must dream of the things I am seeking I am seeking the courage I lack

The courage to serve them with reliance Face my mistakes without defiance Show them I’m worthy And while I show them I’ll show me

So, let them bring on all their problems I’ll do better than my best I have confidence they’ll put me to the test But I’ll make them see I have confidence in me

It tells me all I trust I lead my heart to All I trust becomes my own I have confidence in confidence alone (Oh help!) I have confidence in confidence alone Besides which you see I have confidence in me!

I have found myself wandering of late, not far, nor exotic, more like here and there, back and forth etc…little trips home to my parents or a brief fishing weekend at Grand Lake Stream, Maine; a jaunt into a remote cabin in the Maine North Woods, not to mention the upcoming 10 day wilderness, canoe trip my husband has planned for our anniversary. Well, these sojourns have me thinking, thinking about wilderness and craft.  All of these trips attest to the fact, that indeed, I participate in wildcraft.  Now, when I hear wildcraft woven baskets and bone handled knives come to mind.  Typically associated with plants, foraging, gathering, picking… this is wildcraft, and sometimes I participate in this tradition as well, but for the most part I have devised a new definition for myself.

Wildcraft for me has come  to mean enjoying the outdoors, untamed spaces, nature whilst also managing my deep craft of knitting, and after my most recent trip into the wilds of Maine, I am affirmed that knitting is the ideal craft to take with me. 

I began as a shepherdess, and soon found myself knitting.  It stuck..so did the sheep!  From there, I moved to spinning, felting, sewing and finally embroidery, all of which I still do and enjoy immensely.  But knitting…well knitting somehow manages to stay at the forefront, of all craft I do.  It goes anywhere  and can be crafted any place, across the borders, on planes, on the trail, in the canoe, and in my case a lot of times, next to the stream or pool that my husband has found to fish. 

While it can be a bit fiddly, depending on the project, hauling out my wool does not have plague me with certain mishap as, say, my embroidery.  I know I need not go on about the attributes of wool here, but for a cowgirl knitter like myself, I love the resilience and ease of care that wool can afford…even when it is dropped in Chamberlain Lake. 

I know I am a bit biased but when I think about packing my embroidery and taking it on a canoe trip in to Northern Maine’s Allagash Waterway…yeesh, little needles, bits of thread, scissors..dirt, ash, rain, these things challenge me.  But throw in my pack a set of needles and some wool, it feels reasonable and natural to have accompany the fireside evening.  I am not inclined to pack roving or top, a drop spindle or my spinning wheel for that matter.  I like the portability of a project on needles which can be bound in some plastic or linen bag and be ready to go, hauled out anywhere and, really, in my experience only be that much more enhanced by journey.

The beauty of this affirmation is we do not have to agree. Wildcraft is all in the management of our supplies and our tools.  It is the landscape we choose to craft in and our own definition of wildscape.  Sometimes I find my wildscape on my couch with black bears watching me from the French doors, most of the time though my wildscape means packs, skis, canoes and no running water.  Whatever your wildscape, whatever your wildcraft, be wild, find wildness…and craft away.  

This Christmas holiday I received a number of books…this does not bode well for the knitter.  I am often posed with that dilemma, finding time in my day for both. I do not mean a few pages here and a few rows there, I mean the investment of time it takes to commit to a project or book, I want that kind of time.  So, in my latest novel, I blended my two passions. 

I am collector, connosieur, absolute fanatic for young adult fiction.  I rarely make my way in to adult fiction, dwelling on the prephiery of non-fiction and dabbling with fantasy.  I find adult fiction a little too…I don’t know… real, depressing, I honestly don’t know what. I have my odd go around with it. I read a few this year but really, when I want a good book you’ll find me in young adult. 

This in mind, over the past ten years I have searched for titles that deal with the fiber world both in young adult and children’s literature. This could include dyeing, spinning, weaving etc…Well, I got another book this year for my collection and I thought it would be fun to share with you a few of my favorites.  If you can spare a few rows or bobbins make some time this year to check out these titles.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

East by Edith Pattou

And for the adult in us….

Daughter of the Forest by Julliet Marillier

 My partner/director/editor asked me tonight, very plainly, “what is the essence of Fiber Trek? What is it you want people to know, the mission?”  Hmmmmm?  Good question. 

It is at this moment when I would turn to my little black dog and say “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”  Ya know, in Kansas (metaphorically) everything is pretty simple; we go to the farm. We look at the sheep. We look at the process. We look at the yarn.  Simple.  But alas, words like essence and mission, well them..them there are fighting words, tornado words, words that move us right up the funnel of thought and contemplation.  
Luckily, when the storm finally abates, typically if we have taken the time, we find ourselves exactly where we should be, home.  So, I am in the process of going home, tap, tap, tap, tappin’ away my ruby skeins, and putting some muscle in to my thoughts.  
So here is where I am right now, and I guess I have a little black dog to thank…

Fiber Trek conjures up for me words and while I am in the midst of the tornado, if you will, I will simply pass them along as such for your consideration.  Fiber Trek is about relationships. It’s about the network we find ourselves in when we chose to take up the needles, the spindle, and the lamb.  It is about beauty…good ol’ fashion eye candy…looking out on landscape, color, texture, and creativity.  Here in the funnel, I think there are traces of ecology, biology and natural history.  I feel the pull of cultural history, stories and the process…the process of death and birth, sickness and health, for better or worse. There are elements of spirit here, here in this windy mind of mine.  

I hope you stay with us as we ride out this storm, ride it right out of Kansas and back again..ride it to Chile, Norway, the Falklands and beyond all the meanwhile tapping our ruby skeins together knowing we are always home…

I am employing a short and sweet strategy this time around as my husband and I are getting ready to embark on an epic roadtrek to florida.  We have the dogsitter organized, snacks, and a selection of music and books on tape.  I am frantic with keeping up my day jobs and fiber related escapades not to mention my projects but somehow I am looking forward to the road,time and miles ticking away with nothing to do but just listen, knit and be with my man.  I know, I know the driving, the sitting, the traffic..I am sure that will catch up with me and I will be cursing my way through Hartford but for now…I am thinking about early mornings, gas station coffee, The Smokey Mountains, and car picnics. 

I told you I would post a few shots of my sweater project for my buddy who reconstructed the Land Rover.  Here it is.  It’s been squirrled away though…awaiting early morning gas station coffee, awaiting its first glimpse of the Smokey’s and happy to be trekking.  The furthers I have ever taken a knitting project was to Churchill ,Manitoba. How about you?

Cherrio for now…

It’s coming and I cannot contain myself!  The Laverne to my Shirley, the Lenny to my Squiggy, my land rover is coming home on Saturday after a three year overhaul hiatus!  But Striker sure is a beaut…mint chip green ~sigh!  I bought this truck during a possessed Anglophile moment that has since progressed.  I needed a little help along the way and started to trade knitted garments for mechanical assistance.  

Deconstructed on original 71 frame

One new truck frame later, all new brake lines, perfectly patched bulkhead and a new horn, this rig is ready to assist me and Tyler on our lastest project.  It might take a while to get where we going but that is half the journey! 

Rover Rebuillt on a Galvanized Frame

Curious to know what my Rover Guru is getting for this project?  Stay tuned for pics but I can tell you I bought the yarn from Nanne Kennedy of Meadow Croft Farm, SeaColors and I am knitting Staghorn from A Fine Fleece by Lisa Llyod…can’t wait for my upcoming road trip to Florida, you can bet I’ll be knitting and trekking!