A Mill in Mora
We usually pass through Mora, New Mexico, very early in the morning on our way home from the Taos Wool Festival. For the first time this year, I drove through Mora at exactly the right time to visit the tantalizing Tapetes de Lana (Carpets of Wool) gallery.
The walls of this large gallery are lined with hand-woven rugs, looms stand along one of the room, and the center is filled with hanks of yarn and handcrafts made by people who live around Mora.
Most of the rugs are woven in the subtle colors of natural wools and naturally-dyed wools. They looked timeless and elegant, but I was drawn to a rug in stripes of bright red, forest green, and yellow. The lady who was minding the gallery said with a smile, “That rug is made of acrylic yarn. Some of our ladies still prefer to shop at Walmart for their supplies.” I didn’t mind–sometimes I buy yarn at Walmart, too. And the colors–wow!
The gallery lady was Carla (she didn’t give me her last name), the founder of this non-profit organization. Tapetes de Lana and its associated mill help small ranches to bring their wool, mohair, and alpaca to the market. In addition, local craftsmen can sell their work in the gallery.
Carla offered to show me and two other customers around the mill. It was built within the last few years, from the ground up, with funding from a grant. The mill sometimes buys fiber from small ranches, but it also does custom millwork.
Our tour started just outside the door, where employees skirt the fleeces, picking away the badly soiled or felted areas. Inside we saw mechanical pickers which separate and loosen the fleeces, washing vats, and a tumble dryer that takes its own sweet time, spinning at one half revolution per minute (1/2 rpm).
The carder was at least 20 feet long and 8 feet wide, with multiple drums ranging from very coarse to very fine. It produced ropes of roving, which were fed into the spinning machine. The industrial plying machine was mesmerizing. I could have stood there watching it for a long time.
I think all the equipment in the mill was second-hand. The carder came from the bankruptcy sale of a well-known mill in North Carolina. Some other equipment was handed down from Brown Sheep Company, after they upgraded their mill in Nebraska. Go to the Tapetes web site to see pictures of this amazing collection.
“You must be very proud to know that you are responsible for all this,” I said to Carla when the tour was over.
“It was exciting at first, but then it turned into a lot of work,” said Carla. She looks forward to a day when it isn’t quite so intense, when everyone doesn’t have to multitask so much.
That day may come soon. Carla and her colleagues are developing a yarn that they hope yarn stores will want to stock. In the meantime, they sell small runs of yarn in the gallery, including special blends like alpaca/merino.
The lure of the shop’s soft alpaca blend yarns was strong, but the natural sheen of this indigo-dyed and natural Cotswold wool yarn was too much for me to resist.
If you’re driving on Highway 518 in New Mexico, I hope you’ll stop by Tapetes de Lana and the Mora Valley Spinning Mill. Or if you would like to buy or retail some unique yarns from fiber produced by small-business ranchers, please contact the Mill at:
Tapetes de Lana and the Mora Valley Spinning Mill
Highway 518, Junction 434
P O Box 1135
Mora, NM 87732
November 2009 CAL: Poppies Again
A member of the Crochet Bouquet Along group on Ravelry writes:
…I saw a wonderful crocheted flower and had to ask where it was from, turns out to be a pattern of yours and i would love to join this group and make one myself(with help!) x (the flower was a oriental poppy and looked quite hard to do?)
The Poppy on pp. 65-66 of Crochet Bouquet is more involved than many of the other flowers in the book, but if you break it into small steps, it’s definitely achievable.
The secrets of the Poppy’s success are:
- The padding threads introduced in Round 5, which we use to gather the petals, and
- The finishing touches for the Poppy center.
First, be sure the yarns you use for the center and the petals are the same weight. The center of an Oriental Poppy is usually dark or black. The petals are normally orange, pink, white, or red. You can use whatever colors you want!
So let’s start with the Poppy center. In the dark color, you make a chain loop. Round 1 is formed simply with single crochets into the chain loop as per the instructions.
In Round 2, you sc into the sts of Round 1, including six chain-3 spaces placed evenly around. In this photo you see Rounds 1 and 2 all done. The bumps are chain-3 spaces.
In Round 3, each chain-3 space from Round 2 has 12 stitches in it. It can get very crowded in that little chain-3 space, but just keep pushing the stitches back until you have room for all of them. These lobes are the beginning of the petals.
Between each lobe, make a single crochet stitch all the way down into the original ring.
The second photo shows Round 3 all finished. It ends with a needle join. Once you learn the needle join (shown on page 14 of Crochet Bouquet), you will want to use it all the time! It makes a lovely, bump-less join for any round of crochet.
I used a double strand of Cedifra’s Angora Merino (25g = 118m) with a size H (US) crochet hook for this Poppy center. Check back in a day or two for Rounds 4 and 5 of the Poppy.
Irish Crochet Lace at Taos
The second day of our Irish Crochet class at the Taos Wool Festival, I waited, seemingly innocently, until everyone left for lunch. Once I was certain they were all gone, I tiptoed around and took pictures of a few of the class samples.
At this point, we had sewn our motifs (made on the first day) to a fabric foundation. Then we bagan crocheting the background that fills in the spaces between the motifs, as well as joining them.
Making Irish Crochet motifs is fun, because they’re so beautiful. Many people, including myself, are not quite so happy about working the crochet background between the motifs. It’s kind of free-form. I usually have to take rows out and re-crochet them several times before I like them.
Luckily, practice makes even the most uncomfortable task easier. Now I just have to finish my own sample. I have a special mantra for times like this: “Begin. Keep going until you’re finished–¦ keep going until you’re finished–¦ No, don’t get up and get a snack–¦ keep going until you’re finished–¦ ”
An Easy Crocheted Poppy
This simple crocheted poppy is none other than the large “Fancy Five” on page 24 of Crochet Bouquet. While not exactly botanically correct, it gets the idea across.
If you want a more realistic poppy, try the one on pages 65-66 of Crochet Bouquet. The pattern is more involved, but well worth the time.
You will need
- Crochet Bouquet
- scraps of red and black yarn of the same weight
- a crochet hook appropriate for the size of yarn you are using (see pages 9-10 for guidance)
- a yard of metallic gold thread
- a round, black button for the flower center
- tapestry needle, thread to sew on button
- With black yarn, crochet Rnd 1 of Large Fancy Five. Cut thread after the end of the round.
- Join red yarn and work this corrected Rnd 2: *Ch 3, (slst-picot, tr, slst-picot) in same st as join, (tr, slst-picot, tr, slst-picot) in next st, (tr, slst-picot, ch 3, sl st) in next st, ch 1, sc in ch-3 space, ch 1, sl st in next tr. Repeat from * 4 more times (5 petals with 5 slst-picots each). Fasten off.
- Darn in ends.
- With metallic yarn, make three long stitches from the flower center toward the edge of each black “petal” as shown in photo.
- Sew button at center of flower.
Seveness at Stitches Midwest
Stitches Midwest was relaxed and pleasant at the Schaumburg Convention Center. The market was smaller than at other Stitches events, but the yarns and books and tools were just as tempting.
By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, everyone was tired and suffering from information overload. It was the perfect time for Seveness Knitting–a class where we prepare our pattern by flipping a coin, and then we knit.
Seveness stands for “Suzann’s Sensational Similar Shade Scrap Stripe System,” which uses up scraps of yarn without looking like a scrap project. A former student said, “It’s like you’re creating a luxury fabric.” Well put!
Our Stitches Midwest class did such a great job, I’m thrilled to show you every single swatch they knitted.
A Winner at the Taos Wool Festival
Stephanie Hatfield designed, knitted, and crocheted the garment that became the Grand Champion ribbon winner in the Taos Wool Festival Garment Competition.
The jacket, called “Reverie” after a poem by Emily Dickinson, glowed with the soft colors of bison wool yarn. The crocheted and knitted details keep the eye of the beholder coming back for more.
I am pleased and proud to tell you that the yoke of Stephanie’s jacket was covered with flowers and leaves from Crochet Bouquet. What a thrill it was to see the familiar Plain Pansy, Columbine, and Round Compound Leaves as embellishment on this masterwork.
Congratulations, Stephanie! And congratulations again! (She won the Reserve Grand Champion ribbon, too.)
Seveness at Stitches Midwest
Stitches Midwest was relaxed and pleasant at the Schaumburg Convention Center. The market was smaller than at other Stitches events, but the yarns and books and tools were just as tempting.
By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, everyone was tired and suffering from information overload. It was the perfect time for Seveness Knitting—a class where we prepare our pattern by flipping a coin, and then we knit.
Seveness stands for “Suzann’s Sensational Similar Shade Scrap Stripe System,” which uses up scraps of yarn without looking like a scrap project. A former student said, “It’s like you’re creating a luxury fabric.” Well put!
Our Stitches Midwest class did such a great job, I’m thrilled to show you every single swatch they knitted.
Vintage Flower Fabric
Being a fan of flower fabric, I was happy to find this vintage pattern book, Doily Bouquet (Star Book No. 71, by American Thread Company).
The doily at the top right is made of flowers crocheted separately at first, and apparently joined as they are made.
For my own flower fabric, like the Roses Poncho (close-up below), I crochet all the flowers separately, pin them to a template, and sew them together with sewing thread.
I chuckled when I read the doily instructions. The designer obviously assumed some intelligence on the part of the crocheter, which is not so common nowadays:
“Work a 2nd daisy same as 1st daisy, joining it to 1st daisy as illustrated.”
Illustrated where? The only illustrations in the book are photos of the doilies. You’re on your own to figure out how to join the flowers.
I think it’s good for crocheters and other crafters to figure things out on their own. You have to think. You have to try various options to find the best one. The more you are forced to figure things out on your own, the more you improve as a crocheter.
That’s how crochet designers, teachers, and writers are made. Hurray!
Buttoning Up the Red Sweater Renovation
Stitches Midwest is next week! My friend Gail Hughes will be there with her wonderful buttons. Please stop by her booth. It’s a feast for the eyes!
This reminds me that I never showed you the final stage of the Red Sweater Renovation. It was the most fun stage, because I got to go through Gail’s buttons and choose the best one for the project. They were all great, with their completely different looks. I especially like the ones with gold sparkles.
I settled on the ones below–they’re not the boldest, but once you notice them camouflaged on the red sweater, you can’t take your eyes off them. Spots are the best!
Inspiration May Be Anywhere
What do you do, when you’re visiting Austin, Texas, and you’ve already had breakfast and it’s hours too early to shop or go to the library?
You visit the Texas Capitol, of course! It’s open early and late (hours here).
When your money is limited, the Capitol is a great place to go with friends or a date. If you go at night, you don’t even have to pay for parking, but I have to say that parking the Capitol Visitors’ parking garage is a bargain.
We walked all around the building, inside and out, enjoying the cooler morning temperatures and the light of the eastern sun on the pink granite walls.
We climbed as far as we could into the dome (only three floors) and looked down upon the terrazzo floor. We marveled at the fancy architecture of this beautiful and beautifully-restored building.
In our wanderings, we came across a hallway where rows of chairs were stored against the walls. Five of them had needlepoint seats featuring Texas wildflowers. I have to share, because they’re so pretty, and it’s something you don’t normally see in the course of a visit to the Capitol.
When I was working on Crochet Bouquet, the wildflowers of Texas were a great inspiration to me. The “Fire Wheel” (pp. 83-84) is a Texas roadside flower that I knew as “Indian Blanket.”
Have a look at the last picture of this post, and see how the needlepoint designer interpreted the Fire Wheel. Three Fire Wheels are close to the lower edge, barely to the right of center, one on top of the other–round, red flowers with yellow tips on the petals.
Decorative arts inspired me as well: embroidery, flowery chinaware, tin boxes with flowers on them, carvings, even wrapping paper. I love to see how other designers translate the essence of the flower to wood or stone, or to the flat surfaces of fabric, metal, or porcelain.
So there you have it. Inspiration may be anywhere–even, apparently, under the bottoms-of-state!
