Yesterday we (Maisie and all) traveled to Clearwater, NE, to spend some time with MareLee at Prairie Threads. We’d visited once before, and had a blast, but this time we were more intentional with planning our time, and it was even more fun!
First of all, this shop? In a cute house in a little town, Prairie Threads is full of quality yarn, spinning fiber and tools. But the real star is MareLee herself. She’s been doing fiber arts for decades, and she’s had an answer for every question I’ve thrown at her so far. [I’m already plotting more occasions to pepper her with queries.]
Since it’s such a long drive (2 hours one way), we’ve thus far made it a habit to call ahead when we’re planning to visit. And this time, we did more than that; we asked for some instructional time. I was able to dye with her, experimenting with several different methods and tools than I’ve used in the past, and Paul finally got to try his hand at felting.
Picture time?
I dyed three items, 2 skeins of yarn and a length of combed top:
The yarn I dyed (this and the green) is fingering weight sock yarn, 50 percent superwash merino, 25 percent bamboo and 25 percent nylon. It has 459 yards in each 100 gram skein.
Look, it is green!
Mmm, wool.
None of the things I dyed came out exactly like I wanted them, but I had fun and I learned quite a bit, too. So all in all, a success.
I also came home with some other, ahem, stash enhancement. I’ll just show you a couple of the new additions:
This is hand painted by MareLee, 100 percent wool, single ply, and such great color!
I had never seen Brown Sheep's lace weight yarn before. This skein is huge! Its 170 grams provide 1500 yards of 75 percent wool, 25 percent nylon. The color, Deep Plum, is gorgeous, too.
I just love playing with color, it’s so vital to me! I hope I can get back to Clearwater soon. Do you like taking day trips?
