There is something about when it hits thirty below.   Any time I step outside I can’t help but think of Jack London - my child self reading “To Build A Fire” perhaps a bit young and dramatically envisioning myself freezing before I could make it home from the bus stop on windy winter days in the Helena Valley.  I can laugh at that now, and little Madeline not really knowing the difference between a few degrees below zero and really hitting the danger zone.   The weather the past few days has been something else.  Some of the coldest I’ve experienced here in Montana, even ou ..read more

It has been a whirlwind of a summer!  My vending season this year found me on the road all the way through the end of October.  Now, after being home for more than a week, doing some canning, having sorted and skirted the hoard of wool I’d gathered over the summer, and with the wood shed full I’m finally beginning to feel settled in again. And it’s a good thing too!  We had snow before Halloween for the first time in years and the chill of the season is also settling in.  Don’t get me wrong, I adore my wandering wool witch life, going on adventure, vending, teaching, learn ..read more

This past weekend was Earth Day, and I'm convinced that Spring may actually be coming.  While we still had chilly blustery weather here in NW Montana, the rain was kind enough to wait until after we'd had our Saturday adventure to start falling.  Julian, Runi (the pup) and I joined our local Tobacco Valley Direct Action group and spent the afternoon combing along the side of the highway for a stretch gathering trash and contemplating what could possibly inspire someone to toss junk out of their car while driving through such beautiful spaces. I was equally thinking of the positives ..read more

In 2017 I was lucky enough to get to attend the original Yarn & Yoga at the Hotsprings.  I was there by the grace of other people, my mother who gifted me the retreat, my spouse who encouraged me to go and took on extra work so I could go, co-workers who stepped up and allowed me time away.  When I think back on this event it feels to me a bit like an origin story for myself as I am today, and very much like an event that helped to launch my career in the wool. I was a relatively new spinner then, and at the time I had no idea who Kate Larson (the current editor of Spin Off Maga ..read more

Just look at all of this loveliness!  Look at the beautiful shine and that nice twist angle.  This is my newest millspun yarn, and the first batch of it that I've had done up myself instead of purchasing wholesale through another artist.  If you haven't ever sent off wool to a mill, this is a BIG DEAL for me, and I couldn't be happier with the results, and that I get to share them with all of you! This is 100% Romney wool, which made it easy to choose a mill to work with, LaVonne Stuckey of The Wool Mill , raises Romney sheep herself, so I was certain that I could lean on her e ..read more

I am very excited to finally be sharing this project with all of you.  It’s been a long time in the making, and longer time in me finding my way back to the dyepots for color, but the first (of hopefully many) round of it is here!  Montana Millspun Suffolk Sock Yarns! I co-designed these yarns with Tammy Jordan of Goldieknots MT when we discovered we had a similar vision for a sock yarn based within our own Fibershed.  Suffolk sheep are a good sturdy dual purpose breed, though they are mostly raised for meat around Montana.  Up near me they are the most common sheep that t ..read more

The seasons finally feel like they’re changing here in NW Montana.  With the equinox this past weekend (Happy Ostara to those who celebrated!) the giant ice slick in my back yard and driveway has finally relented its hold and transformed into giant mud bogs instead.  It will probably stay that way for most of April.  Nothing has started budding out up near us, but the Oregon grape is cheerfully green as ever without its snow cover, and the moss & lichens are beginning to fruit with the abundant moisture and temperatures above freezing during the day. We’re all soaking up a ..read more

Hello to you all, It all has been a whirlwind lately hasn’t it?  I’ve honestly been feeling like I say that so often in the past few years that it’s become my default greeting.  I know that it’s said that time moves more quickly as you get older, but it all seems like more than that. The world is full of tragedy, and senselessness, and in the midst of it all, so much beauty and hope.  It’s everything all at once over here. Thankfully in the midst of all of that there is wool, and the calmness that stitching and spinning brings with their meditative repetitions & textures. &n ..read more

 The Montana Fiber shed “Winter Mitt” Knit-A-Long will be having our first Zoom meeting in under a week!  I am so excited for this!  I am happy to   report that we’ve had several folks sign up, it should be a fun group.  Better still, in an effort to “get more Montana Wool in peoples’ hands” Carol of Steitzhof Merinos has offered a yarn scholarship.  (These folks are “local” to me in Montana terms - just about an hours drive south.  They raise beautiful natural colored merino sheep, & even brought home the Grand Champion trophy from Black Sheep Gathering ..read more

It’s nearly spring, and I’m back on the road again.  I’m back in Washington on the coast with my folks, and will be heading up to Tacoma later this week to take a few classes at the Red Alder Fiber Arts retreat.  If any of you are going to be around feel free to drop me an email and we can try to meet up and hit the market together.  I was feeling strongly that I needed a traditional wheel to take my classes on for this event, and to be able to pack with me on the train for future travels.  As much as I love my electric wheels, they’re not quite the same.   After quite ..read more