Knitting | Wool from Five Green Acres

I am not a knitter. I just want to get that out of the way before I begin today's post. But after spending four days in the woods with knitters of all walks at the Squam Arts Workshops, I've decided to try my hand. A lovely roommate sat down one night with me and showed me how to cast on, knit, purl and correct my crappy work. Thank you, friend.

I also came home from Squam with one beautiful aqua hued skein of wool from my friend Mary Jo, a sheep whisperer and homesteader who hails from Wisconsin. You can find her blogging at Five Green Acres. Her wool is exquisite and was the sole inspiration for my current knitting project. It's a cowl. There is no pattern. I just made it up as I went. Here are the results...

How did this lovely length of wool come to be? Well... Mary Jo plays midwife to her yews. Then she raises them, shears them, cleans the wool, dyes the wool, spins the wool and then sells it in a lovely bundle to you. She's a ground-up kind of girl, that Mary Jo. It's astonishing, really. Check out her impeccable handiwork below...

And here is Mary Jo and her family on their homestead in Wisconsin...

If you're interested in knitting while at the same time time laughing your ass off, you should definitely pick up any book written by the talented Stephanie Pearl McPhee, also known in knitting circles as the Yarn Harlot. You won't be sorry.