A couple of weeks ago my husband and I ventured to the Traverse City area for a little 'birthday get-away'. Although it was HIS birthday that we were celebrating, he so graciously planned a trip to Stonehedge Fiber Mill in East Jordan. It was a cold and snowy trip, we were very grateful that we were driving the truck this particular weekend.
As we turned onto Pesek Road we were distracted by a vehicle pulling a wagon load of round hay bales and totally missed the Stonehedge sign. That's why it's easy to say 'if you blink, you'll miss it!'. We ended up calling them to get ourselves back on track and gleefully arrived at the very quaint family farm in just a few short minutes.
The gigantic piles of snow hid a lot from our view, I knew instantly that we'd have to return again in the spring. Debbie immediately came out to greet us and happily shoveled the path to the retail shop door.
What a delight when we walked inside!
This tiny little shop was filled with beautiful yarn! The Shepherds Wool yarn lined one wall in an array of magnificent colors. I spotted one that I just had to have but there was only one skein left. Thankfully we were only a few steps from the mill and she had more on hand that had just come in from their dyer. After much deliberation and considerable control I settled on three skeins of the putty, a beautiful skein of light gold and a skein of sock yarn.
Isn't it beautiful!
In the shop the sock yarn looked like milk chocolate, but this picture tells the truth, it's more like plum.
Wonderfully soft merino yarn.
So, why did we make the trip all the way to East Jordan on such a cold and blustery day? We had heard that the Stonehedge Fiber Mill was approached by Ralph Lauren to furnish 4,000 lbs. of yarn for the awesome sweaters that all of our Olympians wore in Sochi. Ralph Lauren designed the sweater, and all the yarn came from this small 157 year old, family owned farm, in the small northern town of East Jordan, Michigan. I find that just amazing!
I borrowed this picture from their website depicting 'feeding time' on the farm.
We were so blessed to be treated like old friends. Debbie even took time to show us around with a tour through the fiber mill. I noticed this box of colorful yarn and asked about it. She indicated that they used to make this yarn with mill ends but it became so popular they actually manufacture it on purpose now!
So, a couple days ago I started a project with this amazing Shepherds Wool yarn. It's called the Guernsey Wrap. The three skeins of neutral yarn, at 250 yards per skein, will do nicely to tackle this wrap. I'll be sure to share the finished project.
Many yarn shops around Michigan sell this yarn. Look for it, you won't be disappointed!
Thanks for visiting today, I hope you learned an interesting fact about our great state!
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