My knitting group decided that we wanted to do a fall yarn tour. Back in the spring a number of the knitters spent the day touring local yarn shops and there was some talk of repeating that until Lucy came up with a better idea. We would contact Gretchen, a local farmer who sells her yarn at the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market, and see if she’d let us come out to her farm.

Lucy dropped Gretchen a line and the three of us worked out details. Gretchen said that Solitude would be at a Loudon County farmers’ market in Leesburg on Saturday morning. Would we like to come to the market to buy some yarn and then join her at the farm afterwards?

Why, yes, yes we would.

Despite rising at 6:30 on Saturday (to take Rudi out to a fellow cyclist’s home to carpool out to his ride so I could use the car), I was still late leaving the house, which meant that Sarah and I arrived in Leesburg a bit after the others.

We bought some yarn — pretty yarn — and I added soap for a swap, Leicester cheese, a raspberry scone, and a loaf of bread to my haul.

After purchasing sandwiches at a nearby shop, we hopped in the cars and caravanned out to Round Hill, Virginia, a tiny village in the western outskirts of Loudon County. The hills were ablaze with orange and yellow, although maybe a week still from peak color. Obama matched McCain yard sign for yard sign. And the sun shone down on us brilliantly, which leads me to think Mother Nature is a knitter and wholly approved of our plan to visit the farm. Gretchen and her partner Joan were waiting for us.

We ate and chatted, and Gretchen shared details about the farm and about the business of making and selling yarn.

Joan yanked some chard stems for us to feed to the goats. We learned that goats are a lot like little kids. If one has licked something, none of the others want it.

One goat was in heat.

She was not enjoying life.

We also met sheep. Gretchen and Joan raise Romneys, which are a long-wool breed good both for wool and for meat. Fall is breeding season, so some of their flock was elsewhere, but we got to meet a number of the sheep.

The young ewes were shy and refused to venture close enough for us to feed them.

Two year-old rams did come when Joan called for them, however, and one let me scratch his chest.

[I’m unclear as to where the rest of the original post went. Obviously I must not have hit save. Grrrph!]

After we had adequate time to spend with the livestock, Gretchen pulled out fleeces and let us pet each of them. She talked to us about different breeds of sheep and how they differ from one another and why one might pick one type of wool over another in a project.

Then Gretchen gave us a tour of her farmhouse and showed us her looms and yarns. She also broke out the binder that had her notes on her naturally dyed fibers and talked some about dyes and mordants (the substances you apply to wool/fiber to make the dye adhere to it). She flipped through the book to show us how applying a comfrey-based dye to a yarn coated with alum was different from one treated with tin or chrome, and what each would do to the color (and then how sunlight could affect that).

After that we were back out to the garage for a dyeing demonstration. Ana’s son, Ryan, wanted apple-colored yarn, so Gretchen started with green dye and then added orange, purple, and red. The yarn made a superb canvas.

I think it’s pretty. Don’t you?

Lucy, Sarah, and I took the long, traffic-ridden route home, which reminded all of us why we don’t particularly care for Virginia. But our trip to Solitude will long stand out in our memories as one of the hidden gems the state has to offer.

Solitude mostly sells at local festivals and at the Dupont Circle Freshfarms Market on many Sundays. Gretchen, will, however, send yarn out in the mail if you contact her through her site, so if you live far away, I’d suggest having a look. Gretchen and her business partner Sue work hard to collect wool from small family farmers around the area to help keep them in business. The business is a fledgling one and Gretchen was proud to note that they will not be taking a loss for the third year in a row. But, as neither she nor Sue collect a salary, we’d all like to see them sell even more yarn, roving, and fleece so that they can afford to keep operating.

My full Flickr set of the farm visit is here.