I have been working with wool for 3 years. I dove deep after joining a reenactment group and taught myself to nalbind through the internet. My search for affordable wool to nalbind, brought me to sourcing local raw fleece. I learned to skirt, wash, card and spin wool in order to nalbind. It's a long process, but on the way I have fallen in love with every part of it; from start to finish. The one year one outfit challenge was a great opportunity to challenge myself even more.

Yoke Sweater:

I went to Prairie’s Edge Wool Farm to pick a Shetland fleece for my upcoming sweater. It was quite eventful, since the brakes on my van decided to seize up and I had to stop in at a mechanics in les des Chênes. My husband had to pick us up (I had my baby and preschooler with me) and we headed over to the farm. It was fun to see the sheep and great to meet Barb! I picked a fleece, and of course some mohair too.

I separated the colours before washing because I knew I wanted to use the colours separately for a sweater. This beautiful fleece had gray, brown, light gray and white!

I also incorporated a shiny metallic gray Romney wool that I got from Spirit Sands Shepherds.

After skirting, washing, carding and spinning, it was time to pick a pattern for the sweater. After a long search on Etsy for a pattern, and having a hard time deciding, I came to this beautiful and simple crochet yoke sweater. I was nervous to make mistakes, as this was my first time making a sweater and first time following an actual pattern! I hadn't crocheted in almost 20 years, but picked it up again for these projects.

Cross body bag:

The design was really simple since I wanted to use the local wool that was too coarse for a garment (the charcoal gray). I made a tablet woven band for the strap using the same rideau/arcott wool and rideau/ Finn as the bag. I sourced my raw fleece from Sandy Ridge Sheep.

Toque:

I made the toque from the rideau/ Finn for the white, and rideau/ arcott for the charcoal gray accents. I stretched myself by learning to crochet ribbing and learn the waffle stitch. I made a puffy pompom with the same yarn, and gently carded the tips to give it a fluffy appearance.