This summer we went to the Camden, Maine area for a long weekend vacation.  We saw some lighthouses, walked along the beach, shopped, kayaked, and of course, I fit in some knitting by the campfire.

While wandering through downtown Camden, I turned a corner and walked right into Swan’s Island!  I’ve seen their yarns before in my LYS and heard their story on the Woolful podcast.  They have gorgeous hand woven items along with beautiful yarns.  There weren’t a ton of yarns in that shop, but I found sweater’s worth that made me smile.

As I was checking out, they mentioned that their studio was just a few miles north of where we were.  So, of course we made time to go visit.  The looms weren’t running that day, but I got to see them.  I also saw the beautiful colors in the dyeing room and the amazing ladies doing the finishing work upstairs.

The retail part of that shop had displays of many of their beautiful fabrics, and much more yarn than in the smaller Camden shop.  Plus, I found the sale room!  They had seconds that were just amazing.  So, I had to grab another sweater’s worth of yarn…  This time I’m planning to design my own garment out of it.

All this exposure to weaving finally broke my resolve not to get into another fiber craft.  On the way home we stopped at Halcyon Yarn and started to look at different types of looms available.  I was with my woodworker-husband, so we decided that he would make me a loom instead.  We got some yarn and a rigid heddle, and he is designing the rest.  Watch for a future blog on that topic.