SWANS ISLAND BLANKETS

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Winter 2010

Interior Thoughts
We often talk about the Maine community that informs our aesthetic and the products we create. If this wasn’t real it would be a cliché but it is real; the daily rhythm of life here. Debbie Chatfield is a Rockport designer who innovates starting from classic styles. She has become a good friend and when she took on a project to create a decorator show house for next summer’s Camden/Rockport Garden tour, she paid us a visit. Deb is doing the showcase living room in the house at the corner of High and Harbor Streets, and in addition to custom dyed blankets, throws and pillows, we agreed to dye and weave fabric for a designed chair Deb is making. This is a departure for us, one we never would have embarked upon had Deb not volunteered for this project. We’ll let you know how the new fabric works: maybe this will become a new medium for our decorator collaborations.

Photo Reality
Deb did not visit us alone. She was with a wonderful photographer and great friend of Swans Island: local artist Sarah Szwajkos. Sarah has done product shots for us before and her keen eye always shows us things we hadn’t known were there, even in products we have hand woven ourselves. For ten years, Sarah has been photographing people’s homes for her project “Personal Space – Photographic Portraits of Private Places.”

In her own words: “I take my camera and observe on other people’s spaces. They give their permission, and I enter when they are not there…What we bring into our lives, and how we arrange our space…reveal some of our basic creative urges." Thus do the strands of community weave connections amongst its constituents, connections of mutuality and remembrance.

Knitter’s Review of Swans Island Yarns
Many of our friends and customers know that we have launched a new line of organic merino yarns dyed right here in Maine just like the yarn we use to weave all our products. As always we are moving gradually: we want to do things right, not fast. We were pleasantly surprised to see a wonderful review of the yarns written by Clara Parks in Knitter’s Review, excerpts follow:

“A certain mythology exists around Swans Island Blankets. They are lovingly hand-woven mostly from the fleeces of Maine-raised Corriedale sheep. A while back, Swans Island Blankets added certified organic Merino to its lineup, using the fine wool fibers to make softer, lighter-weight throws and baby blankets…Until recently, you could only purchase a finished Swans Island product. All that changed this year when Swans Island started skeining its organic Merino and offering it to the handknitting market. The merino yarn is currently available in two weights: fingering and worsted….

In an era of $6 wool yarns, I can understand how a $30 price tag could put off a lot of people-especially if they hear that the organic Swans Island Merino…is imported from South America…No sufficiently large domestic organic Merino flock exists…yet. The other cause for a higher price tag is the dyeing itself. The materials required for natural dyeing-things like indigo, cochineal, weld, madder root, and osage-cost a lot more than their synthetic counterparts.

But do keep in mind the yardage here. Each worsted-weight skein has 250 yards in it, and the fingering weight skeins have a whopping 580 yards…If you want to go all the way, a medium sized woman’s sweater would need about 1500 yards, or 6 skeins. That’d set you back $180. Considering its gorgeous natural colors, easy knitting, and surprisingly good wear, I’d trust this yarn for that kind of investment.”

Thanks and please visit us next time you are in Maine.

Bill Laurita for Swans Island

Past Newsletters
Spring 2010
Winter 2010
Fall 2009
Summer 2009
Spring 2009
Winter 2009
Fall 2008
Summer 2008
Spring 2008