{"id":387,"date":"2016-03-14T17:58:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/?p=387"},"modified":"2016-03-23T17:03:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T17:03:09","slug":"honoring-sarah-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/?p=387","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Sarah Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

During Maine Maple Weekend (March 26 and 27), we will be featuring a display of fiber products from Sarah Miller. \u00a0Please join us to honor her work as a fiber artist.<\/p>\n

\"Ellie<\/p>\n

About ten years ago, we went to the Miller Farm in Livermore, Maine where they had raised sheep for many years.\u00a0 We heard they had Corriedale sheep, a breed that we like a lot.<\/p>\n

At that time we met Sarah Miller, who designed and sold \u201cOh Wow” mittens and mitten kits using Bartlett yarns. We were taken to her walk in closet full of Bartlett yarn.\u00a0 The Millers sent their wool to be processed into yarn with wool from other Maine farms at Bartlett.<\/p>\n

That day I bought a kit and made a pair, which were on display in our store (before the Tesseract was built). True to the name of the mittens, everyone who tried on these mittens soon exclaimed \u201cOh Wow\u201d because the mittens are lined with very soft merino roving, knitted in such a way that little hearts show on the outside.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah
Sarah Miller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier this year I learned that Sarah Miller, who died several years ago, had left a closet full of yarn, mitten kits, and hand designed knitted sweaters and vests that the family was hoping to sell so as to be put to good use. \u00a0\u00a0I learned that she was a retired chemical engineer, who was a prolific knitter and enjoyed many hours of designing sweaters as well as mittens and hats.<\/p>\n

In Robin Hansen\u2019s book, \u201cUltimate Mittens,\u201d she is featured as the designer of wind block mittens with snug and ribbed cuffs.\u00a0 Sarah tested the mittens on a windy day in 1993 when the weatherman said the wind chill factor was minus 40 degrees F.\u00a0 As a spinner and sheep farmer she had much to say about the quality of the Maine wool that goes into them.\"IMG_4282\"<\/p>\n

I remembered seeing Sarah knitting a pair of mittens when we visited her, and was reminded that she had knitted hundreds of pairs of mittens. That day we brought bags and bins of yarn, sweaters and mitten kits back to the farm store to sell on consignment.\u00a0 We talked about Honoring Sarah Miller on the occasion of Maine Maple Weekend.<\/p>\n

For Maine Maple Weekend we are creating a Sarah Miller corner in the Tesseract where we are featuring several pairs of her mittens, hats, sweaters and vests, as well as\u00a0 \u201cOh Wow\u201d mitten kits and Bartlett yarns in her favorite colors.<\/p>\n

\"mary<\/p>\n

Robin Miller, her daughter-in-law, wrote the following note about Sarah\u2019s years as a knitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cSarah was truly an amazing knitter.\u00a0 She had nearly 70 years experience with knitting!\u00a0 She used to knit argyle socks for the soldiers in WW2.\u00a0 I put together memory boxes for the 4 “kids” for Christmas from “stuff” I found that belonged to her and George.\u00a0 Argyle socks she and his sister Martha had made for him were among the treasures.<\/p>\n

When she was teaching me to knit she almost never had me fix mistakes – just repeat them so they became part of a unique pattern.\u00a0 She herself was unique that way.\u00a0 I miss her.\u00a0 This experience of cleaning out is bittersweet.<\/p>\n

We don’t need all this yarn and it’s great to have you help us find good homes for it.\u00a0 This is really about honoring her in some way that validates her work.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"jan<\/p>\n

This past week our Tuesday Knitters modeled the sweaters and vests, which really do look nice on someone.\u00a0 Perhaps you would like to come try one or two on yourself.\u00a0 Maybe one of Sarah Miller\u2019s knits is perfect for you to enjoy on cold winter days and cool spring and fall evenings.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps you would rather purchase a mitten kit that includes everything needed to make wonderful wind block mittens, so good on a day that is well below zero.\u00a0 They knit up quickly and, if you know how to do Fair Isle knitting, are really quite easy to make. The pattern includes directions for child sizes as well as small, medium and large mittens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During Maine Maple Weekend (March 26 and 27), we will be featuring a display of fiber products from Sarah Miller. \u00a0Please join us to honor her work as a fiber artist. About ten years ago, we went to the Miller Farm in Livermore, Maine where they had raised sheep for many years.\u00a0 We heard they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,13],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-event","tag-maine-maple-weekend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awrinkleinthymefarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}