Yarn School Part 2 – Day 2

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Important Note: This is another series of blog posts where, when the events described within were transpiring, we did not take notes, and so here I am, thousands of years later, attempting to give context to images that, while able to trigger fragments of memories, act as an incomplete picture of the story. Sure enough, we should have been tending to these things without fail, but little did we understand the value of revisiting milestones later in life. And so, without that proverbial further ado, here we go into a murky past.

Ideas of me heading out after breakfast to photograph the surrounding landscape were dashed as I was quickly drawn into grabbing some photos, and before I knew it, I’d been at Yarn School all day. Here we go into the events of the day…

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

This is the Fiber Prep lab down in the gym with about half the students present; the others are upstairs in the old science lab but more of that in a bit.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Spinning drum carders are like drugs to me as I get lost in the psychedelic blurred colors flowing in and out of these medieval spiked torture devices. Serious harm would come to the person who accidentally sticks their hand into the way of these spikes. Fortunately, the women here have more sense than us guys, who’d just have to try for themselves if it really hurt, while they, on the other hand, only feed fiber into these toothy contraptions that align fibers to make batts from which yarn is spun.

Caroline Wise at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Another way to prep fibers for spinning is using hand cards, as is being done here.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Yet another way to prepare fibers for spinning is combing. While hand cards function like flat paddle brushes, wool combs have enormous teeth. That round disk with a hole in the middle is a diz and is used to pull the fiber off the comb in a manageable long roving.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

I jumped upstairs to check in with Group A, working the Dye Lab session.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

These are the fruits of dying fiber. It will be Caroline’s turn after our lunch field trip.

Caroline Wise at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Well, this is special. For those of us with cars, we loaded them up and drove to a nearby farm called Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow in Eskridge.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

It’s pretty cool what Nikol is organizing here in Harveyville and the surrounding area. By bringing us to the farm where a bunch of harvested alpaca fiber, yarn, and other related things were offered for sale and arranging to have the hosts provide us lunch, Nikol is sharing the money from our attendance with the community, thus boosting her local economy.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

This is where the Harveyville Project takes place, here at the old high school.

Caroline Wise at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

I can’t explain this “frisky” look of Caroline, and I don’t trust it.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

While Group B is now in the Dye Lab I go wandering around and see this drying rack of fiber that is destined to be spun into yarn.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Old crackpots are perfect for dyeing this stuff, or so I’m told.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Back downstairs to photograph the action down there; these are rolags made from hand cards.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

To facilitate faster drying of the dyed fiber, they’ve been moved outside.

Caroline Wise at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

She must have known earlier and had planned for this moment, hence the frisky look above. NO, Caroline, you will NOT be examining me today.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Hmm, the “art” of hand-dyeing doesn’t look that difficult to me. Just poor some Kool-aid-looking cups of colored water on a bunch of fibers and poof, dyed yarn.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Enough of the Grandpa Wise humor; this stuff is beautiful.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Out on the Great Plains with a clothesline chock full of brightly colored rovings, waving fields of wheat, some dark clouds in the background bringing a tornado, and life is perfect here in Kansas on this fine spring day.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Card the fiber, dye the fiber, spin the fiber, and soon you, too, can be knitting me a pair of socks.

Caroline Wise at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

After dinner, everyone gets together in the gym to practice what they’d like to do or just hang out and socialize. Tomorrow, I just know I’ll break away and focus on the beautiful countryside that is all around us.

Yarn School Part 2 – Day 1

Flying out of Phoenix, Arizona

Important Note: This is another series of blog posts where, when the events described within were transpiring, we did not take notes, and so here I am, thousands of years later, attempting to give context to images that, while able to trigger fragments of memories, act as an incomplete picture of the story. Sure enough, we should have been tending to these things without fail, but little did we understand the value of revisiting milestones later in life. And so, without that proverbial further ado, here we go into a murky past.

We’re on a bird, we’re in a plane, nope, we are self-powered flying humans flapping our arms to travel to places far away.

Steak & Catfish Barn off Interstate 35 in Oklahoma

Is this a deja vu? It might be; seems like we were just recently here at the Steak & Catfish Barn off Interstate 35 north of Oklahoma City.

Caroline Wise at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Ah, it all makes sense now with the flying and deja vu; we are already back in Harveyville, Kansas, for the spring session of Yarn School hosted by Nikol Lohr. Learn more and attend one of these great workshops by visiting The Harveyville Project.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

It was just seven months ago that we were here in this tiny corner of the middle of America, but as Caroline is still learning the art and craft of making yarn, we felt that it wouldn’t hurt to try advancing those skills with a return visit.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

It all feels so familiar: the gym, the social studies classroom we stayed at back in September, some of the instructors, Nikol’s husband Ron, and a small town that offers the sense that we are somewhere authentic and appropriate for such an endeavor.

Sarah and Adrian at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

On the left is Sarah Ivy Kincaid, and on the right is Adrian Bizilia; they are two of the instructors who will hopefully advance Caroline’s skills over the next few days. Adrian is still running her “Hello Yarn” fiber club, which allows spinners to subscribe to monthly packages of scrumptious roving dyed in lovely colors. As for me, I’m back for photos of the surrounding area and some documentation of what the wife will be doing here.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas – Day 4

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Important Note: This is another series of blog posts where, when the events described within were transpiring, we did not take notes, and so here I am, thousands of years later, attempting to give context to images that, while able to trigger fragments of memories, act as an incomplete picture of the story. Sure enough, we should have been tending to these things without fail, but little did we understand the value of revisiting milestones later in life. And so, without that proverbial further ado, here we go into a murky past.

The graduating class of 2007 “Fall Edition” of Yarn School, as organized by the Harveyville Project, is seen here in all of its “Bad Ass Women of Crafting” glory. I ended up spending more time among these curious women than I thought I would, which elicited the question from a few of them, “What did you think of this experience?” My answer went something like, “I’m floored at the openness and sharing of not only the instructors but of those with complementary skills regarding the fiber arts world. From my world of tech, I’m mostly used to chest-beating secretive bragging of a bunch of alpha males that would never share anything that might help someone else without a financial component.”

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

This is why we wear clothes as women have historically created, evolved, and worked the tools used for making fabric; well, that’s what anthropologists have come to believe, and it sounds good to me.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

What would a three-and-a-half-day workshop be without swag? T-shirts and tote bags were part of the haul.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

These are the t-shirts I mentioned and to complete the return to high school sense of things, lockers had been assigned to each participant to store things they didn’t need at every juncture.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

This was our room in Social Sciences, which included a chalkboard behind me that we never used as we were too busy to pay much attention.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Finally, this was Blake, our person in the kitchen who prepared our many meals, often vegetarian or vegan. As for the toad, I can’t tell you anything at all about it, but I’ll take a stab at suggesting it was an Eastern narrow-mouthed version of the species.

Caroline Wise and John entering Oklahoma

As you can guess from this photo, we are leaving Kansas after an incredibly satisfying journey into something new.

Sunset in Oklahoma

While not represented photographically, we turned our 4-hour drive into a full half-day affair by stopping here, there, and everywhere.

Strange signs roadside in Oklahoma

In our meandering trek back to Oklahoma City for tomorrow morning’s flight, we were stopped by undecipherable crazy registered on this massive steel structure, airing grievances we couldn’t understand. This “used” to be on Highway 64 before entering Perry, meaning that in the intervening 14 years since we passed through, the signs were torn down due to road improvements.

Sunset in Oklahoma

A last stop at the Steak & Catfish Barn because it was that good, followed by this spectacular glow of the last moments of sunset. Our motel was another non-descript, super cheap, nearly embarrassing excuse for lodging, but what the heck, it helps us afford these kinds of amazing adventures.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas – Day 3

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Important Note: This is another series of blog posts where, when the events described within were transpiring, we did not take notes, and so here I am, thousands of years later, attempting to give context to images that, while able to trigger fragments of memories, act as an incomplete picture of the story. Sure enough, we should have been tending to these things without fail, but little did we understand the value of revisiting milestones later in life. And so, without that proverbial further ado, here we go into a murky past.

It’s uneven and a bit lumpy, but Caroline has succeeded in spinning some primitive yarn. A drop spindle is a great tool to understand how the fibers come together. A spinning wheel requires a lot more coordination between the hands that hold the fiber and the feet that control the speed of the whole operation. Let me fast-forward here a bit as after we returned to Arizona, Caroline agreed that it would be interesting enough to buy her own wheel, but like all new hobbies, she felt like a klutz because she couldn’t find her rhythm. Guilt for spending a lot of money on something she might not be able to master was dealing her a negative hand. I believe it was towards the end of the year in 2007, when I was collecting a bunch of birthday gifts for her 40th and was frequently visiting a yarn store in Mesa, that I learned that there were people who could tutor her about using her new Fricke spinning wheel. It took this little nudge for her to find her rhythm with the wheel, which led to us visiting Yarn School again in 2008.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

While my memory is likely rusty, Caroline’s is certainly finely tuned, and it will be up to her to confirm or deny if I’m correct in stating that I believe this is the result of the roving she dyed the day before.

Caroline Wise in Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Carding is the process of aligning fibers which is a requirement allowing them to be spun. The device Caroline is using is known as a drum carder, and it wouldn’t be long before we had one at home. It turns out that combs can also be used and for spinning, one needn’t buy a pricey wheel. A “drop spindle” can also get the job done, but this isn’t a class in how to make yarn just a recounting of those days we were both learning a lot more about this craft than we’d previously known.

Harveyville, Kansas

So I’m not just looming over Caroline (did you pick up on my pun?), I took a drive out in yet another direction, this time taking me to Burlingame, Kansas.

Harveyville, Kansas

From the dearth of photos, I guess I’d have to admit I wasn’t all that inspired out here today. I had to include this grain silo as, for some reason or other, I have a soft spot that draws me to these superstructures dispersed across the American landscape.

Harveyville, Kansas

No old cars here, no weed, no lake, river, pond, or sign of a tornado.

Caroline Wise in Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Back at school, I spy this nerdy girl looking all cute and invite her out for some tortoise racing. Caroline was ready for a break after struggling all day with her transition from spindle to wheel.

Harveyville, Kansas

But my tortoise was shy, so I asked if she’d like to ride my goat.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

She agreed but the goat resisted, uttering in goat-ese that its legs were too short.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Fluffy bunny insisted there weren’t wings hidden deep in its fur and so our fantasy of flying away wasn’t going to work.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Then I saw this gorgeous bunny and nearly lost sight of the nerdy girl because who wouldn’t fall in love with this bundle of cuddles? Maybe “love” is too strong, as I’m not one to insinuate some kind of bestial attraction, so I’ll change this to “enchanted.” The Pygora goats and Angora bunnies were brought to the Yarn School students by local breeders. They patiently answered everyone’s questions about these somewhat unusual fiber animals.

Harveyville, Kansas

It’s Saturday, a week after the beginning of fall with just a month until Halloween, and the town of Harveyville is welcoming the change of seasons with a parade.

Harveyville, Kansas

The local National Guard, fire department, marching band, a wide cast of characters, and, of course, these Cub Scouts made up as pirates ready for some early trick-or-treating were all streaming by as the participants of Yarn School cheered them on.

Harveyville, Kansas

I can’t say this spider with its children riding on its backside was intentionally part of the parade, but there it was.

Caroline Wise in Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

With a number of spinning wheels on hand, the women of Yarn School were able to try them all if they had the interest. Caroline is finally getting the hang of spinning on a wheel and experimenting with different models to see if one is “easier” than others. This particular one is a Mazurka made by Kromski.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

I’d bet a dollar everyone is interested in what accumulating yarn looks like as it wraps around a bobbin; well, I am.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

This is the last night of Yarn School, and there’s no rush to head off to sleep as, by now, the camaraderie and sharing have led to budding friendships, and so the ladies will be out here burning the midnight oil as they try to extend the experience forever.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas – Day 2

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Important Note: This is another series of blog posts where, when the events described within were transpiring, we did not take notes, and so here I am, thousands of years later, attempting to give context to images that, while able to trigger fragments of memories, act as an incomplete picture of the story. Sure enough, we should have been tending to these things without fail, but little did we understand the value of revisiting milestones later in life. And so, without that proverbial further ado, here we go into a murky past.

Who’d want to miss sunrise as seen from the Great Plains? We were up early and headed outside while breakfast was being prepared. All of our meals are included, and when I say all of “our meals,” I should point out that I paid an extra fee to share the “Social Sciences” classroom with Caroline, and for that fee, I get fed along with everyone else. So, until that first meal of the day is ready, we are out walking around the neighborhood

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

The blurry white spot at the top left is the moon setting in the west.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Hey, we have about a half-hour before we eat; how about we jump in the car and explore the area for a minute? Out we go.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Besides the abandoned house, we found this spider.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Then, there was this long string of geese flying overhead at the dirt road intersection of Crawford Road and 181st Streets.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

I’ve likely said it before, but I suppose if I were a teen growing up out here, this would be incredibly boring, but as an adult, it’s incredibly beautiful.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Time to roll back to the high school for breakfast and for Caroline to start her first workshop.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

No, this is not breakfast. It’s a crockpot of soaking roving getting readied for dying. From here, I left Caroline and headed out for my own adventure.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

With an infinity of rural farmlands around me, this promises to be a treasure hunt.

An old schoolhouse that replaced an even older building that had originally been built in 1868 is all that remains of the town of Superior, Kansas. This building was built in 1894 to serve the Osage County area even though the town of Superior had been taken off the map by a tornado 35 years earlier in 1859.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

There was an element of surprise that the schoolhouse was unlocked. Anywhere else in America, well near a major population center, this building would have been gutted and spray painted. What a treasure.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

This place was too dusty to still be currently used but the arrangement of things suggests that maybe a small congregation was meeting here for a period.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

I thought this was a mirage out on one of the many dirt roads I was traveling on today, but as this guy was approaching, I pulled over to the far right so he could pass and I could snap a proper photo as I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

From where the side view mirrors were mounted, I’d venture to say this was a 1961 Nash Metropolitan, which was the last year they were imported to the United States from Britain. As I searched for what exactly the car was, I learned that this was considered America’s first compact car. Here I am in rural Kansas and spot a perfectly restored 46-year-old classic car just cruising down a dirt road, another bit of treasure.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

This had to be posted as, in my imagination, Kansas and the rest of the Great Plains is a vast flat wasteland of wind where one can see the Rocky Mountains to the west and the Statue of Liberty to the east, but here we see proof of trees.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

There are a lot of soybeans out here. How do I know they were soybeans? I stop for all the crops to see what they are.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Remember I said I was in Osage County? Well, this is an Osage orange, and from previous experience, I know not to try to cut into it unless I want tar-like sap stuck to my hands for the rest of the day.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Enough exploring for now, as I need to go fetch lunch with that meal appointment back in Harveyville.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

This is not psychedelic Cordon Bleu, nor is it an extra thick mixed fruit rollup; it is dyed roving because this is Fiber Arts at Yarn School. Okay, John, but what does it taste like? It tastes like Kool-Aid; you should try some.

Caroline Wise in Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Nothing quite like 14 years between something happening and returning to it to see how much we can age in that time. Caroline was at the cusp of 40 years old in this image, but maybe it’s the lab coat that makes her appear younger than she was.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

This was the first roving Caroline ever dyed, not that this makes it especially important to anything but it does fill the space of that memory. Maybe Caroline can fill us in with a note about what it was ultimately used for.

[This roving got lost later on. As everyone’s work was rinsed later, we got to pick our stuff from drying racks, and this one had disappeared. I ended up with a different one, which wasn’t a big deal. – Caroline]

Caroline Wise in Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

This photo does nothing more than provide me with an image of a beautiful woman smiling in happiness. How do I know it’s a legitimate smile? I know her eyes rather intimately.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

The old school cafeteria is downstairs in the basement, which I suppose also acted as a tornado shelter back in the day. Anyway, most everyone is NOT down there having lunch as it will be had elsewhere. Things are being collected, and logistics are being figured out as I was taking this photo. By the way, you likely noticed that under all those spinning wheels is the floor of a basketball court. This being an old high school, it came with this auditorium and stage, but of course it did! Nikol and Ron get to call this home as not only are the buildings used for events, but they are also the permanent address for these two inhabitants.

Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow in Eskridge, Kansas

Oooh, a field trip! Those of us with cars were part of the shuttle crew as we ventured away from Harveyville and out to a nearby farm where a family was raising alpacas.

Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow in Eskridge, Kansas

While they look super cuddly, they are rather skittish and prefer to hang amongst themselves. Well…

Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow in Eskridge, Kansas

…at least they get shorn, which allows us humans to cuddle them by wearing their coats. This was certainly a nice touch from Nikol setting up a field trip, some shopping, and lunch out on a farm.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

With the women back at Yarn School, I took off again to explore another direction as photography waits for no man or woman; you’ve got to get it while you can.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

A stone barn? I don’t mind if I do.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

Who says the Great Plains are boring?

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

One just needs a little bit of weed to make things better. Just kidding. I seriously no longer need the weed to improve a thing, nor do I think this wild ditch weed would have packed much of a punch. Outside of an abandoned home, maybe a dozen marijuana plants had taken root and were just absorbing the sunlight, looking uncared for and quite harmless.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

I have no real idea where I’m going when I venture out to see what might be down almost any particular road. My intention is simply to see what’s there and, if I’m lucky, find those views that are somehow appealing to something within me.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

This theme of setting my exposure on the brightest reflected light in order to see everything else in silhouette is definitely a popular theme of mine; when I’m near water at that time of day, this effect works so well. In retrospect, I should have held the camera high over my head to capture the top of the heads of the two ladies out fishing so their figures wouldn’t have merged so well into the tree-lined shore in the background.

Closed bank in Eskridge, Kansas

In an age where the outside world offered us magic, we found novelty in architecture and design. The facades and interiors of the businesses we visited were part of an experience; they were not purely utility. After moving deeper into our homes and minds with the help of ever-larger television screens, the internet, and video games, we no longer have such a need to experience the ornate. Well, that’s not exactly true. The wealthy who better appreciate the experiential qualities of reality will pay to visit the exquisite, but the average person is quite happy with their yellow plastic and neon stop at drab convenience. Remember that I’m writing this in 2021, not in 2007, when these events were happening and photos were taken. By now, I realize that we are racing to the cheapest, most utilitarian environment for the masses.

Rural countryside near Harveyville, Kansas

I wish to return to this environment and sequester myself away from the realities of living in the city, but back when we were out here and even now so many years later, it’s impossible to earn the income and afford the land that would allow a fulfilling life away from it all. Certainly, this is in part due to my lack of imagination and skill to figure out a way to earn a living that would support this dream, but we can’t have it all. Well, at least I can’t, which I suppose would be the equivalent of having my cake and eating it too.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Back at Yarn School, the women, at least momentarily, are apparently unconcerned about the troubles of the world as they explore the vibrancy of learning a new craft and share their time with other like-minded women. I wish to lose myself in color, patterns, and friendship, skipping the part where the problems of the world are considered. Maybe I, too, should have taken up learning the fiber arts.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Into the night the camaraderie and opportunity to use tools possibly not owned at home keep many of the attendees awake and busy. Spinning, knitting, carding, all the while chatting and sharing techniques are the order of the day. Community is what was happening here, something that is becoming ever more rarified as we turn away from the ability to converse about a broad range of topics.

Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas – Day 1

Steak & Catfish Barn outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Important Note: This is another series of blog posts where, when the events described within were transpiring, we did not take notes, and so here I am, thousands of years later, attempting to give context to images that, while able to trigger fragments of memories, act as an incomplete picture of the story. Sure enough, we should have been tending to these things without fail, but little did we understand the value of revisiting milestones later in life. And so, without that proverbial further ado, here we go into a murky past.

Many things can be lost to the passage of time, but two heads and a few visual reminders can tease out enough of the story that a decent retelling of an adventure can emerge. For example, it’s 12:34 as we snap this photo north of Oklahoma City; I know this specifically as the time stamp in the details of this digital image says so. Had I forgotten that we flew into Oklahoma City on this particular trip, the photos preceding this one let me know the facts. The internet helped me remember that this old Steak & Catfish Barn used to be off Interstate 35, and with all of these details, I remember the trigger of seeing a “joint” that, in my imagination, promised a perfect meal of catfish. It must have delivered just that because we stopped a second time on our way back to Phoenix a few days later.

Sunflowers in Oklahoma

Hey, monarch butterfly, we’ve possibly met your ancestors or will meet your descendants on some trip or other to the California Central Coast. I have to wonder if the Oklahoma branch of butterflies is a distinct group separate from the Kansas branch. Maybe I should have just repaired the above, but aren’t mistakes part of learning? You see, the monarchs found out here east of the Rocky Mountains overwinter down south in Mexico, while those west of the Rockies are the ones we find out on the Pacific coast between San Luis Obispo and Pacific Grove, California.

Arkansas City, Kansas

It took some searching and zooming to find clues about where we took this photo. It turns out that this is Arkansas City, Kansas, on South Summit Street.

Roadside in Kansas

In keeping with our dictum of remaining off the main highways, we are maximizing our potential to see more because out in the middle of nowhere, we are provided the best opportunity to find what we are looking for.

Cassoday, Kansas

While Minnesota holds the distinction of featuring the World’s Largest Prairie Chicken, Cassoday, Kansas, is the undisputed Prairie Chicken Capital of the World, and we’ve been here.

Open prairie in Kansas

Grasslands on the open plains: the only thing missing is a giant herd of bison. By the way, we are on Kansas Route 177, traveling north, which will bring us right to the following.

Caroline Wise and John Wise at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Strong City, Kansas

A man from Buffalo, New York, hardly qualifies as the missing beast on the Great Plains, but with a wooly reddish-brown beard, this will have to suffice. Sites that have been able to protect the natural state of the environment as it existed for millennia out here in the middle of America, such as the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, are rare; visit them while you can.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

This is the Harveyville High School, which was built in 1939 and closed in 1970; just behind it to the left is the old grade school that opened in 1954 and is now closed, too. Both buildings were adopted by QueenieVonSugarpants (Nikol Lohr) and her partner Ron Miller.

Harveyville, Kansas - Yarn School

Yarn School is just one incarnation of what these old buildings are used for, and it’s the driving reason for us showing up out here at the beginning of fall.

Caroline Wise at Yarn School in Harveyville, Kansas

Caroline had learned to knit and crochet as a teenager and, back then, had only briefly considered learning how to hand spin and make yarn, but one day, while I was scanning a now-forgotten website that aggregated interesting links, I saw something about “Yarn School” and followed the link. I learned of Nikol Lohr and her ambitious project in Harveyville, Kansas, where she was bringing people together from near and far to learn the old craft of turning fibers into yarn. I called Caroline at work and asked if she had any interest in learning how to spin without filling her in with any details; after a moment of waffling, she said she could be interested.

Seeing that Harveyville is just 200 miles from the dead center of the continental United States, I thought, “What better place to learn this ancient craft than in the middle of the Great Plains?” So, I called Nikol to see if there was a spot open for my wife. Well, I learned that not only was there a spot, but I could stay too by sharing a room with Caroline in the old High School facility. This all sounded very exciting, and before we knew it, I had her reservation paid for, tickets to Oklahoma City were purchased, and a rental car was reserved for our great adventure to The Harveyville Project.

In this photo, Caroline is, for the first time, holding something called roving and combed top: fibers that have been processed and are ready for the hand spindle or spinning wheel where they’ll become yarn. I think this first purchase of roving was just being caught up with the excitement of it all, as we didn’t have a spinning wheel at home; yet.