Wool ~ in all its glory
A glimpse of just some of the things that have been going on in our fiber room
In the Fiber Room
Tag: wool
Fiber Artist Spotlight – Knox Farm Fiber
No don’t get excited… no lambs until April here on the farm. We thought we would start a series of posts sharing some of the wonderful fiber art that our customers produce from our fleeces.
And of course, it all starts with the sheep; in this case, with little Miss 1133 (above right); out of Athena and Poseidon. Following a summer of loving care and a whole lot of growing, she was sheared in the fall. The locks of her fleece were 5 inches long and it weighed a whopping 3 lbs 5 ozs after skirting. A very nice size for a lambs’ fleece. We sold it on Etsy to Knox Farm Fiber. (This is the second fleece purchased from us. We love our repeat customers!)
And here is the lovely yarn that Judith produced from little Miss 1133’s fleece – washing, dyeing, picking, carding and spinning. Judith describes herself as a yarn-maker, and indeed she makes beautiful yarn. You can read more about Knox Farm Fiber here. And more about her handspun bulky yarn here.
It is such a joy to see the beautiful things that our wonderful fiber artist customers craft from our wool! We thought you might enjoy it too.
On the Hoof
Spring shearing is rapidly approaching, and we like to have pictures of our fleeces on the hoof to share with potential buyers. We have been busy trying to capture some images in the field… thought you might enjoy some of them today. Hope your Wednesday is wonderful.
In the Fiber Room
We’ve been…
skirting… washing… dyeing… picking… carding… spinning… plying… niddy noddy-ing,… knitting… and enjoying the sunshine
Lambs Wool
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| Cassidy’s girl |
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| Lucy’s girls |
The lambs are growing beautifully *knocks on wood* although looking a little bedraggled from all the storms we have had. Weaning is on the schedule for early Monday morning. It is always a big day for everyone. The lambs always seem to develop more of their own personalities after moving in to their own pasture.
As you can see in the picture below, their wool is also becoming quite lovely. We are really looking forward to a wonderful wool crop come fall.
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| beautiful locks – click – to make bigger |
This Week in the Fiber Room
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| Dyeing Prudence’s locks |
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| Washing fleeces – this one is Blackberry’s ram lamb |
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| Carding and pulling Blackberry’s lovely wool |
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| Carding… sampling… note taking |
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| More sampling… more note taking |
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| Spinning some of Boy George’s Heather Lavender batts |
For those of you commenting on all the bright colors in one of the previous ‘In the Fiber Room’ posts, we thought you might be interested in this series by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed fame. He is giving us a peek behind the scenes in the creation of his fabulous new yarn Shelter. He begins with some wonderful pictures and explanations of color blending at a mill scale. It is a great story, and we love, love, love what he is doing for the wool industry.
In the Fiber Room
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| There are almost always buckets of fleece soaking either to wash or dye |
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| There is dyeing… |
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| and more dyeing |
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| Which leads, of course, to large screens of fleece drying |
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| More of Blackberry’s fleece being processed for blog friend, Michaele |
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| More carding…lamb’s wool and mohair |
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| and more spinning… this time Hera’s mill roving |
The Fiber Room in Winter
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| skirting fleeces |
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| soaking… washing |
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| fleeces drying |
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| dyeing lamb’s locks |
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| carding… spinning |
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| knitting… knitting… and well, more knitting |
The fiber room is a busy place as the winter weather drives us inside. There are always plenty of projects in varying states of completion. Much as each sheep has its own personality, each fleece is just a little bit different. The lock structure, crimp and curl, the color and luster all differ from fleece to fleece. It is a wonderful time of year as we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor and also share some of our beautiful fleeces with our great customers.
Fiber Love
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| Athena – – Coopworth – Border Leicester Cross |
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| Hera — Coopworth – Border Leicester Cross |
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| Moe — Romney – Coopworth – Wensleydale Cross |
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| Larry — Romney – Coopworth – Wensleydale Cross |
We just can’t wait to get our hands into these bags of fibery goodness, received last week from Davis Ridge Fiber Farm & Mill in Nettie, West Virginia. We met Jen and Brandon at the West Virginia Wild and Wooly Fiber Festival. Arriving with our four large bags of fiber in tow, we were shepherdess/s on a mission. We were thrilled to meet the Harden family, and equally thrilled that they are starting a fiber processing facility in West Virginia! We sent our ‘four bags full’ back with them to be processed into roving, and, well, you can see the results above.
It is tough to concentrate on the holidays surrounded by all this lovely fiber; next week may well see some shepherdess/s hiding from the family to do some post-holiday spinning!
West Virginia’s Wild and Wooly Fiber Festival
We visited West Virginia’s Wild and Wooly Fiber Festival at the WVU Reedsville Arena on Saturday. There were several vendors selling wool and wool products, a fleece competition, a local 4-H club selling food, and there were a lot of alpacas… so cute, so curious.
Sarah Beamer was there with her Kerry Hill sheep and in spite of a broken foot gave great shearing demonstrations.
Several farms brought angora goats.
We visited with the folks at the Peavine Hollow Farm booth, and watched a noisy angora goat shearing demonstration. Lena bought some beautiful gold and blue mohair locks.
And we bought this…
