Home Sweet Home

After a long work week that included a day at the farmer's market I am thrilled to be home today.  I don't know where to turn next I'm having so much fun.  I started with coffee outside with hummingbirds buzzing around the feeder, ducks quacking all around me, sheep and goats grazing on the hillside, and pigs asking for a back scratching.  The weather is gorgeous, breezy, with low humidity and sunshine.  I put the mohair from the two goats we sheared last night on the drying rack.  I'm on a "dye jag" now and have had the washing machine and dye pots going for the last 24 hours. I've found some lovely fleeces from last year, buried in the barn, mostly black.  I like to over dye dark fleeces with colors like forest green, teal green, purple or red.  It's amazing what some elbow grease and a dye pot will do for a ragged old fleece.  I get lost in a fleece, pulling the locks apart and inhaling the earthy aroma of lanolin and grass.  My adult mohair will be great for sock yarn.  The Bluefaced Leicester is soft and makes fantastic felt.  I thought about sending my wool and mohair to be commercially spun, but I'm sticking with carded blends.  I'm funny that way.  I don't like the uniformity of commercial yarn, even if I know where the wool came from.  It doesn't have any character.  I get bored with it.   I like little bumps here and there, and wisps of heathery color.  There are plenty of people who spin roving into yarn, or felt with wool, so I'll keep doing what I'm doing.  Tomorrow,  Memorial Day, promises to be another good dyeing and drying day.  God Bless America and My Farm.