"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." A.Holmes

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Start With A Lamb...

~This ( above ) is where my yarn begins. The birth of a lamb.~
~My homespun yarn. A work of love. Though it hardly seems like work, because I love it.~
~Here are the natural, not-dyed colors of my sheep. The brown is from my Romney / Jacob cross sheep, Delilah. The rest of the grays are the wool of my Jacob sheep.~
~The turquoise wool is also the wool of my Jacob sheep, dyed in a kettle on my stove. I never tire of the seeming magic of my wool, that I can start with a wee lamb, take the wool from it when it is grown, spin it into yarn, dye it and weave it into fabric and create..? Whatever my imagination and heart dream up! The creativity we are all given can be expressed in so many ways...baking, decorating, singing, writing........
CREATE : "To produce as a new construction out of existing materials; make a new form of preexisting substances..."Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I still am in awe about your sheep and the wool and crafts that you make. You are the topic of many conversations with my friends who inquire about the blog friends I have made in the last six months. Do you work on crafting during the summer months?

Candy Duell said...

Amazing! What a great post.
The pictures are great, and your wool is beautiful. I wish I had a love for spinning, like you do. Don't get me wrong, I love to spin, but don't seem to find the time for it all :)

Thistle Cove Farm said...

Beautiful wool and yarn! Do you ever over dye the darker colored wool? Sometimes I do and it's amazing how the depth of color comes through.

Jennifer said...

What a great post, it so makes me want some fiber animals too! The wool is beautiful.

DraftCrossFool said...

Beautiful, Kathy. I hope to follow in your footsteps (on a smaller scale) someday. Do you hand card your fleece, or do you have a drum carder?

Vickie said...

That has to be the most beautiful color of turquoise yarn I have ever seen! You are so talented. Makes me wanna go out and buy some sheep! Please show us pics of what you do with it!

Anonymous said...

Lovely!

Mary Humphrey said...

As always, just beautiful!

Southern Comfort said...

That is fantastic! I love, love, reading about your sheep and your wool craft.

KathyB. said...

Mildred, thank-you. I spin my wool all year round. I spin when I watch T.V., I spin while sitting at the fairs with my sheep...and last week I went over to Lanny's and her daughter Bet and I spun our wool while we all visited!

Candy Duell,What I love about spinning wool is that I can spin while I watch T.V. or listen to audio books and feel productive while doing so.

Thistle Cove, yes! I do over dye the darker wool and I prefer the richness of the color I get from this. All the turquoise yarn is over dyed gray.

Jennifer, Angora goats!

Draft Cross Fool, I have a drum carder, but sometimes I have SOOOO much wool that I take several of my washed fleeces to Willow Creek to have carded. I reserve a lot of my home carding to adding Angora fiber to my wool or to combine color of fleece for whatever I desire. And there are 2 or 3 of my sheep whose wool I prefer to process completely myself. Good question, and we should get together when you get your spinning wheel!

Sand Flat Farm , thank-you! Yes, you need some sheep... and I will post pictures of what I make.

Amy and Mary, thank-you.

Southern Comfort, thank-you. You have enough room for a sheep or two don't you?

Anna Colleen said...

That little lamb is so cute,very nice yarn.

Leif: A Voyage said...

Such beautiful blue colors in the dyed wools. Such a gorgeous completion of the whole process. And I really enjoyed your story of Beatrix!

Anonymous said...

It's truly amazing to me. And your dedication is what is most inspiring. Beautiful colors too!

KathyB. said...

Anna Colleen, thank-you!

Leif, thank-you and you might be interested to know the sheep I keep are a very old and primitive breed, known in England for almost 400 years, and there are quite a few who speculate they are the descendants of sheep the Vikings brought with them on raids ( as a food source on ships) bred and intermingled with the breeds of Briton...

Noble Pig, thank-you!

Connie said...

I enjoyed this post, Kathy. Creation is a wonderful gift we have been given, isn't it. :)