I live on a small acreage on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. I live with my husband, three dogs and two cats. I have been working with fiber for about fifteen years. It all started innocently enough. A friend of mine had two young children. They decided to raise lambs for a 4H project. At the end of the summer, my friend asked if I would like to have the lambs, a white female and brown male, both mostly Suffolk. Of course I said yes. At the time we already had several Saanen milk goats, a flock of geese, a few ducks, a dozen or so chickens and a couple of pigs. Why not sheep! Well, one thing led to another (more on that later...). I ended up several years later with a flock of very nice mixed breed sheep, angora goats and two llamas. I no longer had the other livestock. I was learning to focus. I did have a lot of fleece to play with. I decided that I needed to figure out how to use all this wool so I bought a used spinning wheel and learned how to spin. I soon had a lot of very nice yarn to use up so I taught myself how to knit. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was a little girl and I picked that up again as well. Due to changes in circumstance, I no longer have the animals. I do have three spinning wheels, a collection of spindles, two floor looms for weaving, every conceivable size of knitting needle in straight, circular and double point, and enough yarn and fleece to fill a large spare bedroom, closet and armoire. This year as a Christmas gift, my wonderful husband surprised me by making arrangements to take the last of my fleece, all 41 pounds, to a local fiber mill to be processed into roving for spinning! Now I have enough fiber ready to spin to keep me busy for quite some time. I have started to toy with dying as well. I hope you will join me on this ongoing adventure!
Showing posts with label fleece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fleece. Show all posts
May 4, 2013
How it all began...
I live on a small acreage on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. I live with my husband, three dogs and two cats. I have been working with fiber for about fifteen years. It all started innocently enough. A friend of mine had two young children. They decided to raise lambs for a 4H project. At the end of the summer, my friend asked if I would like to have the lambs, a white female and brown male, both mostly Suffolk. Of course I said yes. At the time we already had several Saanen milk goats, a flock of geese, a few ducks, a dozen or so chickens and a couple of pigs. Why not sheep! Well, one thing led to another (more on that later...). I ended up several years later with a flock of very nice mixed breed sheep, angora goats and two llamas. I no longer had the other livestock. I was learning to focus. I did have a lot of fleece to play with. I decided that I needed to figure out how to use all this wool so I bought a used spinning wheel and learned how to spin. I soon had a lot of very nice yarn to use up so I taught myself how to knit. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was a little girl and I picked that up again as well. Due to changes in circumstance, I no longer have the animals. I do have three spinning wheels, a collection of spindles, two floor looms for weaving, every conceivable size of knitting needle in straight, circular and double point, and enough yarn and fleece to fill a large spare bedroom, closet and armoire. This year as a Christmas gift, my wonderful husband surprised me by making arrangements to take the last of my fleece, all 41 pounds, to a local fiber mill to be processed into roving for spinning! Now I have enough fiber ready to spin to keep me busy for quite some time. I have started to toy with dying as well. I hope you will join me on this ongoing adventure!
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