Summer rambling
Indigo, growing more wool for the next round of our Spyhop yarn, seems to be drawing on her Finn genes to stay black! Her brother and all her half-siblings are greying out now, as we normally see with black lambs after their first clip. This gentle sweetheart is one of my favorites.
2020 has been full of unexpected pauses and ruptures, hasn’t it? I didn’t mean for San Juan Woolworks to go quiet all spring, but I answered a call to serve my community by supporting farmers and developing a new local food system during the COVID crisis and there went the time I’d been planning to spend developing this wool business. Now that our Food Hub is up and running reasonably smoothly, I’m carving out more time to dig into natural dye education through remote coursework with expert dyer Mel Sweetnam of Mamie’s Schoolhouse on Cape Breton Island. I’ve got two big boxes of wool that were supposed to go to Vogue Knitting Live in Seattle in March but can now serve as a canvas for all the color bursting forth in my dye garden, so it’s time to get to scouring and mordanting the lot.
I’m aiming for a shop update at the end of this month, featuring the Spyhop Finn x BLF cross lambswool natural white/silver and black/silver marls and a limited range of colors dyed on Haven and Luff, our North Country Cheviot wools.
Health checks and pedicures for the flock heading off-campus
At Oak Knoll Farm, all is well. We have just taken our yearlings and dry ewes (and Chico the llama) off the farm to help out with some intensively managed grazing on an old hayfield we’re trying to help the owner restore to greater fertility. The sheep will graze down the less desirable species and deposit some much needed nutrients so the grass will grow back thicker and more nutritious after the summer dormancy. We move them frequently so they don’t overgraze and cut into the plants’ reserves of sugars for the next growth period. It’s been an unusually wet summer so far, with a little rain falling every 3-5 days—great for extending the growth of the grasses, but maddening when you’re hoping to cut hay and let it dry before baling!
Chico on guard while his mob explores their new pasture
And back at home, look how grown up the lambs are getting…
Patch’s son Hawthorn, a Finn-cross cutie with a nice soft fleece
I’ll try to dust off this blog more frequently for updates to let you know when I’m stocking the shop. Also, now is a great time to let me know if you’re in the market for a raw fleece or give me a wish list… I’m thinking about trying a Finn roving, for instance, and I’m also toying with the notion of getting a few wool comforters made up. Let me know what you’d like to see in the shop!
Ewes and lambs enjoying these long summer evenings