As you can tell, I’m really having fun in the studio lately. But dyeing yarn is also an incredible creative process for me. It allows me to bring the joy of color from the natural world into the fiber world. It’s also work – picking through fleeces and removing cockle burs and other vegetable matter, getting the fleeces ready for milling and then after it returns months later, standing over boiling water for hours, hefting large cauldrons of water, skeining and reskeining yarn.
The new yarns are all fibers from Oklahoma farms, which ties into the ever growing local-vore community that stems from our relationships born at the Cherry Street Farmers Market and the Oklahoma Food Coop. The yarns in the photograph below are from East Friesian sheep from Cordero Farms, and the wool was spun with bamboo to add sheen, depth of color, and extra softness. Other fibers include llama with bamboo, alpaca with silk. Later in the summer Australian Merino and Rambouillet will be added to the lineup, as well as more llama/bamboo. Yes, these are all from Oklahoma farms!
The new yarns are all fibers from Oklahoma farms, which ties into the ever growing local-vore community that stems from our relationships born at the Cherry Street Farmers Market and the Oklahoma Food Coop. The yarns in the photograph below are from East Friesian sheep from Cordero Farms, and the wool was spun with bamboo to add sheen, depth of color, and extra softness. Other fibers include llama with bamboo, alpaca with silk. Later in the summer Australian Merino and Rambouillet will be added to the lineup, as well as more llama/bamboo. Yes, these are all from Oklahoma farms!
From all the effort of cleaning fleeces and the joy of dyeing yarn comes some interesting rewards. Local knitters visit the farmers market and buy yarn along with their tomatoes and tourists get excited to find locally raised fiber while visiting the market with family. One of the surprises for me comes from the many non-knitters who are drawn to the color and texture and stop to fondle the yarn. Sometimes they share about a family member who knits or crochets. Or maybe they have that glean in the eye and confess that they’ve always wanted to learn how to knit.
These yarns will be available starting Saturday at the Cherry Street Farmers Market and next month on the Oklahoma Food Coop. Later in the season I’ll be taking yarn to the events we attend further afield including Amish Acres Craft Festival in Nappanee, Indiana, Walnut Valley Guitar Festival in Winfield, Kansas, Arts Festival Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, War Eagle Fair in Hindsville, Arkansas, and the first annual ColorFest in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
