Fiber Friday - Hobby Knob Farm

On a muggy Friday evening last month, Jay and I had the pleasure of visiting Hobby Knob Farm in Weaversville, NC. Shepherdess Elizabeth met us on her big back porch, where she was working on a fleece, cleaning out the grass as it sat on a big screen door.

Elizabeth gave us a grand tour, past the guard llamas that were being groomed for her daughter's upcoming 4-H show and up to the sheep on a leash.
Yes, a sheep on a leash (a very long leash) in the yard! I knew then that I was gonna love this place!

The flock of sheep all live in several huge fields and are rotated throughout the day. When we arrived, Elizabeth put out some feed in the chicken yard and the sheep (and their constant companions, the llamas) came running.
As cute as the sheep are, that chick in the above picture, might be my favorite - she looks like she's wearing pants!

Hobby Knob is focuses on heritage breeds of sheep: Jacobs, Cotswalds and some Shetland crosses.

Elizabeth breeds with other local, small farms to create interesting, beautiful fiber and fantastically adorable lambs!

The fiber I got from Elizabeth is a blend of her wool and mohair with local alpaca. It dyes beautifully soft colors and spins so easily, so smoothly!

This yarn was dyed with the leftover Easter Egg dyes and spun to a heavy worsted weight. I named this first skein spun the fiber I got at my farm visit after Elizabeth!

Fiber Friday: Wit's End Fiber

At Maryland Sheep & Wool, strolling through the sheep barns, I came upon a table with some business cards, a skein of yarn and a bag of wool. As I plunged my hand into the wool (ecstasy!), the farmer approached and he and I my mom began chatting about his sheep. It took me about two seconds of admiring the sheep

and fondling the wool before I pounced on it! I was thrilled to learn that Wit's End farm is just a few hours from my house, in rural Virginia. When I returned home, Jay had purchased the first of the season's strawberries. Inspired, I pulled out the local wool, and dyed it in "local" colors.

Strawberry

I set aside 4 oz of fiber to sell and quickly spun up another 4 oz:

Strawberries, already sold!

A few days later, the leaves outside my office door inspired me to dye the rest of the wool:

Leaf

This fiber has been an absolute dream to spin with and serves as further proof that buying direct from the farmer makes for the most satisfying spinning experience!
If you want to find local farmers, search Local Harvest, or just google "sheep farm ___ (your city and state)". If you know of any great local farms, please share in the comments!

Fiber Friday - At Maryland Sheep & Wool

My mom and I left Friday morning for Maryland, stopped at every coffeeshop, ice cream booth and bathroom between here and there, and arrived 6 hours later in Frederick.
We failed to take a single picture in which we didn't look like death, so you'll just have to trust me - we had a great time! Frederick is such an adorable town, with a great range of shops. Our perennial favorite is Muse, where each got a little handmade book from YeeHaw Industries to use a trip journal. We enjoyed fantastic sandwiches at Cafe Nola, where the waitress was knitting and was also going to the Festival!

At the festival, we got down to goat picking:

Mom & a sweet Pygora

and farmer meeting,

These lovely Rambouillets belonged to Wit's End farm and produced this:

And shopping!

from the American Cormo Sheep Association, which had the nicest, most helpful lady farmers working!

Merino from Cloverleaf Farms

Socks that Rock, from The Fold

It was a fun, exhausting day, but I ended up with just what I wanted and needed! You'll be seeing that Rambouillet roving, dyed this week, in the next few days.

Fiber Friday #4 - Silver Thunder Alpacas

When I first started looking for sustainable and responsible fibers to spin, dye and knit with, I mostly focused on organic cotton and recycled materials (mill-ends, recycled sari silk, etc). As the world has become more ‘green’-minded, I find it’s easier and easier to find organic wool and natural-grown cotton. What it’s not so easy to find, is proof that this is sustainable or assurances that these products really are the best I can do. The more I’ve learned, I’ve begun to redefine what I consider ‘sustainable and responsible’. Reading Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral impacted my thinking on supporting the local agricultural economy (and I’m blessed to live in an agrarian area). So, too, did learning that very few people in this area grow sheep for wool, due to its low market value and local alpaca farmers can get more for their crop if they send it to South America to be spun and knit. This excess transportation (fuel) and energy and the fact that the area is losing the community that is built around supplying each other with what we need, has honed my focus on finding local suppliers of fibers. I will still buy mill-ends, recycled fibers (like bamboo and soy) and other things I can’t get locally. But what I can buy here, I will.

It was with this commitment that I sent emails to 10 Tennessean (and a few from VA and NC, since I live near the border) fiber farmers. The first I heard back from were Chuck and Nancy from Silver Thunder Alpacas. Jay and I scheduled a visit for a Saturday afternoon. The drive to the farm was beautiful and the alpacas themselves were more than we could have hoped. Nancy and Chuck entertained all of our (even silly) questions. In the two hours we were at the farm, we learned more about the industry and care and lifestyle of alpacas then we could have imagined. We petted the alpacas, hugged the ones that would let us and gushed over the fantastic guard dogs.

Afterwards I purchased some brown roving and later spun into this week's Ross & Rachel yarn.

I have a lot more photos of the farm, and hope to share more as I get to know these and other local farmers better.

Fiber Friday #2 - North Star Alpacas

I first met Maple of North Star Alpacas through Yetsy, the yarn-centric Etsy Street Team. I was immediately smitten with the pictures of her alpacas; they accompany every listing, which really connects the fiber artist with the fiber producer!
Last week, running low on fiber, I contacted Maple to ask a few questions about her fibers. BCB is committed to using only eco-friendly, animal-friendly fibers and finding suppliers that fit the bill is a challenge. Some possible suppliers don't respond to my questions or respond defensively (although I really try to ask the questions as un-judgmentally as possible!). I was thrilled when Maple answered me honestly and completely, so I thought I'd share a bit of her response,:

We just do the best that we can to take care of our little piece of the world. I'm probably more concerned about being animal-friendly...I think that all the farmers that I know are environmentally conscious because we value and want to take care of our land.

Well, I immediately bought a natural gray blend of alpaca roving. The deal was sealed when I realized one of the alpacas name was Weatherby, my maiden name!
PS. See that bit of pink? She threw that in for free, along with two cards with the alpacas pictured on it! That's what I call customer service! Check out her blog for regular tutorials/tips on dyeing!