Madder and Marigold

A black and white kid mohair fleece blended on the carder, a bouncy white (with some black fibers) Border Leicster cross fleece, bombyx and tussah silk are mordanted with alum then dyed with marigolds and madder. I added some iron to the madder for part of the mohair and silk, the color went from dark rust to maroon.

Marigold and Indigo

COLOR! Using alum mordant, natural inidgo and marigolds from my garden I've got the blues...and greens and yellows and golds. Wool, mohair and silk have found the way into my dye pots and I love the results..... Using a Louett motorized carder, I blended some of the wool, mohair and silk into batts which I then spun into a sportweight 2 ply yarn. Thoughts of gloves and socks are entertaining as I work in the 95 degree heat........... Visit the Milk House Fiber Studio (at the Dahmen Barn, Uniontown, WA) if you would like to purchase some dyed fiber for your own creations.

Milk House Fiber Studio

At long last, we have opened Milk House Fiber Studio at The Dahmen Artisan Barn in Uniontown, Washington. The Artisan Barn is a funky (in a good way) old beautiful barn donated for use as artist studios. You can read the whole story at http://www.artisanbarn.com/.
My friend, Judy Lalonde and I transformed the old milk house into a working studio. We spent over 70 hours remodeling, and with the help of other barn volunteers opened our studio in early May.

We offer locally grown fiber from our own farms. Judy's alpacas are offering up their roving, fleece and yarn in amazing natural colors, along with her fine finished knitted goods and knitting patterns by local knitters. I offer washed fleece, roving, handspun and mill spun yarns from my spinner's flock of sheep, along with Earthues Natural Dye extracts.

We are ready to receive visitors on Friday and Saturday when we are there working.

color my world

After years of growing, spinning, knitting and selling sheep's wool in the wondrous natural colors of white, silver, gray, brown, black, oatmeal and more, I have discovered an extended palette.

I attended a 5 day dyeing conference at Earthues Natural Dye Studio in Seattle, and am thrilled to dye wonderful colors with natural dye extracts. These are concentrated plant dyes, when used alone and combined, provide an unlimited range of colors. After April's lambing season, I move to a new studio, Milk House Fibers at The Dahmen Artisan Barn (http://www.artisanbarn.org/).

I will be joined by Judy LaLonde of Big Meadow Creek Alpacas

(http://www.bigmeadowcreekalpacas.com/). We will demonstrate fiber processing, teach workshops on spinning, knitting, felting, and dyeing, and have fiber, roving, yarn, and finished goods available to purchase. Keep in touch for dates and events.

Thinking Spring

It has been a mild, open winter and the signs of spring are showing. Can my favorite season be far off now?

Rudy, one of our favorite (really, they are all our favorites!) SanaanXNubian dairy goats had triplets last Thursday, Feb. 11. She is a wonderful mother, calm and easy, had three kids without assistance on a sunny day. The two white kids are doelings and the black and white is a buckling.

There are four more does to kid, pretty soon the goat pen will be active with the boing and spring of cavorting baby goats jumping and playing.