The Wool Harvest Cycle

WOOL HARVESTING is to me like any other harvest time. In general, during the spring time the wool is sheared off all the fiber producing animals telling a story of how the past year has been. The beautiful natural colors, the soft fluffy fibers billowing out of the sacks, the smell of lanolin on my hands gets me excited for a summer and fall of washing fleece and spinning yarn for fiber arts enjoyment to share with friends, family, local Phoenix area guilds and shows. Here we are in the midst of Thanksgiving and Christmas I feel like finishing the multiple projects I have started and completing the harvest year and starting all over again in the Spring again.

As an artist my style consists of using the natural colors off the animal and accenting with other natural colors. I usually spin a medium weight yarn that is either 2 or 3 ply and it makes a great outer garment or blanket.

Brown/White Alpaca 2-ply

Variegated Gray Shetland 3-ply

I am a certified professional shearer and I have a shearing and fiber arts business that I run out of my home Tri-Ply Fibers (www.tri-plyfibers.com).  My studio is crammed into a guest bedroom of our house and what ever project I am working on I bring it out and clutter the living room with all my tools fiber and crafting ideas.  I shear sheep, alpacas, llamas, and goats traveling to the farms to take the wool off the animals so it may be used as it is intended to be. Wool Harvesting in its full glory from animal all the way to finished product. I think that this term is all encompasing because it is not pointed at a certain craft or type of fiber. It can be anything, just so that the harvest is bountiful and mostly usable.

The creative juices just spew out of me when I think of all the possibilities there are with a RAW fleece that is just shorn from an animal.  Not only the blending of the fibers but the final outcome felting, spinning, knitting, weaving, chrocetting. I have project ideas screaming out of my ears. a problem every creative brain has. Alas there is not enough time to act on all the ideas and form a final end product to satisfy the lingering bubble cloud over my head with funny font (blanket, sweater, loom, and process that fleece for a shawl.) Oh how I dream. Slowly certain things get done and on to the next idea.

Right now I am working on a hand-woven hand-spun alpaca blanket that I personally sheared and weaving on my hand-made triangle loom (wool harvesting in action). I am also testing out a smaller triangle loom I made using some leftover yarn I have in my stash.  I am enjoying the smaller loom it only took me about 4 hours to finish one triangle.  I am constantly spinning yarn but I can only do all of this during my 11 month old nap time which can be unpredictable.

The Alpaca blanket, well half a blanket so far!

Newly built loom.  2 foot hyp - going to be a scarf - only 3 more triangles to go!

I am here to discuss all things fiber, project ideas and ideas for projects that are secondary to fiber like the looms I made. Happy Thanksgiving!! use the couple days off as some motivation to start, continue, or finish that project rattling in the back of your brain. Mine will be socks.