We’ve had a lot of freezing weather here in the sunny Southeast. The wind has been cheerfully gusting along this freezing weather at 15 miles per hour. Not quite as cheerfully, I have invented a new method of unfreezing dye solution and a new method of unfreezing the dye artist.
When you get right down to it, there really isn’t too much to be uncheerful about!
Add comment January 4th, 2010
It has been unfolding in the slowest of slow motions, our Spring. We have had so much cold (for us) weather and so much rain, that the greens are greening almost imperceptibly. I have gotten most intoxicated with all those in-between almost-there colors that I love so much. Browns, greys, soft peaches and pinks, and those most wonderful greens, the washed out ones, the barely greens, the green greys, the green browns, the puffs of green on washed out golds, all those intimations of green, Oh I Love Them, and I have had plenty of time to look!
These are all one-of-a-kinders, and so I have posted them on my Etsy site.
La Grande First Breath of Spring Series
Brushed Mohair First Breath of Spring Series
Superwash Merino Fingering First Breath of Spring Series
Add comment March 30th, 2009
Our regal, half Persian Miss Mellie is Queen of the Barn. Eight years ago, during the last episode of the Kitty Wars, Mellie claimed the barn and all its comforts (the milking parlor, the mangers, and the hay loft) as her supreme territory. She tolerates visits from her son Beorn, even though his indefatigable appetite makes a regular dent in her kitty crunchies. The other three cats are Enemies of the State who regularly assault her territory, but so far she reins supreme. At times, she will confer upon me the privilege of petting her. I always comply and sometimes come away with a mark of her favor.
Thanks to Lynne for the regal photo.
Add comment March 13th, 2009
We have added a new, versatile yarn to our line-up. Bamberino is 60% Merino and 40% Bamboo. Soft and shiny, these mammoth 620 yard skeins are dyed in tonal colorways with subtle contrasts which knit up into quiet and rich color variation. Each skein is one-of-a-kind (and sometimes we have two!)
Below is a swatch that Lynne knit to demonstrate the subtle variation of the tone-on-tone colorways. (This is a gold on gold with a touch of green.) They are quiet, but the color is muted–not muzzled!
A light worsted weight yarn, Bamberino works perfectly for the commercial yarn version of Ripple, as well as for Lynne Vogel’s incredible Undulation Cuffs, Superfluity, Superruffly, Ripple Rose, Star Flower Cuffs, and Folding Triangle Scarf.
Add comment March 12th, 2009
A friend once brought me a poster announcement of a play that she saw when in Toronto. The bill read, “Goat Show: An Odyssey Behind Barn Doors.” I thought that a pithy summation of my life; most of the work that I do originates in one way or another in the barn. And this past week, an odyssey behind barn doors is exactly what we had here. Barn Drama dominated our entire week — cold weather, weak triplets with a sick mother, shearing day, and finally a difficult lamb delivery which ended in an unforeseen happier ending for the smallest triplet.
Lynne Vogel was here for the whole thing; I am going to let her tell you about it. You can read more of Lynne’s wit and wisdom here.
Shearing Day at Three Waters Farm
The first time I walked into the fleece barn at the Black Sheep Gathering and stood in a room full of fresh fleeces I felt something come alive within me, an emotion powerful and ancient. This primal recognition lifted me as on a wave, awakening memories that could only be written in my DNA, memories of foggy moors dotted with sheep, guarded by the watchful eye of a border collie. I can smell the heather, feel the moisture bead up on my shetland sweater. My mind wanders to visions of hearth and tea kettle, a bite of scone, or a heavy crust of handmade bread and crumble of sharp cheddar beside a flaggon of brown ale. Even as I write I feel an upswelling of emotion.
Yesterday was shearing day at Three Waters Farm and I had the good fortune to be there. Mary Ann, Stephen and I watched as the shearer prepared his mat and clippers, put on his felt slippers, dipped a bit of Red Man with the reverence of one taking communion. Then he turned and said, “OK ladies, who’s first. With gentle confidence and manly strength, he caught and positioned a ewe and deftly buzzed away a year of buttery wool. Mary Ann took each fleece as though she was handed a newborn lamb, inspected, trimmed and rolled the beautiful thing into a ball, then into a bag with the ewe’s name. We watched Old Lady, Young Lady, Tawny, and the Inscrutable Romney (that’s her in the photo) lose their locks in a sweep of finery. And my heart filled with bittersweet emotion at the joy of our harvest and the sheeps’ loss of their
protective blankets.
I arrived here Wednesday night for our yearly dye blowout. I love it here.Good company, good food. It’s never boring. Last year there was the goat that hurt it’s leg. We had to hold it to give it injections and it fainted in our arms every time (hey, I can relate). We watched Young Lady getting ready to lamb, but holding off until we finally went to town. I really wanted to see that lamb being born. We watched for three days. Of course, when we finally had to go to town, out popped a little racoon faced black BFL lamb. This year I watched that yearling render his hoggit fleece, soft, black, as we all spoke of chocolate and the caramel foam that graces a cup of well made espresso.
This year Old Lady had given birth to triplets on the second coldest day of the year and things were nip and tuck. The morning after I arrived found me not in the dye studio, but in the barn, cradling a 5 pound ram lamb in the bib of my overalls. And during one of my short trips to the house, Young Lady managed to give birth to another raccoon faced black lamb. Just like that! I came back to the barn and there was a wet, steaming lamb on the ground. Why?
Over the last three days Mary Ann has managed to save the lives of all three with bi hourly bottle feedings and plenty of attention to the mother. Even as we sat at the computer, Mary Ann perused the screen with a tiny ewe lamb looking on from the bib of her overalls, a bottle sticking out of her pocket like a misplaced udder waving in the breeze. Yesterday was magically warm, 70 degrees, and finally everyone looks great despite rough beginnings.
Add comment March 12th, 2009
Happy Birthday! New Lambs!
1st lambs 2009 nursing
Ewe and her lambs
Add comment February 25th, 2009
Mary Stowe, of Yarn’s Etc has always had an inclusive vision of fiber arts. That is how, four years ago, Three Waters Farm ended up with a pied-a-terre in Carrboro inside Mary’s store, teaching spinning and selling our homegrown-handspun and other handpainted yarns and fibers. We were happy there, next to Balloons and Tunes and across the street from the Carrboro Farmers’ Market. But last summer, Opportunity came knocking and so this past August we moved to the other side of the tracks,* into Chapel Hill, into a larger store.
Now Chapel Hill is a fine place. We are enjoying ourselves very much in our new location. We are now within stitching distance of Whole Foods, A Southern Season, and Trader Joes and so just about everybody who eats chocolate and drinks coffee comes in and visits at least once a month.
In the spirit of the Etc. in “Yarn’s Etc.,” Mary invited Nancy McGuffin of Chapel Hill Needlepoint to join us. I admit that I have harbored a small prejudice against needlepoint, mostly concerning the fact that needlepointers have to look down, whereas knitters can spend a lot of time looking up. (This may seem irrelevant to you, but my other hobby is recreational spying and I don’t like to miss anything.)
Well. Since August I have gone from having a small prejudice about needlepoint to having a serious concern about needlepoint. It was during the Fall, while looking up from my knitting, that I first had a hunch that needlepoint might be CONTAGIOUS. Since that time, I have confirmed the theory that you are likely to catch needlepoint if you have sufficient exposure, no matter how much you wash your hands and don’t touch your face, First it happened to me (I have a weak immune system when it comes to fiber arts,) then Vicky, then Mary, then Rebecca, then Hannah and the list goes on, getting ever longer with every passing day. I know that you may think that this is preposterous, perhaps the figment of a fevered imagination, and you would be right, but look at the evidence.
*a local joke playing on the difference between the storied Town of Chapel Hill and it’s formally servile and downtrodden neighbor, the Town of Carrboro, told from the tongue-in-cheek (or maybe not) point of view of the residents of Carrboro
1 comment December 20th, 2008
Lynne has created another AMAZING color feast in a SPECTACULAR design with a combination of LV*LTD and Three Waters Farm colorways. The pattern is available from Lynne’s Etsy Shop and the fiber is available both at our website and our Etsy shop.
Don’t be put off by how gorgeous this is. (I mean, when I look Starry Nite, I start quaking in my knitting boots — “what, me, knit a fantabulous thing like THAT?!”) But from experience, I know that Lynne’s patterns are written to be used by Everyknitter — that means you, and me. With clear and concise instructions, Lynne puts the knitting of sumptuous designs within reach of all of us.
Enjoy!!
Add comment December 17th, 2008
These longer nights and cooler days that have been shadowing me have finally tiptoed close enough behind me to tap me on the shoulder, expecting acknowledgment. As I turn around and look, I realize, it’s true. It’s Fall.
No matter how hot the day gets, the nights are gaining on us. No matter how brilliant and clear the green of a newly hatched grasshopper, most of the grasshoppers now are a rough, dirty, green gold now. Everywhere I look, the colors have dirtied and deepened. I’ll adjust (after all, I LOVE dirty colors; it’s change I don’t like.) But before I march forward, I want to present my memories of an early summer day swimming in a pool, surrounded by a garden full of blooming flowers under a clear blue sky. Enjoy that day with me and the Lounge Lizard.
Add comment September 22nd, 2008
