Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Woolly Memories

I'm not sure why I am so surprised when this happens because it happens often, but sometimes I look at something I've woven or some yarn I've spun and it brings back a flood of memories, where I was and what was going on at the time, maybe something about the sheep or wool. Just all sorts of memories come back to me. It happened today with some dyed corriedale wool I was carding. That wool was dyed the summer that Gabe was about 15. We were living out in the country in Missouri at that time and he was bored. I knew that this was most likely the last summer he would be hanging around the house so much because he wanted to work and he wanted to drive as soon as he was 16. For awhile, I had been wanting to dye wool outside over an open fire and Gabe loved to make and tend fires so I asked him if he wanted to do that with me for a few days. He liked the idea and so every morning, we built a fire and kept it going long and hot enough to dye 2 pots worth with a pound each. When the dyepots were cooling, we would look for dry wood that had fallen in the woods for the next day's fire. We did that every day for 2 weeks and dyed 20 lbs of wool. More importantly, we had a really fun time together. He is now 22 so it has taken me a long time to use up that wool.

I've woven yardage and sewn a jacket for myself that I still wear. And I've also woven numerous scarves using that yarn I spun. Last Saturday, we went back to that new yarn store, Stix, and I bought 3 novelty yarns that I would like to incorporate in woven scarves using my handspun. Some of these colors we dyed so long ago are just perfect with these new yarns. The pile of dyed fleece is getting much smaller as the years go by but I still see it in many of the items that I've made.

The yarns I bought are all really beautiful and it will be a challenge to use them in weaving since they are made to be knitting yarns. I know that all of them will be fine as weft and one is probably strong enough to be in the warp too.

I'm not very good at keeping a journal so it is nice to be able to look at my work and remember times past when the children were younger and at home and just the various events in life that I worked through while spinning and weaving.

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