Baby Lambs!

BABY LAMBS!!



On Valentine's Day the first lambs of the year were born on the farm! They were named Valentino and Cupid!

Kisses!

This is Rosie, a Pygmy goat. She is about to give birth any day now. She is so sweet! Unfortunately I had to leave before her babies came but I still thought she deserved a place on the babies post!

Natural Dyes

NATURAL DYES!
Carol, Lelan, Robert and I spent 2 days learning all about natural dyes. Using only 5 different dyes we were able to create the entire rainbow of colors!



This is the mordant bath of Alum and cream of tartar. The yarn is first soaked in the mordant bath and then the dyes actually bond to the mordant, rather than the yarn. So the mordant gives our dyes sticking power!

Leisel, our natural dyes guru and patient teacher!

Osage Orange - gives us beautiful golden yellows

Logwood - creates deep midnight blues on its own and purples when acid shifted.

Madder Root creates bold bright oranges!

This is the cochineal bath. Cochineal is an insect (dried and ground up in the coffee grinder - gross!) Cochineal has been used by indiginous cultures around the world to dye skin, fabric, and even for painting pictographs on walls.

Cochineal is amazing because depending on how you shift the pH balance you can achieve a wide range of colors from pinks, fuschias, and reds to oranges and purples.

INDIGO!

Ok, I'm not going to lie... indigo is my absolute favorite!
It is totally different from any other dye and I always thought it seemed so intimidating. But, Leisel de-mystified the entire process! The indigo vat actually starts off a grass green.

The yarn is submerged into the vat for 3 minutes.

When it is pulled out of the vat the indigo oxidizes as it hits the air.
It changes from green to blue in a matter of minutes right before your eyes!
Its MAGICAL!

Here is Lelan pulling out overdyed skeins. We tooks yarn that was first dyed with Osage Orange (yellow) and another dyed with Cochineal (red) and dipped them into the indigo vat to achieve greens and purples!

Carol and Lelan turning the indigo skeins to allow them to oxidize evenly.

Here are our finished yarns hanging to dry. Using only cochineal, osage orange, madder root, logwood, and indigo we created the most beautiful rainbow of colors!

Life on The Farm

Hi everyone! I am so excited about everything I have been doing and learning here on the farm I just have to share it with you. So, here is a peek into the beautiful world of Carol's farm and Tattersall Mills in El Guique (wee-kay), New Mexico!

This is the main house. It was built in the 1800's

Here is the jailhouse. Also built in the early 1800's. It was originally the home of the mayor and the one and only jailhouse for the area. It is an original adobe building. The walls are 3 feet thick! Legend has it that a man was hung in one of these rooms. But, as I am sleeping in the jailhouse I really don't want to know which room it was!

This is the mill where I spend most of my days.

The wash house where we wash the wool.

But it all starts here at the Rio Grande river. This beautiful place would not be possible without the life force of the river. The farm is truley a vibrant oasis in the New Mexico desert.

La Capilla de Estaca (about a 1/4 mile down the road)

Casita Gate

The farm is full of life!
Chickens, Ducks, Goats, Sheep, Dogs, and Cats.

Ladybug - a very sweet boar goat

Grain time! They LOVE the grain!

But what have I really been doing here? Ahh yes, Spinning beautiful yarn!

You can't have yarn if you don't have sheep!
This is Amos. What a handsome guy!

Amos and his lovely ladies! These are Deboulliet sheep. They are the only breed of sheep that is native to New Mexico and originated here.

These are Bob's Navajo Churro sheep.

And so from the sheep we have WOOL!

Pete, Robert, Lelan, and a whole lotta wool!

First the wool must be washed (its kind of stinky!)
This machine washes the wool without agitating so it prevents felting.

Drying Racks

Next the wool goes through the picker (not pictured) and sprayed with a lubricant to replace some of the natural oils that are lost in the washing process. Then it goes into the seperater.
The The picker and the seperater have 2 purposes. One is to pull out any remaining vegetable matter. And the other is to fluff the wool.

This is what the wool looks like when it comes out of the seperater.
Getting fluffier!

I am so happy to have my hands in soft fluffy wool all day!

Next the wool goes into the carder.

When it comes out of the carder it has been made into roving.

Robert spinning!

The roving is fed into the spinner...

And spun into yarn!

The yarn is then put onto the plyer.
Here we can make 2, 3, 4 ply yarns and more.

Finally the finished spindles of plyed yarn are put onto the skein winder.
This machine measures out yardage and winds it up into skeins.

And so we have yarn!

BEAUTIFUL YARN!

Snowberries

Cottonwood Trees at Sunset

Sandhill Cranes

This is a video of the spinning in action. I love to watch the bubble of yarn as it spins around the spindle! Its mesmerizing!