Sheep Farm Visit! (finally)

OK, so this has been a little ridiculous. I went to the sheep farm, what, almost 2 weeks ago? And I'm just now blogging about it?? I am normally so much more internet-savvy than this. Time to cross this one off the list. But that isn't my attitude towards this blog at all! Not just some obligation to fulfill. I LOVE it. So why has it taken me so long? I have no idea. Regardless, here goes.

My mom, my aunt, and I all went out to Springfield, Kentucky to visit Norma Jean Campbell and her sheep. It was just awesome. This woman was so interesting and hilarious. She gave us a tour of her entire house, and told a story about almost everything in it. Great storyteller.

The sheep for her and her husband are, from what I gathered, basically a hobby. I don't think they really make any money off of them. She makes some crafts and sells those, but I don't think she makes enough money to make a living off of. Sad to hear, because that means it is less likely that we will get a sheep farm. They have cows too, probably how they make ends meet. Aaaannyway, they have 36 sheep that they shear themselves. She keeps all the wool, yarn to use herself. After shearing, she puts the wool in these machines that I have no idea really what they do. Comb it out or something. Make it smooth enough to spin.

Then sometimes she dyes it as wool. Or she'll spin it and then dye the yarn. She uses all natural dyes. She has a little garden with some of the stuff she likes to dye with. What she said she does is boil the plant, or root, or bugs (yes, bugs) in water till the color comes out for like an hour. Then she uses the dyed water and simmers the wool or yarn in it. Oh but you have to get something to set the dye too. Some chemical. There are a few different ones you can use.

I want to try dying my own yarn so badly. With BUGS. My favorite dye she had made these really gorgeous red, pink shades. It turned out it was cochineal (the picture to the right), which is this insect that comes from Chile. She said it only takes a couple cochineal(s?) to get a good color. So maybe I'll order some. Maybe next summer. It's so cool, though, she said she went down to Chile to try go collect some cochineal herself. But apparently they didn't find them when she went. But STILL. This woman rocks. I totally want to just go live with her for two weeks or something and learn her ways of yarn, dying, spinning, etc. More pictures now.

Here is Norma Jean spinning wool. I so wanted to try, but she was talking about how new spinners always spin unevenly and it takes a while to learn. So I didn't want to mess up her yarn. But it was sweet. Christmas gift, Mom?

This is her loom room. Norma Jean said she didn't really knit or crochet. Her specialty is weaving. She had all of these homemade projects all OVER the house. Table runners, rugs, bedspreads, clothes, and then she also was selling several things. I got a cute purse.

She also makes a lot of these dolls and other felted things out of wool and a felting needle. She showed me how, you basically wrap the wool around a wire or something to give it shape and then just poke it with this needle till it starts to take the shape that you want. Lots of poking. And it makes the most adorable dolls.

There were just so many cool things she had there. She also had a bunch of these dolls she had made from clay that she had dug up herself. And some of her wool she didn't run it through those machines, but just kept it curly and then hand-painted it with dye and then put it in the oven. COOL. She doesn't have a website, which she really should have, and my mom suggested that I go live with her for a week or two and just soak up her knowledge and, in exchange, I could make her some simple website. Maybe I'll do it.

In knitting news, I finished a pair of green (my new favorite color) cable-knit socks. I'll blog about those soon. I still need to wash them and take pictures. And I just started some purple socks yesterday. The pattern I'm trying to do is this lace thing, and it looks so pretty, but it is such a monster and it is taking me so long, so I'm not sure that I'm going to go through with it.

Completely unrelated is this cake I made the other night. The woman I babysit for told me she had bought a bunch of chocolate chips and they had melted in the car and she wasn't going to be able to use all of them before they hardened into one block. So I took them and called up a few friends and we made this Death by Chocolate cake. It is so horrible for you but soooo delicious. I highly recommend indulging in this recipe.

That's all from me, now. More to come soon.

-T

PS- I went into the Knit Nook yesterday, found out they're having a SALE July 12. Cannot wait.