Our knit group took a field trip to Dancing Leaf Farm in Barnesville, MD on Saturday. The owner, Dalis, opened up her farm and offered demos on taking a sheep fleece through the entire process until it becomes yarn. Very interesting and fun to watch. And the yarn is so nice!
The sheep we saw had some dye on them...can you see her pink head?
Yarn and roving in the dye pot. A much bigger operation than mine, that's for sure! I got some ideas from watching her operate.
Here Dalis is, about to remove carded wool from the wash for the second time. It takes a while to get all the lanolin (oil) out of the wool apparently.
Her shop was in a little house and in addition to tons of yarn there were buttons, pins and artwork.
Really colorful and pretty yarn!
Yarn and roving in every nook and cranny!
Stuff on the wall was hard to resist. Yeah, I didn't.
Clever display, don't you think...vintage suitcases and yarn!
So we watched her dye the wool and hang it up on the fence to dry. The colorful yarn hanging on the fence, outside in the sunshine...so cool! It did dry pretty quick...but not quick enough, knitters were buying it up...right off the fence! Someone in our group was watching a particular skein from our vantage point (under a tree, knitting). When she figured out it didn't belong to anyone, she snatched it up! Yeah Margaret!
No mistaking this sheep belongs to Dancing Leaf Farms!
Knitting going on under a tree with yarn drying fence in the background. The weather was perfect, breezy and warm but super comfortable in the shade.
Everyone got in on the action! Watching the demos, shopping for yarn, eating lunch and relaxing on the farm. It was a great day!
I had to get this guys photo...face turned toward the sun, kicking back on the yarn fence. I think he enjoyed himself, too.
