Fashion Show for the Fibershed project

This Sunday the Fibershed project will have a fashion show, dinner and get together.  This will be the first time that Local Pastures Yarn is presented the the larger public.  Black Mountain Artisans has had it in the store for a while, but because we just have a limited amount of yarn, we did not want to introduce the brand till June when we will get our next batch back from Yolo Wool Mill.

Anne's sweater vest from Local Pastures Yarn

But this Sunday is the day that we will present Local Pastures Yarn, the yarn will be for sale and there will be 2 sweaters in the fashion show made from this yarn.  The original designs are created and knit by Anne McCammon and Marlie de Swart. 

This is Marlie's sweater vest wityh Local Pastures'Yarn

Local Pastures Yarn

For the last few weeks Mimi and I have been working on designing yarns to be mill spun.  It is actually harder to create interesting yarns within certain restrictions. When you hand spin you can do anything you like, but for a mill spun project the restrictions are many. Large machines have to handle the fibers and they have their limitations.  But Mimi and I brought 250 pounds of raw fleece to Yolo with specific instructions and the first samples have returned with great success.

Shearing at Windrush Farm of the "retired girls". They live out 

their lives in West Marin roling hills pastures.  

Eventhough the batches we have are small, they are beautiful.  We have 2 lots of 75% wool and 25% mohair in natural white and light grey and 1 lot of 75% wool and 25% alpaca in a darker grey. 2 ply worsted weight and very very soft.  Then we have 2 lots of local wool with soy silk flecks in light grey and a darker grey, these are very fine fingerling weight.

We will show these yarns and have them for sale this Sunday at Fibershed's fashion show of all locally sourced and locally produced and created garments. As well we will have 2 garments and a hat in the fashion show that were created with Local Pastures' Yarn.

Meet Lester

Lester was born in April 2011 on Windrush Farm.  He was so small that he fit in the hand of Mimi the Shepherd. He was bottle fed and taken into the house (together with his mama) to make sure he would make it.  For days even weeks  it was not clear that he would be strong enough to go into the meadow and play with his fellow lambs.  But he did.  What is so special about Lester is that he is totally white except for one totally black front leg.  The is alert and comes when Mimi calls him. He is smaller than the rest of his fellow new borns, but he will  become stronger and just as big as they are.  Mimi will keep him, she has bonded with him and so have I. 

Did you know that new born lambs have very dense soft curls on their bodies except for the bottom part of their legs.  These have long hairs to ward off water and debris.

He will become part of the Local Pastures wool CSA in the fall and next year we will have his beautiful fleece.