The Drying Rack

I can just about see the eyes of the non-fiber readers glazing over. Seeing another photo of fiber on my drying rack is probably about as much fun as, well, watching fiber dry. Bear with me, there is a story behind the drying rack, and I'll tell it after I'm done raving about the fiber. Look, I even waited until there was a chicken in the frame to snap the photo. There are also little blue flowers in the lower right corner you can almost see.

I have one more load of fiber soaking right now, and the Cormo fleece is all washed. I think it turned out nice, even though I didn't flick the tips first. I didn't felt anything, so I consider my first sheep fleece washing a success. It is so soft and so white.

Now I have to figure out how to use it. How much to blend with which alpaca fleece. I don't know how many pounds are there now that it is washed. I think a 50/50 blend with some of my rust colored alpaca would create a light fawn color that would be beautiful natural, but also dye well to create heathered yarn.

Ok, it is now safe for the non-fiber readers to rejoin us. Give your eyes a moment to unglaze.

The story of the drying rack. Or, the generosity of strangers.

Spring of 2007 found Mom and I at Fleet Farm (a farm store where you can buy anything from building materials to jeans to toilet paper to chicken feed) wandering around the garden area looking for peat moss. It is usually something you get the little tag for and then pick up in the yard area. We couldn't find the little tag though. So we were wandering around with our cart, and a lady comes up with her cart, saying, "I can't find anything here today!" I laughed and told her I couldn't either, what was she looking for, because maybe I had seen it in my wandering around. So we commiserated for a while, and then I realized that Mom was headed around the end of the aisle, so I basically left the conversation mid-stream and bolted after her, leaving my cart behind.

I caught up with Mom and headed back to retrieve our cart. The lady had moved on. So Mom and I continued to wander, when I stopped in front of a pile of mini-greenhouses. I had heard of other people using them as drying racks, and had been looking for one to use for that purpose. Meanwhile, the lady wandered by again, so I apologized for running off like that and explained the whole AD thing. She understood, her uncle or other relative had AD. Then she saw what I was looking at. She asked if I was going to buy one, and I said yes. She said, no no no, I have one just like this that I wanted to get rid of because I don't use it anymore and it is just taking up space, where do you live you can come get it. Well, it turns out she lives about 5 miles away from me as the crow flies. In other words, her place is on my way home. So we stopped on our way, we load it into my truck, and she wouldn't take anything for it. Nope, she said that we just saved her money for not having to pay someone to haul it away.

I brought her some eggs my next time into town.