Dye Day on the Farm

This is Allison (background) my business partner, and Karin (foreground) a knitting and fiber artist who we met through her yarn store.

Karin came over for a Dye Day on the farm to see just what we do to create our sock yarn, and to see the critters and crew.

Here she is dyeing a skein of 52PP custom yarn for our crazy sock KAL.

The 52PP colorway is a three-color, self-striping yarn and here she is dyeing the last color.

Karin is a very talented and artistic woman, I had an excellent time just watching her think through the colors and try variations of the process. She makes silk scarves, so she is no newbie to dyeing, but it is always interesting to watch someone come out of their primary medium into another. Here she is working on the second skein, thinking hard about what she wants to create...

Of course, we should have had critter pictures as well, but we forgot the camera on that part of the tour! But all in all, it was a beautiful day, rounded out with lunch on the porch. Here, some of our finished skeins hang from the front porch to dry:

I get stopped in my tracks

As much as my life has been a whirlwind of activity, gardening, company, and summer lately, it is moments like these that stop me right in my tracks.

I mean, my photography doesn't do the moment justice, but seeing those fuzzy little faces peaking out at the world from under the hen's feathered body, just makes you drop your gardening tools and flop down on the grass to take it all in. (OK, yeah, I had to go run and get the camera first - don't ruin the moment...)

Then, there's this:

Not warm or fuzzy, but elegant in its simplicity, form, and motion. She was coming out of a hiding place in the blades of the now quiet rototiller to sun herself on the driveway.

And lots of these:

I never tire of looking at all the many shades of green in the garden...