Preparing for the 2014 Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival and Dyeing Combed Tops

The last couple of weeks have been a hectic schedule of handling the canning and freezing of our garden harvest as well as prepare and inventory items for a vendor booth I will have at the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival in West Branch, Michigan the last weekend of September. 

 

Here is a picture of last year's (2013) booth after the Saturday sales.

 

 

Luckily, I took advantage of the few days this summer we had perfect weather (dry, warm and breezy) to dye some Merino and Falkland tops to have on sale in the booth this year.  The Falkland top is new this year and the fiber very similar to Corriedale in softness and luster.  The following are pictures of one of the colorways gently drying on the line. The first picture is of the Falkland top kettle-dyed in the "Misbehaven" colorway.

 

  The next picture is of the Merino Top in the "Misbehaven" colorway but not kettle-dyed.

 

 

 

 

Currently we have our second cutting hay sitting on the ground waiting to dry, be raked and then baled.  What is worrisome is that the fellow doing the work also has a day job so can only work on it in the evening or on the weekend and guess what, it may rain on Saturday when the hay should be baled.  So we're praying for sunny days the rest of this week.

 

Anyways, got to get back to labeling the handspun yarns and balling up more rovings.  Hope you can stop by the booth and let me know if you read my blog.  The fall color change should be spectacular soon and hope we don't have any stormy days at least for the next two weeks.