Sheepish

Random stack of ready-to-knit colors

My home is filled with color...not just warmth, love, rest and solace. All of those qualities define our sanctuary--thanks to my sweet wife. But the particular color I describe comes from all of the yarn that she spins. I'm not talking about tall tales here, but the real thing. My wife loves everything about fiber--all the way from cleaning and dying a fleece, spinning it, to knitting, what to me are, works of art.

Cleaned fleece, ready to spin

When people come into our home, there is usually a knitting project, in some stage of progress, laying in a basket, atop beautifully-spun yarn. Most of it is from sheep, but some of it comes from exotic places like the coat of a rabbit (angora), alpaca and silk, even plant sources like linen and hemp. Sometimes you have to watch where you sit around here or you'll get a rude reminder by the protruding needles to plant your rear elsewhere--this is a knitting zone!

Brenda does all of this because she loves it. Some Saturdays, when she's decided it's gonna be a dye day, the stove is crammed with kettles, boiling bright colors into the fibers of wool from average barnyard sheep. After the dyed fleeces are dried (spread out over the entire patio table and chairs in the backyard), they are somehow smoothed-out, spun, plied and formed into hanks that stack nicely into colorful rows of soon-to-be mittens--even a funky cap.

Bobbins filled with newly-spun fiber

All in all, Brenda doesn't ask for much, just a good cup of coffee and a few square yards of real estate to place all of her paraphernalia, like a drum carder (cleans the wool), spinning wheel, shelving for finished skeins of yarn and bins of raw, un-cleaned wool, straight from the naked backs of freshly shorn sheep. Hey, did I mention that she is beautiful, too, and an amazing cook?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that I've got it made around here. After all, she's been stumbling around my guitars and amps for over two-and-a-half decades now. We will celebrate our 26th anniversary on December 21st. My life is filled with fiber, and sometimes a few sneezing spells, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!