Today I was happy to celebrate Wool Day in Ithaca! There was a small festival where I got wool, mohair, and alpaca roving from the Laughing Goat Fiber Farm, thanks Lisa! I plan to use the fibers in an upcoming natural dye student exhibit and show fibers from animals raised on the same farmland and in Ithaca. More to come on that.
Today I also spent time preparing Finnsheep roving. I washed it last night and let it dry overnight. The sheep was probably very cute, but it had a lot of dirt in its wool. I used hand carders, and a drum carder to remove as much of the grass and straw vegetable matter as possible. The next step will be to mordant the fibers so that fellow students in my natural dye class can use them for a eucalyptus and/or acorn dye pot this week.
HELEN TREJO 