time flies

And so do kids.

I learned that a year ago this week, at Kai Ranch in Blue ,Texas. That's where Lisa Shell,  fiber farmer and artist,  raises colored angora goats for mohair and does her beautiful dyeing , spinning and weaving.

When we started working on Shear Spirit we realized the only way to get real life photos was to invite ourselves to move in on the fiber farms for a few days.  Nervy, yes. Also magical. Because fiber artists live art filled lives that we wallowed in. And lots of the good stuff happens just after dawn, or around the dinner table with a couple of bottles of wine, after all the animals have been coralled and no one is worried about impressing each other anymore.  It is kind of weird to be showing up on a stranger's doorstep, in the middle of somewhere, based on a couple of emails and a love of knitting.  I'd never been to rural central Texas , and when Lisa told me I'd be on a dirt road turning right just past the ninth turkey barn, I was too chicken to admit I wasn't sure what a turkey barn looks like, anyway.  When I pulled up and saw Lisa's front door, I knew it was going to be just fine.  Wouldn't you?

Why Lisa agreed to have us show up on such short notice I don't know but I am so glad she did. The farm we thought we'd be visiting had dropped out, and with only two weeks warning, Lisa said "sure".  If she and her husband Randy lived nearby, I'd be popping by often. ( Not just for the locally made pecan ice cream and Texas beer they serve. Really. )

 

You need to know that all this fab color is set in the sagey browny green of Texas range land, with scrubby bushes, and thick woods with tall spare Texas-y trees surrounding.

 

 

 

 

I love the tea towels, embroidered by a neighbor.
And the bathroom? If there hadn't been a drought , I would have taken twice the showers just for the pleasure of stepping out onto Lisa's downy handspun crocheted rugs.

That little airborn guy at the top is now  a handsome year old buck, reports Lisa. She's got thirty-one new kids in the tribe  flying around this week. sigh. Wish I was there!

Comments

[Janey]

The goat pictured above, seems to be saying, "You want WHAT? Tell me again."

Janey