Plant dye workshop

This is my favorite photo from a recent workshop on the farm, where we combining two wonderful things, fiber and plants! We have kept sheep for 16 years now, and year after year they keep providing us with magical fleece, which is sun/self cleaning. So many warm and comforting natural colors. This year, with Sarah Gotawka's guidance, we turned the natural colors into some fun plant dyed roving. Now I am spinning it up for the winter market. Cosmos made this gorgeous color, as seen in the photo of the dye pot. We also colored roving with Black eyed susan, sochan and goldenrod. 

Roving-The clean and combed fiber, ready to be dyed, or spun or felted

Fleece-The harvested animal fiber, shorn from the sheep, before summer. which does not harm or take the life of the animal. (In our case, our sheep are a heritage breed, which would naturally shed their fleece, if we left it on long enough)