January Recovery & Classes
January has been fairly chilly (and soggy) here in North Alabama so far. We’ve had a couple of warm days, but a couple of arctic blasts have come through and cooled things down so it actually feels like winter. The sheep stay warm with their thick fleeces and spend their mornings laying on the warm hay in their shelter. I envy them when I’m bringing them feed. In a few months time, it’ll be shearing season again, but for now, we’re enjoying the chill in the air.
Since my head injury on January 1st, I’ve tried to rest and recover as much as life allows. There’s still sheep to feed every morning, inside animals to take care of when Brad is at work, and daily life chores, but all in all, I feel that I’ve made an effort to take things as easy as possible. I still can’t bend my head over too much without discomfort, lift heavy objects, or touch the area around my injured eye. On the outside, however, my wound looks good. I had stitches removed the week after the incident, with exception to the dissolving sutures (some of which are still there).
I’ve spent my downtime loving on the pets (especially our upstairs rescue kittens—almost grown now). The day I got my sutures removed, we dropped Dewy, our male rescue, off at the vet’s office to be neutered. Genevieve, our female, is next. I don’t like to fix them too early because it breaks my heart seeing them recover, though I know it’s a quicker recovery when they’re younger rather than older.
I taught a 3-hour private weaving class at my home last weekend, so there wasn’t too much exertion since I wasn’t moving looms very far.
Yesterday, I taught my first class of the year at the Burritt Folk School: Natural Dyeing for Beginners. Seven students attended and left with color swatches from five different natural dyes (and their ph shifts) and five kitchen towels. I spent most of Friday preparing dye stuffs so the dyes would be more concentrated for the 4-hour class. The last time I taught this class, I didn’t do this and the avocado pits didn’t have enough time to preduce the color I wanted. With Brad’s help hauling water, I made it through the class without too much strain and my students enjoyed their time, amazed at the wonders of dyeing from everyday vegetables and spices.
I’m slowly working my way through a pair of knitted fingerless gloves for my client in Mississippi now that most of the raw fleece from her Babydoll Southdown sheep has been processed and spun. After the gloves are finished, I’ll be weaving a scarf from the remaining yarn.
My spring is starting to fill up with teaching events and demonstrations. My next class is Leatherworking for Beginners at the end of January at the North Alabama Agriplex Heritage Center in Cullman, Alabama. Next month at the Burritt, I’ll be teaching a Weaving with Found Objects class. And this will be my first year to give a spinning demo (and have a vendor tent) at the Magnolia Festival in Gardendale, Alabama in April. This will be the largest festival I’ve attended as a demonstrator/vendor, so I’m looking forward to it. Normally, I don’t do events past March, but since this one involves demonstrating, I decided to make an exception.