Sheep to Shawl at Meadow Farm

Clotho’s members know that Meadow Farm Park plays an important part in the history of our guild.

Our first “real” Sheep to Shawl event was in 2004. Before that time park employees advertised it as Sheep to Shawl, but we sat on a blanket on the grass carding wool with children or spinning yarn nearby.

At first there were no looms except the park’s loom on the enclosed porch near the farmhouse kitchen. There was no shawl on the loom. Becky often stirred her natural dyepot, members carded and spun on the lawn and even in the farmhouse dining room one year while cold rain poured down and hardly a visitor entered the park.

The banner flew at the park entrance each year, beckoning all to come to Sheep to Shawl but an important first happened in 2004 when Clotho's had our first sheep to shawl team at the park and Gladys wove with handspun from the park’s flock. The guild’s Harrisville loom was used to make a white shawl that we raffled to support our guild.

Our warp had stripes of many colors in 2007, white with purple and blue bands at each end in 2008, and in 2009 we had a “sheep to scarf” year. All were woven and expertly finished by Gayle. Sheep to shawl team members spun yards and yards of Gulf Coast Native fleece, from a breed classified as ‘critical’ by the ALBC, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

In recent years, Becky has dyed the handspun yarn for our scarves in advance, using natural dyes such as indigo for blue, cochineal for red, and onion skins for orange-yellow. Bob has woven a number of the scarves. We no longer wash and card the park's Gulf Coast Native wool ourselves to prepare it for spinning, we send it to a mill. We spin that wool into weaving yarn ahead of time, as a group effort, and one of us dresses the loom so everything is ready.

On the day, we card wool and we spin yarn with our spinning wheels and spindles. We have the guild's loom going. We aim to weave two scarves during Sheep to Shawl, one to give to the park staff to wear on the job and one to keep as a record of our work. You will see those scarves on display.

You will also see on display items that we have each handspun, handknitted, handwoven, hand-dyed, and homegrown. Look closely at the shawls, sweaters, shirts, and socks we have on. We used to dress to match a period in the park's history. Now we wear modern clothes, some handmade, as we tell visitors about handspinning today.