no place like home

I've been making yarn.

Clearwater River, ID

Nothing new in that., of course.
But this fiber is Polypay,
a breed developed at the USA  Experimentation Station in Dubois. Idaho.

Polypay Roving -- grown on the Palouse, processed in Post Falls, Idaho

A mix of Targhee, Dorset, Rambouillet and Finnsheep,
the breed, like so many of us who live in the United States,
is an incomer
a hybrid,
an adaptor
bred to thrive in the west.

North Fork of the Payette River

Targhee itself,
 a combination of Rambouillet, Corriadale, and Lincoln/Rambouillet X
was also developed in Dubois, in 1926.
(Targhee appears in various well-known commercial yarn blends:
Brooklyn Tweed,www.brooklyntweed.com/yarn/ for instance,  and Cestari )

Suffolk/ Rambouillet-ish fleece from a 4H bottle lamb

As a spinner, I usually start with raw fleece
​ -- some weird regional combination--
as I like to get my hands into every step of yarn production,

South Fork of the Payette River

​but this Polypay from The Yarn Underground (my LYS)
is heavenly to spin and I couldn't resist diving into a couple of pounds.

Hepty Spindle by Henry C Edwards; 24 g

It's fluffy, fine and bouncy,
the kind of fiber that pours off  a wrist distaff and onto a spindle,
and an excellent companion for last week's tapestry retreat in Garden Valley, Idaho,

Camas Prairie

The title of the retreat was Tapestry as Cloth,
my goal to explore  the effect  that
sett, beat, and materials (weight and fiber content of warp and weft),
have on the physical objects that we make. 
You know how easy it is to get into habits
-- this warp, this sett, this weft, this loom--
and sometimes it is useful to ask why,
to shake ourselves up a little.,
to get messy. 
What if this tapestry doesn't want to be stitched into a frame?
What if it wants some linen in it?
What if it longs to sway in mid air?
What if it is more like a blanket?

Indigo, Walnut, Letheria Vulpina lichen

I'm not sure that any of these questions were answered,
but  four selvedge warps came on and off of looms,
 the company was fantastic,
we made glorious color,
ate delicious food
and soaked out any weaving aches
​ in the geothermal pool.

Hot Pools steam as the sun rises.

One of the myriad benefits for me was a reminder
of how little one actually needs to make fabric
and how much beauty (and really nice fiber)
can be found  out my back door.

Skeins of walnut-dyed yarn dry and pools steam on.

Garden Valley is actually about 270 miles from Moscow,
but Highway 95,  the only North-South highway in the state, 
passes two blocks from my back door.
It two lanes for most of the drive
and every wide spot in the road is worthy of a photo, or a quick tune,
 so it all feels pretty darned local. 

Along the way are a few mountains,
a couple million acres of wilderness,

Salmon River (sorry for the crooked camera)

the odd pristine river, 
and, after four hours of driving,
a coffee shop that serves Landgrove Coffee, roasted by the family of the kids with whom I sometimes play tunes.  
(The Foglifter Cafe is in McCall Idaho, and doesn't seem to have a website of its own)

It is all  kind of like the Polypay--
right here, and not too shabby.

This morning, back home, I made a warp 

I think it'll become some sort of a blanket
but I don't actually know yet.
Guess I'll have to  post this bundle of nonsense
(my little Idaho advertisement),
and get back to threading.