You may remember Diane Falck – AKA The Spinning Shepherd – from WOVEMBER 2011, as she shared the whole story of making a garment from raw wool, off her Ouessant sheep. Diane spins outstanding yarn directly from her small flock which she then hand-knits into exquisite garments. Like others whose words we’ve read here, Diane has a hand in the whole process from raw sheep to finished article. However because of its very small scale, there is a closeness between place, animals, textiles and making in Diane’s work which is the very embodiment of “Closing the gap”; there literally are no gaps between the source of Diane’s wool and the finished textiles she produces. The fleeces she takes are washed in the same rain that falls on the sheep when they graze in the fields; she watches the sheep with the eyes of a spinner; and the things she makes often in some way celebrate their specific, sheepy origins; hers is a completely joined-up system of woollen textile production! Throughout WOVEMBER we will hear from Diane about her work with WOOL and if you want to read more about the Ouessant wool which she works with, you can download her informative pamphlethere. For now, here are some glimpses into the shepherding aspect of Diane’s work, gleaned from her blog.
30th June, 2009 – The New Girls!
You know how I’ve been looking for grey ouessants for my flock.
Well, look at what I brought home 2 days ago!
Introducing Mira and Mysti, my 2 new grey ouessant ewes :
Mira and Mysti
Grey Ouessant ewes
4.5 months old
Well, what can I say?
They are just lovely.
Mira (as in Mirage) is the darker of the two : fleece color very close to shaela, a dark steely-grey.
Mysti (as in Mystique) is much lighter : fleece color very close to emsket, a dusky bluish-grey.
19th August, 2009 – That time of year …
It’s those lazy days of summer but never fear, the shepherd is already busy planning for next year’s lambs.
The ewes shouldn’t begin coming into season for at least two months … but just to be on the safe side, I went ahead and split up the flock.
All the boys are here at the Petite Lieudière, happily munching the late summer grass.
As for the girls they’re doing much the same at Le Grand Prè.
So all is calm and quiet.
Here’s my little group of boys : The black and white boys in the middle are for sale and will hopefully be finding new homes in the next few weeks.
That leaves me with four breeding rams, in four different colors! : black, grey, brown, and white.
And yes, I’m already looking forward to some beautiful lambs next spring!
12th May, 2012 – Grass in Normandy
There’s almost too much grass …
… but better too much grass than not enough !
Mira & Merope
These posts originally appeared here, here and here on The Spinning Shepherd blog. All content © Diane Falck, and used with her kind permission
