Hi, I’m Clare.
I’m a fan of all things yarny.
I spent my childhood Summers on an island of the coast of Maine amongst our 150 Romney sheep. During the Spring, Fall and Winter my mother would teach natural dyeing. My father would build Spinning Wheels (spoiler, he still does!). I went off to college, made my way through Corporate America. One cold fateful February evening, while I was visiting my folks in Albuquerque (before I moved here from California), I saw my mom crocheting a scarf. I asked her to make one for me. Her reply, is the whole impetus of me diving headlong back in the the fiber world…
“I taught you how to crochet. Make your own dang scarf.”
This was said with love. Indeed, she had taught me how to crochet… when I was 11. At 44, I picked up a hook and began crocheting.
It’s been a few years since then…. I’ve learned to knit after 13 separate attempts, over 2 years. Found her old acid dyes (and some natural dyes) in the garage and started putting color to yarn and roving.
Why Desert Wools?
My parent’s company was Island Wools. They (with me in tow) would go to Wool & Sheep Festivals in NY and New England teach about raising sheep (slideshows, rule!), take orders for Spinning Wheels, sell lichens for dyeing (hand scrapped off granite rocks by me and yes, I have a favorite lichen) and sheep Christmas ornaments (some even made by me)..
So, to honor my favorite crafty parents and now, that we live in the desert… Desert Wools was born.