As promised, Week 2 of Winter quarter proved to be extremely busy. On Monday, I headed north, making the long drive out to Quilcene, Wa. Quilcene is quiet and picturesque, home to many farms, few people, and Taylored Fibers.
Taylored Fibers is a small business that Barry and Linda Taylor operate out of their home, processing fibers for hand spinning and felting. Their workshop consists of a converted garage space housing two fiber processing machines; a picker and a carder, as well as large pots and propane burners for dyeing, a greenhouse converted to a wool drying
area, and lots of dust and random fuzz leftover from countless fleeces. Barry was kind enough to demonstrate the use of the picking and carding machines for me, and I was impressed with the amount of fiber he was able to process in a short amount of time- I am used to doing everything by hand- from washing to picking to carding- so watching these machines do in minutes what take me hours or days was darn near mind-boggling. In addition to the processing, Barry and Linda also dye the fibers and create custom colorways for customers. Along with the private shepherds who bring the Taylors raw fleeces to process, customers include three spinning/knitting supply stores in Western Washington, one of which is the Allyn Knit Shop; how I heard of Taylored Fibers in the first place.
The Taylors were positively wonderful and patiently answered every question I peppered them with. I was also able to go out and meet their little flock of sheep and their ancient horse, Miss Cleo. My visit to Taylored Fibers was an incredible experience and allowed me to get a closer, more detailed view of the realities of owning and running a small fiber-centric business.
The rest of the week was witness to a near frenzied amount of work on our own farm. After the visit to Taylored Fibers, I was (and still am) enormously inspired to make my own fiber-business dreams a reality. My fiance and I roughly sketched out potential grazing areas on our land and noted which spots need work. We began removal of a large stand of young alder trees that had popped up along the fence line, cutting them down and chopping them up for eventual fire wood and for pig roasting. Many areas that will eventually be for grazing need drainage, and we will likely incorporate some French drains into the pasture. After the sun went down and manual labor ground to a halt, I came inside the house and began a flurry of emails. Our contact from the Pierce County Conservation District has been entirely silent lately, so I sent her an email, updating her on our plans and progress. In return, I received an auto-response, informing me that she was no longer with the Conservation District, so I would need to contact someone else. I heaved a sigh and sent off a new email to the suggested person at PCCD. A reply (not an auto-response!) popped up in my inbox the next day, and I arranged for our new contact person to come out to our farm on Monday and take a look around to see what she might be able to help us with.