Guests For Lunch

Since fall I have had a family of deer spending time in my field. A mother and her twins began showing up daily between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. As the fall progressed I began to look for them each day.





If you live some place rural, you will immediately know why I became concerned. Hunting season had arrived.

What also arrived this past fall was the roofing crew to replace my aging roof before winter. In a get to know you, Butch, told me how he loves to hunt. Oh no I thought, Butch has got a gun! RUN deer RUN! It all worked out. I guess natural instinct and noise of 4 men on a roof kept the family of deer away during the roof work.

The deer soon re-established their pattern of showing up in the afternoon. They must have become familiar with our routine as well. Over time they worked their way closer to the house.

As you can see from the pictures the family is very comfortable under my bird feeder. Deer snacks. I throw the seed mix on the ground to keep my large flock of blue jays happy.



Now how does a deer family connect with dyeing and spinning? As the deer were under the feeder, I began to admire their dense winter coats and the color combinations depending on the direction their coat was viewed from. At the back looking forward, a lot of rich dark hair could be seen. From the side, the dark colors were less obvious and the fawn tones were prominent. Nature manipulated the deer’s color to best protect the deer. I am fascinated by nature’s color sense!

I have been dyeing wool for rug hooking, raw fiber and yarn for several years now. I am still learning ways to manipulate color when working all fiber mediums. Nature is always teaching me new things about color. It is a great reason to talk a walk.

Pictured is a colorway now listed on www.etsy.com. It is a palette of soft browns, slate blue, sage green and just a touch of glitz.



I have spun a small sample. The brown works well with the blue.

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