Teresa Rosello

L Naturals in Woven

Stream: Borrowing

100% merino yarn, undyed from Simple Hill Farm, Rockingham, Virginia

For this project, I dusted off my loom, not just because I needed to clean, but to actually warp it for the first time in years! I wanted to feel woven cloth created with yarn from our sheep. I warped the loom with the natural colored undyed Tree Bark Brown yarn at 8 ends per inch with 76 ends. The Tree Bark Brown yarn is a combo of our dark brown merino wool with some cream merino wool added in from the 2020 shearing. I wove a crepe weave pattern with our natural colored undyed Mushroom Grey yarn for the weft. This Mushroom Grey is a mix of our silver, moorit and some cream merino wool from the 2020 shearing. The woolen spun nature of our yarn pulls the weave of the strands together into a solid warm cloth. I did warp a second scarf with 12 ends per inch which allowed for a looser weft weave resulting in a slightly less dense cloth, a valuable learning for future projects. I also learned that despite the fact that I can break our yarn with my hands, it does hold up under the tension of a warp, doesn't stretch out and weaves beautifully!

Heidi Lantz-Trissel

My love of creating with yarn started just after high school and into college as I learned to crochet and knit. My love for texture and soft fibers started much earlier as a kid spending hours petting and brushing my long haired cat (saving the large balls of hair thinking there had to be a use for it!) and twisting soft blades of grass together. Since then I have apprenticed with a fiber artist and farmer who taught me about fiber, sheep, angora goats & rabbits, llamas, carding, spinning and weaving, owned a local yarn store and worked for Claudia Hand Painted Yarns. Now I'm the co-owner with my husband of Simple Hill Farm where we are raising a flock of merino sheep whose wool is processed it into yarn at Green Mountain Spinnery and then I naturally dye it with plants some of which are grown on our farm. On our farm, located in the Shenandoah Valley, we offer farm tours, natural dyeing workshops and summer camps. You can find out more about Simple Hill Farm on our website at simplehillfarm.com or follow us on Instagram and Facebook @simplehillfarm. You can also find our yarn for sale online, at our local Harrisonburg yarn store Rocktown Yarn and at some local fiber festivals.