2021 Harvest Knitwear Collection - tasting notes
As you may have heard me say before, it takes roughly 2 years to bring one single fiber harvest to market.
The first full year is spent growing the fleece on each alpaca - which means we only get one harvest per year.
Then, after harvest (shearing), it’s at the mill being processed from raw fiber to yarn. From the mill it goes to the knitting machines, before returning to the farm where I hand dye each piece in small batches using the dye plants & flowers that I also grew on the farm.
It’s a long, drawn-out process. But as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait!
Even 8 years into raising these incredible creatures, I’m still fascinated by the fact the alpacas produce such a luxuriously soft fiber simply from water, sunshine and grass. And since the fiber itself is a natural product, it means the quality of it can (and does) vary from year to year.
Similar to the concept of ‘terroir’ in wine — we are in wine country after all! — the quality of the fiber is influenced by environmental growing conditions, climate, and health & nutrition.
In the spirit of our wine growing neighbors, I like to put together my own ‘tasting notes’ for each Harvest Knitwear Collection - to capture and define the unique, subtle elements of the growing year in which it was produced.
And with that, here are the tasting notes for 2021 Harvest Knitwear Collection.
This vintage is comprised of fiber grown during a global pandemic — April 2020 through April 2021. It was an unprecedented time, punctuated with constant change, growing uncertainty, and unrelenting worry. But the resulting fiber is as soft as it is resilient.
Unable to welcome visitors to the farm, it was a season of quiet reserve and longing, making this Collection homegrown in the most genuine of ways.
Many evenings were spent in the barn listening to the symphony of a happy herd munching on delicate green hay. It became a meditative part of our daily routine and helped to pass the unusually long, dark winter.
Finding joy in the everyday became our ethos and it is seamlessly woven into each finished piece.
The whipping winds that arrived in January and February were no match for their fiber. Easily 6 inches in length, it provided a stunningly beautiful cover as it billowed and bounced!
The increasing daylight revealed its luster and sheen - a humble reminder that it was there the whole time.
The snowcapped winter days showcased just how insulating the fiber is - the herd never shied away from frolicking in a fresh dusting or traversing through a deep blanket.
Despite ample barn space, their winter coats equipped them to enjoy many a frosty evening reflecting under the stars…
a reminder that nature always provides!
March brought enthusiastic anticipation when it became evident we had 4 new baby cria on the way. The tiny cria tumbled and turned from within, creating ripples and waves of fleece on the bellies of mamas-to-be…
…earnestly wrapping each piece of the Collection in great expectation and a deep sense of renewal.
With the help of friends, our annual harvest happened on a Tuesday morning at the end of April. With busy hands and the steady buzz of clippers —
the final phase of growing came to a close.
The silken strands were shorn off in sheets.
Then bundled and rolled, and readied for shipment.
Evidence that transformation is as swift as it is essential.
A safe and bountiful harvest went by in a fuzzy blur - like much of the year that went into growing it.
365 days of sunshine, water and grass would take another several months to be condensed into cones of pristine yarn.
It was a year of many lessons where each cone is confirmation that perseverance will never go out of style.
The finished knitted garments steeped in small batches of color that sprang from heirloom dye plants which grew alongside the herd.
A spectrum of hues clear and bright, radiates the gifts of all the small businesses who brought this Collection into existence.
Proving that all natural, American made textiles are not only possible but they’re curiously beautiful.