No
Black Sheep Gathering for me this year.
I came home from work dog-tired and overheated yesterday, so I didn't prepare last night. Today's forecast is 100+ degrees, meaning we'll have to watch the alpacas for heat stress -- ergo we need to be here this afternoon. I could have spent three hours driving to visit BSG for 90 minutes this morning. It was very tempting. However, the fun of BSG is the networking and chatting, and 90 minutes is hardly enough to get started. With the fiber stash overflowing and the fiber acquisition budget miniscule, I decided trying to squeeze in a quick trip to BSG just didn't make any sense.
It's 1:00 PM and I've already hosed the alpacas down once. Percy took a dousing and Del got a little wet. Ipo took a good soaking, Georgia couldn't get enough water, and Chloe took a splash on the chest. Sprinklers are running in both pastures so the animals can cool themselves. The house is sealed up and the shades are down -- we don't have air conditioning. The temperature is climbing.
Today's fiber project has been to pull the florets off last year's lavender stalks so we can make sachets. This is a hand process and a slow process. I pick up the stalks one at a time and pull the florets off by sliding my fingers along the stalk or pulling the flower between my clenched fingers. It works, but it's very slow and due to the intensity of the lavender odor produced, it must be done outside.
There has to be a better way to remove the flowers from the stalks.
Dried lavender stalks in a paper shopping bag. We used to bundle the lavender for drying, but putting it upside down in a paper bag works just as well and is much easier.
Lavender florets after removal from the stem. The long dark green objects are actually dried leaves.
We've tried putting the lavender -- stalks and all -- in the blender to chop them up. It didn't work very well, the stalks scratched up the plastic sides of the blender, and that blender still smells like lavender three years later. Oh, and don't try this inside. We did in the winter time and the lavender stink in the house was so strong we got headaches. We had to open up all the windows to clear the air in the house, and then run both wood stoves full blast to warm the place back up.
We've tried cutting bundles of dried lavender -- stalk and all -- with shears and pruners, but that's even slower than pulling the florets off one stalk at a time.
I've tried chopping the flowers and stalks with a French knife -- I made a big mess very quickly. The problem is the stalks are tough and brittle, so they jump all over the place when chopped.
The lavender flowers -- even dried and sitting for a year -- from our plant produce a very intense aroma. We don't need that much intensity for our sachets, so we're considering using a filler. The leaves and stalk have a little aroma and they have more bulk than the flowers. They make an ideal filler because the contents are still 100% lavender and the filler has some intensity, and the sachet has less intensity.
If you know a better way to make sachet filling from dried lavender stalks -- or even if you only have ideas -- we'd love to hear from you. There has got to be a better method than my current process.
This year's lavender will be ready for cutting tomorrow and I still have four plus bags of last year's dried stalks to process.
Even though I'm not attending Black Sheep Gathering this year, I am determined to actually touch some fiber today in honor of the event. My plan for the rest of the day is to spin when I can, hose down the alpacas when they need it, and recover ahead of a long, very hot, day at work tomorrow.
