We had a few friends over a while back to celebrate in the site for our new fiber building and express our gratitude for all that has brought us to where we are with this project. Now we have begun actual construction. Our project is no longer just a dream...it is a reality.
At the gathering the question was raised, what do you call this building? We have named many of our buildings, for example we have a small building in the back field we call the Celestry (and that is another story). The room that is now the yarn shop is call the "Shed Room" as it was one the woodshed. And the old "Carriage House", now the woodworking shop. By the end of the day we had named our fiber building "The Tesseract".
"Explanations are not easy when they are about things for which we still have no words...." ...a quote from the book by Madeline L'Engle, "A Wrinkle in Time" which inspired the name of our farm. Chapter 5 in the book is about the Tesseract, which is time travel. Here are some excerpts from that chapter.
"..traveling the speed of light is the impractical, long way around. We have learned to take short cuts whenever possible. Mrs Who took a portion of her robe in her hands and held it tight.
You see, if a very small insect were to move from the section of skirt in Mrs. Who's right hand to that in her left, it would be quite a long walk. Swiftly Mrs. Who brought her hands, still holding the skirt, together. Now you see, he would be there without that long trip. That is time travel in the fifth dimension, a tesseract.
Here at A Wrinkle in Thyme Farm we like to do things the old traditional ways, like spinning yarn and using our draft horse to collect sap from trees around the fields, and using wood heat. We find it important to make do with what we have, and use our resources wisely. Oh yes, we use electricity and have many modern conveniences, but still, we really enjoy many of the old ways.
The building will provide space for storing, picking, washing, dyeing, carding and felting our wool. One key component of this building is solar hot water and radiant heat, which will minimize the energy requirements. It will also provide educational space for dyeing, felting, and fiber art workshops including school groups, families, and fiber groups.
This building will include space for a cooperative of fiber artists and owners of spinners flocks to process small lots of raw fiber at an affordable rate with a short turn around time (1-4 weeks). Currently many shepherds wait at least 3 months for wool processing, and some can not find anyone willing to take small quantities of fiber.
It is not our intention to become a commercial mini mill where wool is processed for other people, but rather a cooperative with memberships including people willing and able to make an investment in the equipment. The vision includes investment of funds from willing participants offering them a way to work together to process their fiber as well as ours using the premise that “many hands make light work” and is more fun besides.
