Today I found myself alone in a stable with 100 sheep.

At first I started giggling because all these little sheepy heads turned to watch me as I walked in the door. Then I looked to my immediate left and saw a group of ewes and newborn lambs. I knelt down and said hello as all these wee wobbly lambs came closer to investigate.

I’m visiting my aunt in upstate New York, and she took me to a local farm with sheep. I was hoping to talk to someone about organic wool production, but it had just snowed and there was no one around. Keep in mind, this farm was huge and had dairy goats as well, which is why there were newborn lambs teetering around in the hay, not really sure how to use all four limbs at the same time.

Mu aunt was walking her dog around the farm’s perimeter and suddenly peeked in to see what was taking me so long. And there I was kneeling and cooing and tearing up over these cuddly woolly wobbly lambs that were so new and excited about their surroundings.

I went down the length of the stable and turned back, only to catch out of the corner of my eye, a lamb that had just been born, still wet and slimy. (So slimy!) The tears that I was already holding back burst through as the lamb turned to me and tried to take her first step. (So wobbly!)

And it reminded me how my goal with my knitting is to eventually only use fiber that is produced ethically and by farmers who know their sheep by name and not by number. Eventually my aunt coaxed me out into a whole nother stable with several enclosures holding ten slightly older lambs each.

I could barely contain myself as I knelt down and suddenly 20 little eyes were right in my face, wiggling their wee tails, and anxious for some attention. Snow had just fallen outside, so there was no other sound other than the pitter patter of tiny little hooves on hay coming over to investigate this new human in a bright pink winter coat.

And kneeling there in that barn, I just wanted to breathe it all in, the history and the future of craft and farming with the little lambs and the big machines, it was like momentarily standing in both past history and the present moment. Perfect.