My knitting group just went on a field trip to Porter, Maine to visit the headquarters of Peacefleece, although headquarters implies some big corporate building and actually it is a very large barn filled with wool in all stages from sheep to yarn.  The barn is on a very small road that we wouldn't have even known was the Peacefleece headquarters if a helpful neighbor hadn't pointed across the street to direct us.  Ann, who is  from Boston (now my upstairs neighbor), drove us up from Portland.  She pulled in and locked her car doors....but it was out of deeply ingrained city girl habits and in no way necessary.  There were beautiful large draft horses out in the fields behind the barn and these friendly sheep inside the barn.

The sheep were across the big barn aisle from large plastic bags of colored roving ready for spinning.  At this point Marty came out to talk to us and proceeded to give us a tour of the facilities.  Marty and Peter are the co-owners of Peacefleece and if you have never heard of them it will be a pleasure to you to know about them and the good work that they are doing.  I'll wait while you go look.

We went up the stairs to the second floor of the barn where there were more bags of roving and bags of yarn.  In the meantime you have to imagine being surrounded by the warm, sweet barn smell of animals and old wood, and the cold clear smell of the  Maine winter air all layered together into one  evocative smell sonata.  And the stairs were true barn stairs....in other words a little like stairs and little like a ladder.  Then Marty led us up to the aerie at the top of the barn, using stairs even more like a ladder, to the packing and shipping center.  Above  is a picture of us talking in that room which was filled with clear light and the colors of yarn and needles.

Marty is a lovely, gentle woman who introduced us to everyone working there.  You could feel the mutual affection.  Ann bought some of the Happy Cat Nip that grows in Marty's garden. They are packaging that with the help of a very talented little boy who individually hand draws the tags. The proceeds help with the Cleo Fund which provides vet services for wild cats.  I bought enough yarn for two sweaters or shawls, including some gorgeous Baghdad Blue which, judging by the sweater that Marty was wearing, fades to an evocative lavender shade.  The proceeds from this particular yarn go to fund the Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salaam village in the Gaza which is a Palestinian and Israeli village that is trying to build an island of cooperation and tolerance in the midst of that frightening situation.  Please do go to the Peacefleece website and spend some time....and buy some of the valuable products that they have on offer there.  These are very good people, selling worthwhile products for fair prices, and contributing some portion of the funds from those sales to supporting the efforts of other good people.  It is one of those  opportunities to make yourself happy whilst spreading the joy around both locally and globally.

We had a really great day.....