You just don’t expect to encounter a flock of sheep hanging out near your corner Blockbuster.
But if you rent DVDs from the shop off Thornydale and Linda Vista roads, it’s quite possible you have wooly creatures as neighbors.
Withers Ranch, which sits at 4010 Palo Seco, harbors several types of fluffy sheep, plus llamas, rabbits and angora goats. Their purpose is to provide fleece for Kathy Withers’ homemade yarn, which she sells online at www.uniquedesignsbykathy.com.
“More than 80 percent of my business is people out of state,” Withers said.
Each year, the Withers invite the public to their ranch for the Tucson Wool Festival, a free family event that features tours of the animals’ quarters, a live shearing demonstration, various workshops and about a dozen artists at booths selling wooly crafts.
At this year’s event, on Saturday, Oct. 25, every festivalgoer will get to contribute a bit of effort to a community shawl.
“People can see the entire process from sheep to shawl, except the washing and dyeing,” Withers said. “And I’m even trying to get someone to do a dyeing demonstration.”
If you tour Withers Ranch, you may suspect it has harbored wooly creatures for a long time, maybe even generations. After all, the animals look settled and happy.
In reality, the whole enterprise started about eight years ago as a home-schooling project.
Some members of the Withers family suffered from lactose intolerance, and Kathy Withers thought that seemed like a good excuse to teach her son about milking.
The family bought goats, whose milk is supposed to be easier on the stomach than bovine fare. Everything looked good until the animals started to breed.
“We ended up with 13 bucks,” Withers said. “I took that as a sign that it wasn’t meant to be.”
One day, a veterinarian showed up on the ranch and suggested an alternative use for goats. Such animals, she said, could support Withers’ art.
“She knew I weave and knit,” Withers said.
The family thought about it, looked into buying alpacas and winced at the price — about $500 an animal.
But Withers learned how to spin anyway, and after a year, she felt prepared to buy angora goats from the Arizona State Fair. Their adorableness didn’t hurt.
“Angora babies look like poodles when they’re born,” Withers said. “They’re so cute.”
A llama soon followed, and then, after Withers’ husband pointed out that the first one looked lonely, there were two.
Withers practiced dying fleece naturally with Kool-Aid and cake dyes and turning it into yarn.
“There’s a real satisfaction in spinning it,” Withers said. “I usually know what animal it came from, and so I sit around and think about that animal.”
As her charge grew to include angora rabbits and Shetland, Jacob, border Leicester and Rambouillet sheep, her yarn-making endeavors grew as well.
“Somebody said, ‘If she’s spinning this much yarn, she should convert one guest room into a shop,” Withers said.
These days, Withers’ shop encompasses two former guest rooms. It holds a giant loom, a couple of spinning wheels, a cornucopia of yarns and an assortment of workshops that Withers teaches.
It also serves as a hub from which she gives tours to schoolchildren of her 45 four-legged fleece suppliers.
“The future of spinners, knitters and crocheters is kids,” she explained.
Withers said the work of a sheep-keeper never lets up, given the fact that the creatures are always doing something stupid. They get their heads stuck in pails, they wriggle through fences during babyhood and they rub against trees, which, during rain, can make for felted sheep.
But they do more for Withers than just supply raw materials for yarn, she said. They connect her with the world beyond her small, air-conditioned shop.
“I notice it’s raining, because they’re out there standing in the rain,” she said. “I realize how hot it really is, too.”
And that’s not all.
“They give me an incentive to get out and moving,” Withers said. “I’ve seen some gorgeous sunsets because of them.”
