Monthly Archives: December 2011

At the State Fair

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Here is our needle felted rug that Celia made and entered in the fair this year.  All the wool is either natural color or dyed with plants. She looked at sunsets for inspiration out here on the farm.

This rug was displayed in the best of the fair area!  A crocheted and beaded headband and a woven scarf also won first place in their categories.  Celia also won the natural dye class with her mini skeins and techniques.  We are proud of all of the hard work and of our wonderful Navajo Churro and Cheviot Sheep.  We are only limited by our imaginations.

Project Challange of the Week–Moose on the Loose

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One of my favorite vendors at the Farmer’s Markets we work at is Erik the Creme Bro-lee chef. He saw me working on Sock Monkey Hats made from the handspun and handyed wool from our sheep and asked about making a moose hat for Christmas.

As a recently retired teacher I thought about the great book “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” for inspiration and using felting and crochet techniques came up with this little moose for a 16 month old infant.  It was lots of fun and I hope the little guy wears it and enjoys many muffins in the coming year.

Natural Dye Class

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Our students played with vats of indigo, cochineal, and osage during dye class.  It was fun to observe them pondering which dye vat(s) to put their first handspun yarns into.  They had worked so hard to get to this point and were a little nervous at first.

Once they saw the color results of their first skein all bets were off.  Everyone loosened up and tried dye over with multiple vats and playing with the timing in vats.  Here are some examples.  Nice job ladies!!

Shearing Day

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Jerry the shearer in action.  Jerry is so kind to the sheep and so knowledgeable as a spinner himself that he was the perfect person to have out for our shearing day.  Jerry answered all of the visitors questions about sheep, taught some of our guests to wrangle the sheep, and even gave some shearing lessons.

Fantastic Outcomes of Wooly Classes

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 This fantastic weaving on a picture frame all started on shearing day out at the farm.  C. washed raw wool, combed her wool, spun her wool, dyed her wool with natural plants and then wove this wonderful piece.  The shells she embellished this with make it even more personal to her.

After she tucks in and trims some ends and pulls it off of the loom she will have a wonderful fiber art piece to display or use in her home.

Hard to imagine this is her first weaving!

 

 

 

 

 

Erin made a hat using 4 knitting needles for her final project.  Here is her beloved wearing the hat with her handspun handyed wool made with love.