birdie’s wool
on saturday i drove out to my childhood home and visited birdie & ed. birdie lives a mile down the road from where i grew up. i used to babysit her children. she was my mother’s friend. i haven’t seen her for about 15 years, but we exchange xmas cards every year promising to get together for coffee. last saturday we finally did.
we spent the afternoon catching up, and talking about families and life. i learned that birdie keeps 8 sheep on their hobby farm, and i was so happy to hear that raises them purely for their wool. she has her sheep sheared and then cleans, cards, and dyes her wool for her own use. i was so excited that she’s crafty and raising her own sheep that she sent me home with a big bag of her wool!
so now that i have this wonderful wool, what should i do with it? does anyone have any fun little wet felting projects to share? any tips on how to work with it?
March 10th, 2008 at 9:04 am
How magnificently fun! Beads, rocks, fabric for a little embelisment or coin purse for the bag you’re working on, felted soap… I saw on somewhere a great project involving adhearing wet roving like yours to a silk scrarf in strips. Once it dried and shrank up a bit it created a great texture as it pulled the silk in.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:08 am
oooooo…. so many ideas! where to start?
March 10th, 2008 at 10:53 am
neato! laura’s mom raises sheep for wool and does all the fancy stuff herself - i’ll ask laura if she has any good tips!
March 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
lucky, lucky you! What great colors. Lately on flickr I’ve seen some great felted wool rocks, and orbs (with and without beads added), and felted nests and eggs. Just look up felted wool on flickr, I’m sure you’ll be inspired.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Ahhh, that sounds like such a fun time!!!
March 11th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Sounds like fun. I haven’t tried felting yet but no doubt I will in the future….
March 13th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
What a fabulous day it was,too. I’m looking forward to a dyeing day this spring and sitting on the porch felting. Perhaps you will join me and bring some friends. I would love it. I’ll provide the wool, you can bring the wine.
March 15th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
needle felting is my favorite way to use wool roving. i did a tute a while back
http://kleas.typepad.com/kleas/2007/05/tutorialfelting.html
…it’s for kids but equally as satisfying for adult play.
and i’ve watched a friend magically spin it into yarn, which i would love to try.
since you’re in the neighborhood, birdie must not be that far away…i’m curious if she sells her wool…i usually get mine from WI, but that’s quite a drive. i need to build up my supply of wool.