One of the best highlights of the weekend was Becky stopping by with her Tour de Fleece spinning-now-knitting project.
She had purchased Petunia's fleece this spring, washed it, hand carded it into rolags (Folks, Petunia is a big girl with a BIG fleece. This was no small undertaking!) and spun a beautiful three ply yarn which is now being knitted into this gorgeous sweater.
I love how the slight variegations in Petunia's fleece shine through. Hand carding that much wool requires a herculean effort, but the payoff is well worth it. You would never get that from a commercially processed (highly blended) fleece. I'm inspired!
For a fun photo op we pulled out one of the Petunia cards and the Petunia felted sheep - from Sheep to Sweater :-).
Photo courtesy John Campbell
I also really enjoyed teaching people how to spin yarn.
Photo courtesy John Campbell
From the kids who just learned something as basic as "yarn is made from sheep hair" to the kids of all ages who actually wanted to give it a try themselves.
Photo courtesy John Campbell
There were a couple close calls with some seriously chocolatey faces, but 20 didn't care. He had a blast getting his picture taken by lots and lots and lots of people, talking about the National Sheepdog Finals and getting the word out about National Hug A Sheep Day coming up at the end of the month.
Are you ready to hug some sheep?
She had purchased Petunia's fleece this spring, washed it, hand carded it into rolags (Folks, Petunia is a big girl with a BIG fleece. This was no small undertaking!) and spun a beautiful three ply yarn which is now being knitted into this gorgeous sweater.
I love how the slight variegations in Petunia's fleece shine through. Hand carding that much wool requires a herculean effort, but the payoff is well worth it. You would never get that from a commercially processed (highly blended) fleece. I'm inspired!
For a fun photo op we pulled out one of the Petunia cards and the Petunia felted sheep - from Sheep to Sweater :-).
Photo courtesy John Campbell
I also really enjoyed teaching people how to spin yarn.
Photo courtesy John Campbell
From the kids who just learned something as basic as "yarn is made from sheep hair" to the kids of all ages who actually wanted to give it a try themselves.
Photo courtesy John Campbell
There were a couple close calls with some seriously chocolatey faces, but 20 didn't care. He had a blast getting his picture taken by lots and lots and lots of people, talking about the National Sheepdog Finals and getting the word out about National Hug A Sheep Day coming up at the end of the month.
Are you ready to hug some sheep?
11 comments:
I can't even beigin to tell you how beautiful those photos are...... *sigh*
:)
Love the Petunia display. I don't know if you are even still making the felted sheep, but someday I have GOT to have one!
WOW, I'm impressed! That's a lot of work and the result is just beautiful.
Love the pics of Becky's TDF sweater. The variation of colors is wonderful. Gotta love handmade yarn.
And my Miss Ewenice says hi! She is enjoying the cool Oregon weather.
What a fun post. "How can I use thy wool, Petunia? Let me count the ways....I can spin thee, I can knit, I can felt thy lovely fleece....". And with the pic it's like provenance on Antiques Roadshow. :-)
Sorry, Ms. Sara...
the spinning picture looks more like you are break-dancing.
(TeeHee)
Good Stuff!
For a minute there I thought you were dancing with 20. (And I would like to point out it really wasn't a strange thought at all given some of the other stuff you've done in the past.)
I am entirely impressed with the carding and spinning. That's some serious dedication.
Sara, you are completely in your element teaching young and old to use the drop spindle! I will bet that even #20 can do it by now!
The Petunia photos are card worthy reasons showing why we love to hug a sheep.
I hug (and kiss) sheep nearly every day! ;-) (AND use a drop spindle, thanks to you.)
What great fun showing folks how to spin. Love it.
Petunia is beautiful and her fur is amazing. Lucky you, having a wonderful fleece filled girl like her.
Whooo Hoooo, Looks like ya had a blast and 20 is a star, excellent pics of the booth..:-)
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