Winter Wool Workshop

I'm excited that there is good interest in a winter wool workshop!  I think it will be a lot of fun :-). 

Here's the plan:

The workshop will be two days, February 27th and 28th.  That's a Friday and Saturday.  We'll start both days at 10:00 and work through 3:00 with a break for lunch.  After class you are welcome to stay and explore the farm, play with the animals, work in the Wool House, help me with chores...

Friday will cover fleece selection, skirting and washing.  Since all of our 2014 fleeces have already been skirted and processed, Sheepmom is sending us a couple of her award winning Nistock Farm fleeces.  A few of our sheep were a bit crabby about that, but when I explained that someone here would have to volunteer to be shorn early, they quickly said "Send 'em on!" ;-).

Saturday we'll process our freshly washed wool.  I have a couple different types of combs, hand cards, flick cards and drum carders.  We'll spend some time with each method, find what works best with different types of wool (and people!) and by the end of the day have some beautiful ready to spin fiber.

There will be some down time on Friday while the fleece is soaking, so feel free to bring your wheel, knitting...  And if you don't have a wheel or a current knitting project and you'd like to learn, that would be a good time to give it a try!  

Likewise, if you have some of your own fleece (or fleeces ;-) you'd like to evaluate and skirt, bring them along.  Hopefully the weather will be gorgeous and sunny and warm, but if it's not, the skirting table will be set up in the heated tack room inside the barn :-).  

Because late winter/early spring weather can be iffy in Kentucky and we might all end up stuck indoors, I think it would be best to limit the number of participants to four.  The weather could very well be perfect, but you'd want to dress appropriately for how involved in the farm you'd like to be if it's not.  

We have a good bakery in town who will be catering our food so there's no risk of having to eat my cooking.  The B&B at The Old Boswell Place can accommodate several overnight guests and I can promise that will be a treat as well.  There is also a decent small motel in Cynthiana.

Cost for the workshop will be $125 for the weekend and that will include coffee, tea, snacks and lunches.  Please send me an email if you are interested.  I can then send you more information about travel and accommodations...

Sound like fun?  :-)

**I felt like I needed a "wool processing" picture to post with this so I scrolled back through the blog using that label and found the above picture of the sample of Maisie's pretty combed fleece.  The title and first line of the post is Her Fleece Was White As Snow... except for all the grease, dirt, hay, straw, chicken feathers, dog hair, wild flowers, burrs, tree bark, fishing lures and shotgun shells... ;-).

Yep, that's about it :-D.  Eight ounces of singles to go!