Baa Baa black sheep, have you any wool?

 

.   Yes maam yes maam , three bags full....WOOL !

 I got MORE than a basketful  from my ladies in the barn, Margaret, Beatrix and Sophia. I've had these girls for about 12 years.
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And I received these huge bags of soft, luxurious Alpaca wool from my good good friend, Deborah. 

. Thanks so much,  ALL of you ladies!

I used to hire a 4-H boy  to shear my sheep, but he was careless and my ladies would be left with cuts and slices. I would cringe as his hot/electric shears whirred across the wool gouging  their skin every few minutes; poor girls! I figured I could do a better job of it myself and now i do all the shearing with a heavy duty pair of Kitchen Shears. I shear in May, and although we've only 3 sheep, it takes hours and hours. Believe it or not, I like this job.

After shearing, even the best bits of sheep's wool seems rather unappealing with debris and vegetable matter permeating the fibers. It takes some time to remove the most offensive parts by hand. This is last  years batch before being picked over.

 After a few rounds of washing and rinsing,
this silvery grey wool from  Sophia, and the buff colored wool from Beatrix and Margaret smells of Ivory soap and only needs carding.

 Carding is something I have learned to enjoy.

 My wool needn't be perfect, because it is not for spinning, but for needle felting.  Before I learned needle felting, I used to gift all my piles of wool to fiber artists. I have many wonderful creations from artist Penny White, and I never gave a thought to trying the craft  myself; until I did a fiber show. The lady in the booth next to mine just happened to be a Needle felter who made hats and clothing. She also sold ALL the necessary tools of the trade. She gave me a brief felting lesson and I was hooked. Now, I can put my own sheep's wool to use in my own way.

Working with Wool just feels good.

  Mohair fabric in shades of fur and feathers
is also very pleasant to work with,I have found.

 

To make the creatures of the Hollow,

. I spend many hours designing and redesigning patterns.

 Studying the shapes and sizes of heads and bodies helps with  the proper perspective.

Working in chapters, I will cut out all my patterns at once.

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Place them in  tidy piles,

  and then I'll bag the body parts that belong to the heads I have already created until I am ready to stitch them.
Time to stitch.

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This week I've worked on sheep. I felt I owed it to the girls to have representatives of their breeds .
   This is Beatrix, she hates the idea of being shorn. Once, when we were trying to catch her for shearing, she jumped over a 5 foot fence, just like that!
 

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 However, once she's tethered, she'll stand still as a stone for me.

 Margaret is a Suffolk, I love her Roman nose and long eyelashes. She is quite good about shearing, because she loves attention and thinks I am petting her with the scissors as I try to be gentle. All the girls stay calm with a bag of corn within reach.
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          Sophia is a Lincoln Finn. She was pitch black when I bought her as a lamb, and stayed that way for many years. She IS a baa-baa black sheep. Now, at 12 years old, her wool has turned a lovely silvery gray.

She is feisty and difficult to shear, because the length of her wool is astounding; but it is truly beautiful, curly and soft. The lanolin in the wool makes my hands quite oily as I cut away, but it has such a nice scent.

 More little sheeps are in in the works, maybe some tiny lambs too....I am just learning.

It's fun!
BAAAAAAAAAA!