Tuesday, July 14, 2009

We did a little bit of everything :)

I knew Joan and I were going to be busy when she came, but we ended up cramming a week's worth of fiber fun into 2 days. We started out needle felting...



this was her very first needle felted item! The horse is one of her beautiful Kigers, Cali.




While she worked on hers, I worked on a gift for a jacob breeder that helped me out by housing and transporting some of our lambs after they traveled from Oregon to Indiana. I hope he likes it!


After we needle felted our designs, we needed a back for our pillows. Our local JoAnns used to carry 100% wool felt and that would have been the easiest route, but they don't have it anymore - so we wet felted! We made fairly big pieces, they started out being 2 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet. I kept laughing because most beginners start with something simple, like a flower or a sheep and you certainly don't learn how to wet felt by making a big piece of fabric! We found that we are very much the same - we don't like to start simple ;)


We didn't have a lot of time, so we did a LOT of multi-tasking. We dyed fiber using my new pot and the results were fun.


She dyed some of her washed jacob fiber with a beautiful teal color. The carded results are going to be so pretty!

We also washed fiber. I found this great tub out in my barn! We also found out that my fiber shop has a small water heater. Wet felting and washing fiber takes more hot water then it had! So we moved the washing tub to behind the house.

She brought me some of the wool wash that she uses as a hostess gift and I am really impressed. It has a nice soft euctalyptus scent and did a fabulous job! I washed Wrangler's fleece first and it doesn't have any ram smell left and the white is white!


The weather was beautiful on Friday and the fleeces dried pretty fast.

We finished making our pillows and she learned how to blanket stitch - my favorite!

She sat down and used my spinning wheel (I hope she posts some of her pictures) we laughed quite a bit :) Then she tried out my drum carder.

It was so much fun and very motivating! I have been washing, carding, and spinning since she left. Who wants to visit next ;)

3 comments:

  1. I had such a fun time Shannon! What a head swimming experience. ;) Thank you so much for being such a fun hostess -- good thing we both don't like simple. And yes, I'll be posting some spinning pictures, as scary as they are!

    I can't get Wrangler's fleece out of my head, it is so beautiful! I could almost just set it in a nice little dish on the table and look at it for a center piece. :D LOL

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  2. Who wants to visit next? Me, Me, Me!

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  3. I adore the details on that ram pillow! WOW! Stunning work, both of you!

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