Fleece: Processing sheep's wool into cool stuff!

[aggieterpkatie]

I do some felting. Some of the wool comes from fleece I've sheared, but most comes from roving I've bought. I don't have time or money to dye it all!

Here are a couple of felted labs I did. Here's the female and here's the male.

Here's a Great Dane I did for a friend who had to put her beloved dog down.

And here's a link to my etsy shop which has pictures of stuff I have for sale and stuff I have sold already (look there, there are pictures of my felted scenes).

And finally, here's a blog post of a craft show I did last December. It shows some stuff that wasn't on my Etsy.

I really enjoy felting!! Unfortunately I've been busy doing other stuff lately and havent' had a chance to do much, but that should change soon I hope!

 

[justusnak]

Aggie, you MUST share how you did those dogs!! I have the hair from my poms...and I was wanting to do something like that with it. BEAUTIFULL work!!!!

 

[freemotion]

That is so cute!!!!

 

[TanksHill]

I like seeing your things on the etsy shop.. Your felted items are so interesting.

g

 

[miss_thenorth]

Where are BBH's directions for washing a fleece? I have one sitting in the garage, and I plan on getting to it this winter. and how should you store it? Maybe this one is a bust, and I'll have to wait until spring when we shear again. But it is on the to do list. As it is now, though, we are still getting ready for winter. Getting htere slowly, but getting there.

 

[Henrietta23]

I've done some felting too but I'm not posting pics after seeing those dogs!!! I just did an acorn and a pumpkin for an autumn display. I've done a rabbit and a penguin. Still a novice here!
I did take a drop spindle workshop a friend did. I have a tiny bit of yarn but never did much more with it. I do have the handmade spindle her DH made for each of us so I have no excuse....

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Post your pics, Henrietta!! I'm not showing the stuff I did when I first started. If you're just starting out you'll quickly improve!

The dogs are pretty time-intensive. I usually make a wire armiture using pipe cleaners. I find the fuzziness of the pipe cleaner helps the wool stick a bit. I just wrap wool around the armiture and keep adding and felting until I get the shape I want! The tail and the feet are the hardest for me. I usually work on it for an hour or two on a time because I tend to get a little impatient and frustrated. Then I just keep tweaking until I get it where I like it. I could probably tweak it forever, but I have to stop myself. And for the eyes and nose I use polymer clay and paint them with clear nail polish so they're shiny. I'd really like to find a good source for those glass animal eyes, but my stuff is small and I don't know if they make them that small.

 

[freemotion]

Thought I'd resurrect this since I am trying desperately to get my fleeces washed....they are almost a year old! I was not happy with the results of my attempts last summer, and I need to get it done before we are done with the woodstove. So I have been throwing a bit in as I run around doing my morning and evening chores.

This is what I am doing that is working out well (reasonably!) I put my 23 quart canning pot on the stove with hot water and set my thermometer with the sensor and alarm set at 185 in it, then dash off for other chores. When it is hot, I add a half cup of a very concentrated scent-free laundry detergent, a big squirt of Dawn dish soap, and a small glug of a degreasing concentrate. Swish it with my skimmer and fill three mesh laundry bags with fleece, looking quickly for poo or hay to pick out but just being fussy about the poo.

I let the three bags of fleece settle into the hot water, gently pressing it down with the skimmer, then put the lid on and leave it for an hour or six. Then I take the bags out one at a time and put them into a pail for transport into the cellar and into the washer for a spin cycle only. Then back upstairs into a sink full of hot tap water for 15-30 min, into which I have put a small amount of a disinfectant concentrate. That is usually enough, but if not, I drain the sink and do one more rinse. Then back to the washer for a couple of spin cycles.

Then I put the three chunks of wool on one of my many plastic soda can trays to dry near the woodstove, turning and fluffing each chunk every few hours. I got 2.5 fleeces done in six batches in the last couple of days, just by running by and filling or emptying a pot or sink as I was dashing around doing other things. I am WAY behind on my laundry, though, because that is how I usually get that done! Oh, well, there is always next week.....as long as we both have socks and underwear, right?

 

[freemotion]

Oh, and I took a few minutes this morning to cut out two pillows from a couple of yards of ticking I bought a couple of weeks ago with a coupon. It was just over $10 for enough for two pillows for our bed. I found two suitable zippers in my stash (purchased at a salvage store for about 20 cents each years ago) so I can adjust the stuffing during my learning curve.

I plan on making two pillows and something quilted, and maybe try a little spinning. But I think I left it too long to do any serious spinning. A lot of it is too short anyways, and much stays stained at the tips in spite of the extra hot water, probably because it is so old. But it will make great stuffing.

I am thinking of either a quilt for our bed if there seems to be enough after the pillows, or a pad for my massage table for the house-call clients. The table is a bit cold sometimes after being in the car, so I have a natural sheepskin (sold as a rug at Costco some years ago) that I put on the top half of the table, and it is quite cozy. I am thinking of getting more ticking and making a thinner version of the CuddleEwe underquilt thingy for the table.

 

[Niele da Kine]

Someone gave me four Clun Forest sheep's fleeces last month and I just carded them and spun them "in the grease". After it was yarn, then I washed them in cold water and just a touch of shampoo to leave some of the lanolin in the wool. It was much easier than washing the whole thing. These were some young fleeces (soft, but fairly short staple) and some shearing practice fleeces which had second cuts on them. The color went from a brownish/gold tan to an off white after they were washed. Two hats were made from the yarn and given to the folks who gave me the fleeces. Otherwise the rest of it was made into skeins of yarn. Four or six skeins were given to my neighbor and several are being knit into a scarf and the rest were put up for consignment at the local yarn shop.

There may be some Merino fleeces coming up soon. Apparently about a dozen sheep who haven't been sheared for three years so it should have some very long staple to it. Hopefully sometime next month, they may arrive. These will have to be bought, though, instead of free wool so I'm trying to figure out how many of them to buy. I don't know how often the fellow shears his sheep, I got the impression not real often at all so I'd better get a year's supply or more if I have room to store them.

This picture isn't sheep's wool, but it's rabbit wool. Angora bunnies are sort of like little sheep, making wool which is sheared off and spun.

Spinning has been going a LOT faster since the spinning wheel (Ashford Traditional) showed up last December. It is just so much faster than a drop spindle that it's amazing.