Woolly Week Summer Camp for Kids
Day Four: Drop Spinning and Felting!
Concentration!
Our morning results
Felting our Shepherd's Rugs
Shepherd's Rugs on the line
No one wanted to go home today! I guess that is a good sign everyone is having a good time, right?
Fleece,
Abu
Since Tia Sari is home, she is teaching me the ins and outs of Facebook, and I am going along kicking and screaming. (Oh no, another time suck)!
I really test her patience with my stupid questions trying to learn the difference between a fan, a favorite, a follower, until i use the other f-word out of my frustration!
She says the more I use it, the more it will make sense. (Am I just the wrong generation or something? I don't even have a cell phone, or a TV. Do I really need this)???
This version of Typepad will not allow me to add the Facebook widget, so you can find me here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fleeceful-Kingdom/119028321514383
Please check out my page, maybe even "Like" what you read and see, as my little sheepies and I pass around our notes in the internet world!
The girls came over Sunday. Aimee loves a pony ride.
Frida and Aimee love to feed George timothy through the fence.
I've been kind of worried about Georgie. If you've been reading along, back in the Spring when we sheared, Georgie had his hooves trimmed. There was a little blood when he was trimmed. Not a lot. But he was very sore and limped for about a week after.
I was going back through my photos, and I found a picture before he was trimmed.
This is what his hooves look like now:
Are they supposed to be all white? None of the other sheep hooves look like this. He seems to be walking okay. No sign of a limp. This just doesn't look right to me.
In the garden, the flax is ready!
When I returned from Costa Rica, I went to check out my dye garden. I mean my weed garden. Oh my gosh! How a little plot of dirt can get so carried away and go bad so quickly! I was a bit distracted with all the doctor's appointments, surgery, PT, etc. and didn't make the garden a priority. I walked in, took a look around, was so overwhelmed, I walked right back out!
But on Sunday, I made myself go in. Maybe there is something here that can be salvaged. Most of the flax has blossomed. The stalks have turned yellow green. I think they are ready to pull! So this week, in between getting ready for farm to yarn camp, going to help a blind lady with her weaving (5 hour round-trip drive), preparing fall classes, and family coming to visit, I will be pulling flax!
I made a Journey Loom to take a "test drive" with before camp starts. Oh, it felt so good to get my hands on some fiber, even if it was just putting on a warp. When I get grumpy, I need to remember this! Fiber: the balm for my soul!
I'm also playing with finger crocheting roving to make a small floor rug, which will be felted, a mini-version of this under some farm picked peaches:
Tia Sari is spoiling us with her fabuluous cooking now that she is up and around and off the crutches. She can make summer taste so good!
Enjoy all your tastes of this season,
Abu
The Lesson
Life has taken unexpected twists and turns. I was very disappointed that my summer art camp at the Schweinfurth was cancelled this week. I am trying to be positive: family is coming to visit, we are all trekking to Poppa's 90th birthday party, it lessens the load as I take Sarah to therapy three times a week, etc.
I need a gift for my step mother-in-law when we go to the birthday party. I threw on a warp last week I call, "The New York Times" ("what's black and white and red all over?").
I think it will make a nice guy scarf, but it's not for her. It's more a manly man scarf. It's short, due to the felting, and really fluffy. Enough to fold over your chest. Yes, a chest-warmer-type scarf to tuck in an overcoat.
Now we are on countdown to leaving; the pressure is on. I have only hours. I threw on another warp yesterday, sat at the loom. Nope. This is not right either!
She likes green; wears green. But not bright green. More like olive, or sage, or a dusty, darker green. So my backup plan is to give her the cotton chenille scarf that did not sell at the show.
I'm so cranky! I am realizing it's because I don't have time to weave. I'm out of sorts. I'm not working through anything. I miss that quiet space I go to to heal, renew, restore and refresh.
So this is my lesson: When you think you don't have time to weave, that is when you need it the most!
Okay. So where's the loom?
Abu
I sure feel like I had my stuffing knocked out last week! Whew! The week flew past, and the next thing I knew, it was Friday, and all the moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, brothers, sisters, it seemed like all of Auburn was there for our art exhibition!
We had a great time! We dyed yarn and roving, made felt balls and ropes, finger knit jump ropes and shoelaces, spool knit crazy animals, and wove tapestries on cardboard looms.
Three parents came up to me during the "show" and told me my class was the only thing their kid talked about all week! They said it was fun to have something different rather than the usual painting class. They loved that I talked about history, and that the kids learned to do something with their hands other than play with video games, iPods, cell phones, etc.
You can see more great pics on the Schweinfurth's Facebook page!
I'm sorry to say there was not enough enrollment for Week 2, and both classes were cancelled :(
Here's to getting put back together!
Abu
The loom sits idle. Too much is happening: a trip to PA for graduation, father's day, two surgeries for family in the same week, preparations for summer art camps, the art festival on Saturday, etc.
So I work on the "invisible." I close my eyes at night to a river of warp threads floating through my dreams. Purples and blues and turquoise, with a pinch or orange, maybe some pink. It will have to wait. It must wait.
I did manage to get this on and off the loom last week; a recycled felted sweater rug.
I scored these sweaters on sale last summer at a local thrift store.
I came home and felted them in the washing machine/dryer, but they sat in a storage bin waiting to be discovered.
I cut the sleeves in strips, and felted them again. They came out of the dryer cord-like.
I rolled the strips in balls, and free-wove in Saori style.
I wasn't sure what it was going to be: a rug? a messenger bag? pillows? tablerunner?
After taking it off the loom, it told me it did not want to be cut up! So for now, it is squishy and soft under my feet, so a rug it will be (until it tells me otherwise)!
In the coming weeks, I will be working a lot on the invisible because I will not have the luxury of time. I need to accept that. It is hard to gear down after pushing to get stuff made. And there is also fear. What if I don't get back to it?
It has been such a great time; a time of discovery, a time of healing, a time of reaching deep down inside and pulling out what is in there.
May your invisible labor be healing today,
Abu
I wasn't ready to write about this last week because I wasn't sure how things would turn out.
Last Wednesday night, we had a terrible thunderstorm in the middle of the night, and Peach, one of our rescue horses, got loose.
When we woke on Thursday morning, the Professor knew something was wrong right away. We have a walk-out basement on the side of the house that faces the barn. When the Professor went downstairs, he could make out a figure out the door. When he turned the light on, there was Peach, under the deck waiting for him! But he couldn't walk. He couldn't put any weight on his front leg. I woke up hearing the Professor running around downstairs. I sat up in bed, and he thrust the phone and a piece of paper with the vet's number on it. "I think Peachie broke his leg. Call the vet. Then call Em."
We have the greatest vet in the whole world. He's in his 70s, and I'm not sure what we will do when he decides to retire. But he is fit as a fiddle, and blessed with the all the knowledge and wisdom of his age.
He was at the house within the hour, took one look at Peach, and said he had nerve damage to his shoulder (a kick from another horse???). Everytime Peach took a step, his hoof turned under, he would drag it, and then stumble. At first the vet said he would treat him as if everything would be okay, but because of his age, the damage to his other front leg from arthritis, etc., we could only be hopeful.
It was painful to watch Peach try to walk. He would trip, catch himself, stumble. I would gasp. But Peach is so smart. He knew how to compensate, and he made adjustments so he could get around. After watching him, the vet said that he was very encouraged.
He gave him a couple shots of cortisone and we mixed some bute with his grain. And most important, the vet asked if Peach was getting picked on. Yes! Harley drives him all the time. So the Professor made a special pasture for him so he could convalesce in peace; basically dividing the barn so Peach could have the double stall and go out the front; and Harley and Gillie pony could go out the back.
However, horses are herd animals. If they can't see each other, they cry. Harley had Gillie to pal around with, but Peach needed a pasture pal.
Enter Georgie!
I tell you! My little sheepie Georgie is everybody's pal! (I'm starting to cry as I re-read this)!
It's been a week, and Peach has made a remarkable recovery! Thank you, Lord!
I found out at the end of last week, that Em and I have been accepted into a local art and craft fair at the end of June! So she is busy knitting, and I am power weaving, trying to make enough "stuff" for our booth.
The Professor reminded me from his art fair days that it's a good idea to have some lower-priced items in addition to the more expensive scarves, etc. So I am making some little treasure purses. I hope the kids like them.
I've been working on some space-warped felted scarves. Before felting...
After felting...
Before felting...
After felting...
Ohhhh. They came out so soft and thick and warm. Yummy! I hope somebody likes them! But I'm saying to myself, it will just be a lot of fun to be out, meet some people, and hand out some business cards and camp flyers. I hope we get a nice sunny day for the fair!
And may you have a nice sunny day today!
Fleece,
Abu
I am learning where I have to go. It is slow. This week, so many ideas. So many projects! I put this on the loom on Saturday, and finished it Sunday. Just going with it. Following where it wanted to take me. I'm not sure what it is going to "be" yet. It hasn't told me.
The little blue "island" in the picture above came from some fabric scraps Em gave me. It was from an outfit she made for Little Boo, and has since been passed on to Aimee. This started a whole thought process on time. Telling time through cloth. I will need to come back to this and explore some more.
I think I need to be one step ahead of myself. There is a sense of panic when I take something off the loom. I had two thoughts. One was to weave with some rag scraps left over from a floor cloth I knit for Sarah last summer. But when I balled them all up, this was all there was left.
I guess I need to attack my closet and Sal Val for more rags. Second thought was to weave a space warp; then felt it, creating little stain glass windows.
I haven't woven with wool in a long time. I just love the Saori way of warping and dressing the loom. It is so easy. No more fighting tangles. No more warps from he**! Smooth and easy.
I've been playing with these little woven bands from my car weaving. Folding and sewing in origami shapes. Just playing, but I think there are some seeds for a larger project here.
At night I've been working on the potholder loom, free spinning and cardboard weaving a larger bag to go with my shuttle bag.
I've also been practicing Navajo 3-ply.
This is fleece from my Romneys. I'm trying to make up lots of skeins for future dye projects. If the sun ever comes out, I will start to pick my Shetland fleeces.
Em and the grandkids came by on Sunday for the first time in a month. We went for a walk in the Wild Wood and saw lots of pretty flowers.
The kids hadn't seen the sheepies since they got their haircuts! The sheepies were so excited to see the girls!
Georgie loves company!
Ahh. Do you have to go?
Yes, and it's time for me to go, too!
Fleece,
Abu
Welcome to my blog! I'm Abu, short for Abuela. I'm married to the Professor. We live on a small "farm" in the beautiful Fingerlakes Region of Central New York. I'll be posting on my journey to create a more simple life way.
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