Well, of course I did! Because I 'felt' like it.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you spend it with someone...errr....if you are Emma, spend it with something you love.

"Mwaahhh!"

Well, it's finally getting warmer out, and the mountains of snow have turned into rivers of sludge. I fought a losing battle yesterday trying to clean out the barns, and decided to wait until more of the snow has melted, or until it gets cold enough for the ground to refreeze so that I am not slip-slidin' away on the slimy mud. Frustrated that I couldn't get things done outside as I had planned, I decided to spend the afternoon doing something completely different. I have seen needle-felted figurines on many of the fibery websites and at crafty shows and often thought that I would like to try making one. I make stuff out of clay all the time, so clay to fiber didn't seem like a huge leap... sculpting is sculpting....sort of.

I should have taken pictures all the way along, but since I kind of threw myself into this project I didn't have that forethought.

If you are not familiar with the process, you basically take a ball of roving or fiber, roll it up tight, stab it, a lot, with incredibly sharp needles, and keep stabbing it until you make it into something. Someone more adept at the process would probably argue that there is much more to it, and I am sure that there is, but I didn't have any patterns or anything so I just kind of winged it. Oh, also, it helps to avoid stabbing yourself with said incredibly sharp needles...it happens...a lot...OK, maybe it just happens to me.

So, I decided that I wanted to make a sheep...I KNOW...I am so imaginative! I started with a gob of britch wool from last year's shearing (always wondered what I was going to do with that stuff), made it into a ball, and went to town stabbing the bejeezers out of it; which I found to be an excellent form of stress relief, until I stabbed through the fiber, and into my finger....repeatedly. I would like to note that it really slows down the process when you have to stop every few minutes to wait for your fingers to stop bleeding. 

After a few hours, I ended up with this-

As I mentioned, she isn't finished,  I know it's kind of wonky at this point, but that's what is nice about needle-felting; you can add more fiber and reshape it as you go. When I brought the little sheepie out to show my husband, I promptly told him that it wasn't finished and I started to go through a laundry list of conformation flaws as if I were looking at a sheep in the show ring: "It's head is too big, the topline isn't level, the back is too short, the tail is too low-set..." When I finally stopped with my dissertation he stared blankly at me for a moment and put it all in perspective, "You do know that this isn't a real sheep....aaaand it's made out of a ball of fiber, right?"

Why does he always have to be so practical?

Fiber fondling

Monday I took all of my fleeces to Abi's High Prairie Fiber studio, as I do every year for processing. I always have such fun there. Abi is super creative and interesting and we have a great time admiring the colors and texture of each fleece and deciding how each one will be processed. This time it was even more fun because it just happened that Claire, from Whispering Acres, was there with some fleece that she had purchased.....A lot of fleece. A LOT. When Claire pulled her vehicle up and opened the door, there were bags of fleece as far as the eye could see. There was fleece stuffed in every nook and cranny...we unloaded, and unloaded, and unloaded...let's just say it was an obscene amount of fleece. I brought 15 bags of my own down with me, so between Claire and I we pretty much filled Abi's studio. First we went through all of Claire's beautiful fleeces. We ohhhhhed and ahhhhed over the crimpiness and softness.

We listened to the strands of fleece.
Below is a photo of Claire having a moment with one of my fleeces...which by the way, according to Claire, smells like popcorn. I have heard of popcorn chicken, and popcorn shrimp but I had no idea that I was raising popcorn sheep. Claire is a little silly like me. I am not sure what Abi is thinking in this photo....she was probably wondering what she has gotten herself into....
After we skirted, sorted, fondled, smelled and lusted over each fleece, we bagged them back up and left Abi's studio buried in fibery deliciousness.
Of course, when you go to Abi's, you have to stop and say "Hi" to their parrots. They run a parrot rescue and recently built a brand new facility on their property to house all of their feathered friends.
And no trip to a fiber studio would be complete without a visit to the sheep that live there. Her sheep are very stately and serious, they don't rush you baaaing for cookies like some sheepies that I am familiar with.
The day flew by, and after taking a few minutes to sit and visit on Abi's porch, overlooking the gently rolling hills, with the sounds of birds twittering in the trees, it was time to head home. I am so lucky to have met so many fun, interesting people through my blog and my little farm. Thanks Abi and Claire for a fun, relaxing day.

Alpaca and internet friends

I finally got to meet my friend Sheri (whom I had never actually met in person), at her Sunset Hill Alpaca Farm. We "met" last fall through a mutual spinner friend, who thought that Sheri and I might be able to share information with each other, since we both raise fiber animals. We kept in touch with email and a phone call or two through the winter. Yesterday, I finally got to go out and see her farm and meet all of her gorgeous babies. Upon meeting Sheri, it was interesting to find out that she had imagined me as being overweight with dark hair, hmmmm, I must have a chubby voice. I guess maybe I should add a photo to my profile.
Sheri and one of her boys.These are some more of the boys, or "Thorns" as Sheri refers to them. She has a female alpaca named Rose and for the last 3 years she has hoped for a female cria (baby alpaca) out of Rose. Instead of a pretty rose bud, all she has gotten are thorns! Although I must say, these boys are pretty darn handsome.

Finally this year she had her little Rose Bud.
Four day old Rose Bud and Mama Rose.
"Hey, I'm pretty cute too.....I think....I can't see very well through all of this hair".

If you like spinning Alpaca fiber, you have to get some of her fiber. Clean, clean, clean and soft. And extremely reasonably priced. She also has some mill spun yarn.

This is some roving that I picked up for my niece who just got her first spinning wheel, perhaps this will inspire her to update her blog (hint).

Isn't the Internet wonderful? I think about how lucky I have been to have met so many interesting, enjoyable people through my sheep and this silly computer.

I do, however, sometimes question my judgement at traveling halfway across the country to pick up sheep, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, from someone that I have never actually met, without giving it a second thought ( hmmm....sounds like stuff that I warned my children not to do...although, I don't think that they are inclined to pick up sheep...more so the not meeting strangers on the Internet thing). Most of the time my sister, Marie, accompanies me on these excursions....well, now there's a lot of protection. My husband doesn't really worry about me when I go on these sheep procurement expeditions though, he is fairly confident that if some ill intentioned person was to snatch up Marie and I, the perpetrator would be the one calling him, in tears, begging, "PLEEAASSE, come and get them, I can't take it anymore".