Baa Baa Pink Sheep, with Spots !

~Time for another spot on wool...you know, the stuff that my spotted sheep produce . Well, to get the wool to make all the woolly stuff , like yarn, felt, rugs.....well, I start with these. (below) My spotted, Jacob sheep. They're kind of cute aren't they ?~I am going to show you how I combine fibers to make batts of wool for spinning into yarn or felting. I start with the gray wool, shown below. The gray wool is the black and white wool of my sheep, combined . You know, black and white mixed make...gray ! I dyed some of my gray wool pink. I will be carding ( combing or brushing ) the dyed pink wool with some Angora fiber. The Angora is from a goat, a very pretty, long haired goat. Here you can see the original gray fleece, next to some of the pink fleece and some white Angora. ~Here are batts of dyed pink wool,(the pink rolls of fiber that look like cotton candy) sitting next to my little drum carder. The carder will comb or brush together the Angora and the pink wool. ~Close up of the wool being rolled through the carder. I laid strands of the Angora on top of the pink wool and rolled them together through my drum carder. It is fun. I still think it is like magic to take the wool from my spotted sheep and turn it into amazing batts , just waiting for me to create yarns and rugs and woven fabrics.

~See the flat batt of wool I have loosened from the back of the carder ?~

~I roll the batts of wool off at the back. Look at the batts of wool piled up beside the drum carder. The possibilities are as limited as my imagination...and that is not too limited. I have ideas and plans for this pink wool. ~Pink and lustrous and just waiting for me. This wool calls me from afar. The Angora adds the luster that the Jacob alone does not have. ~I felted a bit of this wool tonight. This is my first time felting and I will write more about that process at a later date. Then, I began to spin my pink wool.....I think after I spin up a bit of it I will weave it into a funky, pretty fabric that I have planned to make into..... ~.....more little purses! Won't they be nice ? I already have some Chinese fabric for lining, and beads and buttons to decorate the purses. ~ I am so happy and blessed to have the opportunity to create things using the wool of my sheep. Do you have outlets for your creativity ? Does your heart sing when you are happily busy expressing yourself in some special way unique to you ? Cooking, sewing, knitting, writing, gardening, painting, photography ? "Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of one's chosen form." Stephen Nachmanovitch

Spot on Black Sheep

~~~Delilah, my Jacob / Romney ewe. She was once black, now.....

~~~A basket of wool to be spun.~~~

~~~A basket of wool from my Delilah, my Jacob / Romney ewe who started out as a very black sheep and is now a charcoal gray sheep. I spin the wool up and this is what I have for my effort.

It is 2 ply, and yes, she is a black sheep. Her wool is getting lighter and this year I think I would call the color of her wool 'charcoal brown '. I do not think her wool is a true black and it appears to be fading into a nice brown as she ages.~~~ ~~~This is my new lamb.( below ) Bartholomew. I am sure my daughter and grandchildren will shorten his name to BLACK BART. I am sure I need black fleece to spin black yarn, and Bartholomew was a necessary addition to my flock, don't you think ? Well, maybe Hubby could have been very happy and content without one more baa-ing , woolly, hay chomping animal on the place, but he DID haul little Bartholomew home after all. Isn't he cute ? He is the same age as the other lambs he is confined with. Bartholomew is a Black Welsh Mountain ram lamb...soon to be wether, a fancy term for 'castrated male sheep', shhh......don't tell him.

~~~"Baa baa black sheep have you any wool, yes sir, yes sir, three bags full." Yes indeed, my Delilah gave me at least 3 bags, or to be precise, one BIG bag of black wool which I think is quite nice.

~~~"BLACK WELSH MOUNTAIN SHEEP : The black Welsh Mountain is a small, black sheep with no wool on it's face or legs below the knee hock. The rams are typically horned,and the wool, always black, can be used un-dyed for many cloths."..." The wool is black , short, thick and firm to handle and does not require dyeing." quotes from Wikipedia. So, here again is little Bartholomew. He is very easily handled, and becomes calm when I pick him up. Very unlike my Jacob sheep. Very nice and I just might halter train him so he can be easily handled by our grandchildren. ~~~When you hear the term,' the black sheep', you usually think of someone who stands out in a group in an unfavorable way. BLACK SHEEP is an " English language idiom which describes an odd or disreputed member of a group, especially within one's own family. The term has been looked upon either positively or negatively depending on the era and culture which the term was used. " Wikipedia ~~~"The term originated from the occasional black sheep which are born into a herd of white sheep, due to a genetic process of recessive traits. Black sheep were considered commercially undesirable because their wool cannot be dyed, as white wool can. In 18th and 19th century England the black color of the sheep was seen as the mark of the devil." Wikipedia ~~~The black sheep in my flock have NOT been my troublesome and unruly sheep. The black sheep have not needed to be dealt with in any extraordinary way. The black sheep stand out simply because they are black ! They are different in appearance. Really , the black sheep are desirable to me. I want the black fleece and I want to spin up the black fleece. ~~~I don't want to pontificate on the scriptural and spiritual comparisons and analogies of white / black sheep. I do want to say that because the black sheep stand out in appearance from the more common white sheep ( in my case, spotted sheep ) their behavior and tendencies readily call attention to them. ~~~So maybe my analogy or comparison is not the typical one we might see and hear about so often. If we as Christians, meaning 'Christ Followers", stand out because we call ourselves such, and call attention to ourselves because we are Christians, do we really and truly represent Christ, The Son of God,? Do our attitudes and behavior stand out as truly Christian, or just STAND OUT ? ~~~"All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth;Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before it's shearers, so He did not open His mouth." Isaiah 53: 6,7