"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." A.Holmes
Showing posts with label jacob wool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jacob wool. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Rainy Day Flowers

 After a busy few weeks tending the gardens , poultry, & livestock during the very ( unseasonably )warm sunny days the rain I love has finally returned ! Now instead of endless watering and weeding outdoors I am cultivating indoor flowers . Fanciful flowers I needle-felt onto wool balls I've made using the wool fleece from my sheep.
 I added a few fanciful bees too. None of the flowers or bees are crafted to be realistic, but they are meant to be fun. Some of the balls have jingles inside. My cats love the jingle balls. So do my grandchildren.
I enjoyed spinning up quite a bit of yarn on the porch during the warm days. I can watch my sheep and the birds at our feeder from the porch. I watch my ducks waddle by on their way from the pond to scavenge any birdseed the wild birds scatter under the feeders. Two of my dogs are always at my feet as I spin wool into yarn. Contentment and thankfulness are my constant companions during these times.

Whether cultivating indoor flowers or working hard outdoors , I am always mindful of the blessing it is to be able to do this work in and around a home provided by God through the love and hard work of my husband and family. Thank-you Jim !

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Finished ~ Into the Peace Of The Done

I finally finished weaving the 8th rug on my loom. I am happy with the colorful rugs , all with a bit of turquoise in them, and all for our home use. Usually I have in mind the option of selling some of my rugs after weaving, but this batch of rugs is for personal happiness ~ because the colors make me happy !

I have also finished spinning , plying, & dyeing several skeins of yarn from the wool fleeces of my Jacob sheep. There is such a feeling of satisfaction when I have raised the sheep that produce the wool fleeces I have sheared and turn into yarn .

My sheep are due to have their lambs within the next 2 months and that has me excited with anticipation. Every year brings it's own joys and excitement, and new lambs rate pretty high on my scale in achieving that.

Anyway, I have finally finished some things that have been in the works for awhile around here and have the tangible proof for all to see that yes, I really do finish my projects and goals. "Motivation is when you see your dreams put on work clothes." AU  and "Out of the strain of the doing , into the peace of the done." Julia Woodruff

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

More Winter Weaving

"I feel within an impulse , perhaps that divine impulse which has moved all races- in all ages and in all climes, to record in enduring form the emotions that stir within." C. Valentine Kirby ~This is a continuation of my Winter Weaving post ( December 29, 2008 ). I wrote about warping ( threading ) my loom. I put 10 yards of warp on the loom. That is, 10 yards of weaving possibilities. I planned to weave one table runner and several segments of fabric to make small purses. With one plain colored warp, there are still endless possibilities for the finished product ! I am weaving a simple weave only, nothing fancy requiring a lot of concentration. ~This segment of woven fabric is done in some of my home grown wool that has been dyed and spun into 2 ply yarn. I combined it with some of the pink Jacob / angora wool I did a post on earlier. The pink, cotton candy looking wool. You can see threads of pink throughout this piece of fabric. ~Here is a segment of a lot of the pink, woven in with some of the novelty yarns I have collected. ~This is the table-runner. The weft ( that is the back and forth weaving ) is comprised completely of my hand spun Jacob wool, with a bit of the pink angora / Jacob spun in. This is a deliberately variegated and random pattern, or lack of pattern.
~Here is the finished table runner, before being washed and blocked. I am going to show more of this weaving in tomorrow's post. I had a lot of fun experimenting with my weaving and will be setting aside time for many more weaving projects this year. ~ Vision of Piers The Ploughman (1360) "Cloth that cometh fro the weving is not comely to were Till it be fulled under foot or in fulling stokkes washen wel with water and with teasels cracched Y-touked and y-tented and under taillours hands."
Blessings: to work with my hands, to spin and weave the wool of my sheep