wet-felting party in the driveway...

Remember the blessingway, back in January? And that sweet baby's birth in February? Well, there was another party planned for him that didn't come to pass before he was born, so this week we gathered at our house (well, in our driveway), the half-way point between friends to the south and friends to the northeast, to make him and his mama a felted blanket.

Much of the wool came from our friend E's Jacob's sheep, and had been dyed with natural dyes.  The kids sat on blankets (again, in our driveway!), carding the roving and creating their little additions to the whole.

Melanie, the mama, chose a tree for the image...

 We all added our bits and pieces: butterflies, nests, blossoms, leaves...

...mushrooms (Anika's addition!), worms (mine - actually, I was lucky to be holding the baby, so I was happy to throw in a worm for each family member under the tree as my contribution!)...

our perspective on the event...

Once everything was in place, dishsoap was squirted over the whole piece, and hot water was dribbled.  The background piece of wool had been laid on a piece of bubble wrap, which was lying in a kiddie pool.

 Once the piece was all wet, another piece of bubble wrap was laid overtop, and the pressing began.  It was stressed how important it was to press down, not side-to-side, so as to not disturb the individual pieces or pull the wool apart.

I love how everyone could be involved...there were even wee ones who tended to the full water buckets, making sure they had enough leaves and sticks floating in them and that everyone was getting wet enough, you know...

Once it looked as though the wool was sticking to itself well enough, not easily torn apart, the top piece of bubblewrap was removed and the whole thing was rolled up and rubber-banded into a long sausage.

Time for wet-felt dancing! This took a while - maybe 45 minutes total - of squeezing and stomping and massaging, then unrolling and rolling it back up the other direction and doing the same, over and over...

Until it was done! A beautiful hanging or baby mat, made in community for dear friends.

Owls and wool and out!

After the busyness of Tuesday's trip to the capitol, and a day visiting a friend's farm on Wednesday (pigs! creek! run!!), we hunkered in a bit on Thursday.  There was more felt noodling, and Ani needle-felted a hill.

We started to experiment with more than spirals...still trying to figure out what to do with the worms we love making.

It rained all day, but lightened up just in time for us to drive out to a local Owl Prowl.

There was an incredible turnout, but still enough room for us to make masks, and dissect an owl pellet before the presentation.

We met two of Ohio's year-round owl residents: a Great Horned Owl, named Ivan the Terrible (and we heard the story of how he got his name...

 ...see the talons below? Imagine their 400-pound crushing strength going through your arm...mmmhmmm...)

 The second was a barred owl, named Luna. She was so small and sweet by comparison! Ani's been quoting owl facts randomly since that evening...did you know that owls don't have enough room in their skulls for muscles, 'cause their eyes are SO BIG? That's why they can't look at you out of the corner of their eye, but have to turn their whole head. It also means they don't have much room for brains...

They make up for those flaws with incredible hearing and the afore-mentioned crushing power of their talons.  The naturalist, from the nearby Hocking Hills, took us on a very dark walk, calling for barred owls, but whether due to the rain or the size of our group, we didn't hear anyone reply. Well, not officially - Eliza and I are pretty certain that if we could have gotten everyone to stand still we could have confirmed a call or two that we're pretty sure we heard. And definitely a call as we climbed into our car.

 Dan got home from his trip on Friday morning, and we put him right into action; following the presentation of sweet treats from the northern lands we suited up for a romp through the woods.

We're still experiencing huge fluctuations in weather - snow and ice, then temperatures near 50. Things are definitely growing out there, proceeding as if there were no real winter...

Chickweed!

We remembered a bag for trash on this hike; it's a state park and there's so much left from the summer 'round the lake. They drain it for the winter, and it was easy pickings all around its edge. Never know what you might find...maybe even a stegosaurus!

Club moss

Hepatica nobilis

The weekend we've spent at market...a self defense class for me and Eliza...dinner with friends...reading and finishing a graphic novel with 186 pages for Eliza...and today was Cleaning Day - the sort where everyone pitches in and things sparkle...Mormor's coming tomorrow!!

Twisted wool roving worms

Our friend Jen showed us a new way to play with wool - yipeeee!! Really. If you are at all into making things with wool, you need to try this.  I have no idea what to call it - I've been googling all kinds of descriptions just to see what all a person could do with this, but I'm not coming up with anything! (ok, I just went and looked again. For a long time.  Nothing.)  I took pictures as she made a few pieces, and then Eliza got excited about making a photo tutorial, so here is a combination of the two for you!

You will need:  

wool roving (the carded, unfelted "loose" wool - it's still recognizable, though sometimes dyed, as coming from the sheep. The wool we used for this all came from my friend Emma's beautiful Jacob's sheep, and are all naturally dyed.)

wooden skewer - you could also use a pencil or a chopstick, but the skewer makes for a nice, tight roll, and is long, which is good for the twisting part.

A foam block helps, but if you don't have one already for needle felting, don't worry about it; a table top will do.

Wool, skewer, and foam block - check!

Lay out a piece of roving about 2 inches by 3 inches in size.

Lay the skewer along the side closest to you, on top of the edge of roving. You are basically going to roll the piece of roving like you would a roll of sushi, up and over the skewer, tucking in tight as you go.

Eliza style - preparing to roll

Jen starting to roll

After the initial tuck and roll, you can use one hand to slowly twirl the skewer away from you while maintaining tension with the fingers of the other hand, continuing to coax the wool around the skewer, and to keep it even.  What is hard to show in a photo is how much tension there is in the fingers that are riding the roll.

One hand twirling the skewer away from you, the other providing tension

Eliza's trying to keep an even tension here, and doing a great job, though her hands are smaller.

Twirling...

When you've twisted the whole piece of roving, and it's nice and tight, you can slip it off the end of the skewer, and voila! A worm! Someone has a more elegant name for what you have, but that wouldn't be me.

Now what can you do with your worm?? Aha...well, it could become a mustache, non?

It has a nice elasticity to it, and can actually be bent into all kind of shapes, and needle-felted in place.  In the photo below, Jen has figured out how to add another color by layering another piece of wool roving over the end of the first worm, once it has been slid almost all of the way off the skewer.  She's brilliant that way.

One loooooong worm

We've been spiraling them into these wonderful little pieces. Once they're spiraled (and they kind of stick together), you can use a felting needle to secure them, poking from the outside toward the center of the circle.  We've also put a backing on, which you could make from a felted sweater (just needle felt the whole thing right onto a cut circle of felted sweater!) or could needle felt a circle of roving quickly, attaching it by, you guessed it, needle felting.  Shoo, articulate, aren't I? 

Simple needle-felted backing

 Well, I hope you can figure this out, that you are as excited by wool worms as I am, and that you let me know if you've ever heard of this before! Jen learned it from an artist who creates whole creatures and hats and such from pieces like this...we'll share what else comes from this inspiration in the coming weeks, 'cause we can't seem to stop...

Eliza's rose

Ani's spiral

A collaborative spiral

 Shared on The Magic Onions for their Friday's Nature Table round-up. Check it out!