Wool, Llama, Angora and more Wool!

Here it is! I have finally gotten around to posting the pictures of the different fiber that we got at the Wool Gathering last month. It took a whole afternoon to put everything away. I have a cedar chest to keep the wool in (good protection against the moths), but I actually didn't have enough room! I had to put some things in a few other spots that I've been saving.

These first three pictures are Llama and Alpaca fiber in big plastic bags. The first two pictures are Llama and the third is of Alpaca. The Alpaca is black fiber with some brown spots in it, but the camera kind of over exposed the pictures. Sorry. My computer's on the blink, so I can't use Photoshop to hide my poor photography skills. ;)

I am going to use the fiber that is in the first picture to make a teddy bear. You sew a teddy bear shape in a wool fabric and then needle-felt the ends of the two or three inch pieces of fiber into the body. It makes a really cute, furry teddy bear!

These next three pictures are of some really nice, naturally dyed wool blends. (Different combinations of Lincoln, Alpaca, Mohair and Llama.) Wool is, by far, my favorite thing to felt. It has a courser feeling when you work with it that I prefer. These bags are going to turn into a giraffe and a lion!

Yet some more wool, though this time we're finding some brighter colors! These are for accents and decorations, birds . . . anything colorful! The four large balls of white/natural are some of my favorites. A lot of bases are made of white, so it's good to have around. I would really like to make a bendable doll one day . . .

All of the little "curlies" in the ziplocs are for furry sheep (In a previous blog entry there are pictures of one.). First you felt a body in the shape of a sheep and then needle all of the little curlies onto it which makes it a really cute, fuzzy sheep! The golden orange curlies are to make a little lion's mane!

I've saved these pictures for the end as one is my favorite find of the day and another is pretty interesting. The little bag of dark brown is actually Buffalo fiber! Guess what I'm going to make with that?! The little colored pieces are various types of dyed wool. Again, these will be for decorations or special projects. Not pictured are seven more bags (about twice the size) that have the same types of little pieces in them, so I think I'm set up for the year!

Now, for my favorite find of the day: White Angora! That is the bag in the first picture above. That's our cat, Manly (named for Almanzo in Little House on the Prairie), who just had a great time helping me put everything away. This white angora is going to make the base for a statue of my cat, Samwise! I have been furminating Samwise for a year and have a whole bag of his fur (which looks almost just like the Angora) to use as the top. Now I just can't wait for Winter, so that I can get working!

Well, I've finally reached the end here. Thought that the last two pics should be "before" and "after". That was the cedar chest when I started and then when I was done. Like I said, everything didn't even fit in it, but almost everything! More soon . . .