The NH Sheep and Wool Festival

I have had a bad case of blogger's block but I think I am recovering and can finally

share my trip to the NH Sheep and Wool Festival.

We arrived just as they started a Sheep Dog Demonstration, which was something I really wanted to see and I know so little about.  Here are a few sheep facts:   Sheep are pretty helpless. Their only real defense is being in a group and having a shepherd. If they fall over they need someone to pick them back up. If they do not get their wool shorn then it will eventually kill them by making them immobile. They need to be led to water and to food. 

Hmmm...and so God tells me that I am one of His sheep. Yup!! That sounds like me.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.  He makes me lie down
in green pastures,  He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
Psalm 23

The Shepherd trains and commands his dogs, they make an amazing team.

         

All we like sheep have gone astray...Isaiah 53:6

The Lord says "I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a

shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after

my sheep".  Ezekiel 34:11&12

Fascinating to watch those dogs move the sheep just by looking at them (intensely look at them). As soon as the dog gets a certain distance to the sheep, the sheep move. I'd always heard about sheep being followers but these girls did not want to be separated from each other at all. In fact they would lean into each other as they ran around in a group.

Jesus said... "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me..."
John 10:11, 14.

And so this once lost sheep is very grateful for my Good Shepherd!

                                                     

************

And now on to all this wonderful WOOLY goodness.

  

Beautiful Colors:)

I had to touch (almost) everything!

Lots of wooly crafts-I don't have a picture but I was really

interested in rug hooking and so got a few tips and maybe 

someday I will try it.

There were all kinds of spinning wheels and happy spinners. 

Sending to you lots of wooly blessings:)

Feltin' Fridays #6

First kitty.

I was asked several times last weekend at the open house "How long does it take to make this?".  I felt like I was guessing because I've never sat and kept exact track of my time. I can figure how many days it will take depending on what I have going on in my life at that time but I haven't counted the hours. So Monday I started a new little kitten since I sold the first one to a sweet young cat lover on Sunday.  I had nothing else on the schedule for the day except a stop to make lunch and dinner, walk down to get the mail and help John with some paper work. Other than that I started around 8:00 in the morning and was still working on it when I went to bed around midnight with a little bit of finishing the next morning. So my best guess is at least ten hours. 

I always forget to take pictures of my progress.

Finished new kitty.

  I then spent Tuesday and Wednesday working on a new Polar Bear. I didn't 

track my hours and had more interruptions.

Last night I started a little blue bear.

He and I are having an arguement over how to make his legs.

He wanted to be different from little brown bear and have long skinny legs but

I disagreed and I think I won the arguement.  Now we have to decide-

do we want a bow tie or a big bow?

Brown Bear is very sweet to model for me but he doesn't like how all 

blue bear's fibers are sticking to his brown fur:(

Talk again soon and Happy Felting:)

Two Days on the Farm

Jenness Farm in Nottingham, NH

We had a wonderful two days at Jenness Farm, the weather was perfect (I got a sunburn), the animals were fun to watch, good food, fun music, we met some great people, made some new friends,  I sold some of my felties...oh, and I bought some soap:)

Day 1- Was a little cool, so not thinking at all I declined a tent. Guess what happened to me.

My little sheep at the farm.

A big attraction-milking the goats.

The beekeeper.

Such cute animals. We were totally entertained by the baby goats.

Here is a future felter... he was so focused and really wanted to make something with his felting.

Kate's Day 1 face painting.

Fun Music

This flock of guinea hens weren't interested in music but they sure knew how to make 

their share of noise.

Day 2...They saw my red face and up went the tent:)

Our new friend, Linda the face painter. She also is an artist 

with her own studio, The Artist's View.

John came on Day 2

Day 2 face painting

Linda's face paintings were works of art.

A beautiful weekend!

A special thank you to the farm's owner Pete Corriveau for having us in his Open House

and for Manya Cetlin-Salter for inviting us.

My little sheep are heading to the farm

I am about to spend two days experiencing farm life...well, really I'm going to watch farm life from my chair, behind a table, demonstrating needle felting and showing off some of my felties.  I have really been looking forward to this weekend and yea! the weather is going to continue to be 'spring like'.

My sheep and I will be at the Jenness Farm Open House in Nottingham both Saturday and Sunday.

Even though Jenness Farm is mainly a goat farm, they do have two new

lambs so in their honor I made a little flock of resting lambs.

                                   Talk again soon:)

Feltin' Fridays

Here's a few projects I've been working-just wanted to share:) 

I am really into sheep right now:)

I finally made a shepherd and a miniature sheep to go with the Nativities.

So sweet and tiny.

This is a little bit different-a big sheep doll:)  This is the wool from

Bittersweet Heritage Farm that I posted about last week.

I haven't listed any of these yet in my Etsy shop but will soon.

                                  

 So Happy Feltin'...

Bittersweet Heritage Farm

Last fall a friend gave to me the gift of two bags of wool that she had bought at a Farmer's Market near her home in Maine. I thought that was the most thoughtful gift she could ever give to me. I am starting to think I have a wool addiction:)  I have pondered for a while how best to use this precious wool and I finally made a little sheep and fell in love with him.  He just felt so perfect, in fact I can barely keep my hands off him because he feels so good to hold. 

As soon as I made two of these sheep I started to worry about whether or not I would be able to replace this wool when I ran out. (I know- pretty silly). So I did a little research and found that I could order online and get the same wool from the very same sheep, Sweet Pea. According to Dyan, the owner of the sheep from Bittersweet Heritage Farm, this wool has a higher (grease) content and is processed a little differently. (That's probably why I keep picking my sheep up and just holding it.) Her sheep are Romneys crossed with Merinos and if you go to her web site you can find out more about her 'girls'. I also recommend her facebook page-it is full of interesting farm events.

So I ordered two more bags of Sweet Pea's wool.

 Oh, and three bars of lavender soap.

My Sweet Pea

I love how you get a picture of the sheep the wool came from. I am looking forward to trying all the

different rovings especially the brown wool from Maeve (just waiting for the shearer).