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Monday, December 21, 2015

Why Fiber Arts?

 I would have said you were crazy if you were to tell me seven years ago that I would live on a farm shearing sheep, caring for rabbits, and spinning and felting wool. You may not even know but seven years ago my family lived in a neighborhood with a hamster as our one and only pet. However living on a farm had been a dream for my family and eventually we were able to make that happen. 

    But why a fiber farm? Many people ask why I picked fiber arts as it's so unheard of and often misunderstood. Honestly I had never heard of spinning or felting wool until I purchased my first angora rabbits. I found out about angoras when I saw a picture of one in the back of my 4-H book. I thought It looked like a cloud with ears! 

     Of course having an awful addiction to all things cute and fluffy I decided that I simply had to have an English Angora rabbit. I spent the next six months researching the breed and even though it mentioned being able to use the wool I never found it that interesting. Eventually I purchased two bunnies on craigslist. Their names were Pippin and Rosie.
I then finally decided to try spinning the wool. I ran out and bought a drop spindle and attempted to spin up my own beautiful yarn. It was an absolute disaster! I decided spinning wasn't for me and it wasn't until a friend told me about the Fiber Event that I decided to try it again. I went and was amazed at all the roving, yarn, and wheels and I realized I had found my passion! I bought a Louet spinning wheel and took a few classes. 

    And then I found out about felting... If you can have a passion of all passions then felting is that passion! I love felting! Being able to work the wool into sculptures or paintings is a wonderful process. 

   However all this fiber awesomeness was beginning to drain my wallet so logically I decided we needed sheep to keep up with the amount of wool I use (I told you I have a fluffy animal addiction!) My mom was deadest on milk goats however so we came to a compromise... Dairy sheep. Yes dairy sheep! Even better was that we found a dairy sheep breeder ten minutes down the road from where we live! We bought two sheep Dolley and Sophie.
  Over the next few years I began to learn more and more about fibers and I am still continuing to learn as there is still so much more to discover! So stay tuned for more wooly adventures!