Sheep Day 2010

Today was sheep day at Unique Cottage Farm studio and the sun shone, this is the studio before the crowds arrive. For some though the day started with a hair cut,


This sheep lost her woolly coat thanks to the steady hands of the shearer.


Once sheared she looked like this -


I can't remember which breed of sheep this was but she was not impressed about the whole thing, her lamb missed being sheared though.

I was demonstrating dyeing of wool, roving and everything else woolly. I used Blue Face Leicester and Merino wool. I had some very nice 4 ply superwash sock yarn which took the dye really well. Today I dyed using the microwave and I used Kentex easidye dyes. These are a fantastic dye which I would really recommend. The dye comes as crystals and you do not need to add vinegar or any other substance. After colouring the wool/fleece, cook for 10 minutes in a microwave and hey presto. You do need to use a low heat and take care not to felt the wool, the trick is to not agitate it too much whilst warm. I did go "au natural" and used some daffodil heads to create a yellow dye colour. These had been dried so they were crispy, I put some into a muslin bag and boiled in water to release the colour before putting the fleece into it. I still have the muslin and am hoping that some of the colour will stay in the fabric. I might boil in again with some cotton just to see what might happen. doing so much demonstrating meant I didn't really take any photos of what I was doing. I have brought home some wet yarn which I will photograph tomorrow.

Once nice thing about today was that I meet up with several fellow bloggers. Here are Sweetiepie and Trudi from Quilt Prolifically counting sheep.

I also meet up with Julie from Mixed Media and another lovely lady who will have to forgive me as I can't remember the name of her blog.

As well as the dyeing there were lots of very talented people spinning, weaving, knitting, and felting wool with lots of sheep paintings as well on display. I think you could even make a sheep stained glass hanging. There were also some people selling lovely things but I didn't really get a chance to have a look round.



Even Sweetiepie caught the woolly bug and started some knitting.