This is the 5th post in my blog series; “How I started needle felting and making money with wool from my sheep.” If you haven’t already you may want to read the previous articles in this series before this one. These articles will help to explain how I got this far in my journey.
- Farm Grown Artist
- How Homeschooling helped me Create a Business Making Money with Wool from my Sheep
- How my 7 Year old Daughter Started me on my New Hobby and Future Business
- How Sheep Came to Reside at Bear Creek
In this article I want to share how a group of sheep and wool enthusiasts became my inspiration and support as they encouraged me to pursue a fiber art business.
The Woolly Women
We purchased our first Romney sheep from Jan who invited me and my daughter to come to the next meeting of the Woolly Women. She told us they were a group of ladies that got together who raise or have raised sheep in the past and enjoy working with wool. They could teach me to spin and so we made plans to attend.
The first time we met the Woolly Women they were gathered in the basement of one of the members homes. There were 5 or 6 ladies there and they were all working on spinning, knitting or felting projects. The room was filled with the sound of spinning wheels and laughter and we were excited to see all the projects they were working on. Julie, the hostess, found me a spinning wheel and begin teaching me to spin right away.
While I was struggling away behind the spinning wheel Jan was busy teaching Libbie how to needle felt. We enjoyed our time getting to know each of these ladies and learned so much from them in that very first get together. Little did I know my life would completely change from this experience.
Needle Felting
I didn’t own a spinning wheel at the time so I couldn’t practice my newfound spinning skills when I got home that evening. We had wool that was washed and waiting for us to do something with it, I had tried a drop spindle and found that very frustrating. During our visit with the Woolly Women Jan had helped Libbie to make a Santa Clause ornament and she had given Libbie a felting needle and a felting cushion to take home. 😉
When Libbie went to bed that night I picked up the felting needle and cushion, I grabbed some soft white wool from our sheep and I began needle felting. I was amazed with this process, it was soothing and addicting. I made shapes with the wool and eventually working into the wee hours of the morning making my first sculpture. I had a complete needle felted sheep in the morning and couldn’t wait to start on the next project.
i was so excited about needle felting that all four kids couldn’t help but be curious about my new hobby as well. We found some needles at a craft store so we could all do it together. We didn’t have anything to use as a cushion so my son went down into the basement and came up with a couch cushion. He had unzipped and removed the cover so we could all felt together on this huge slab. We were having a blast until one of the boys broke their needle deep inside the cushion! We worked very hard to get that sharp piece of needle out of the couch cushion. Thankfully we were successful but we never used the couch cushion again for needle felting. 🙂
The Woolly Women have been and continue to be my greatest inspiration and support. We continue to get together about once a month in each others homes and demonstrate at local events. They are all very knowledgeable about wool, sheep and all the things you can do with wool and believe me there are more things than you could have ever imagined. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. They all love Libbie and have watched her grow up, encouraging her in all that she does. They love my boys too as my boys have all learned to felt, spin and knit and enjoy spending time with these ladies.
If you have a group like this near you I highly encourage you to join them. I can’t guarantee they will be all that my Woolly Women have been to me but I know you will find spending time with a group like this rewarding.
In my Next blog post in this series I will share how needle felting took over my life and I began selling my first sculptures.
Hi Teresa, I raise black face ewes and I saved a fleece after we sheared the other day. I’ve washed it three times and it is drying nicely. I want to make dryer balls with it and have been reading some articles. Do you have any tips for my first felting project? Also with felting does the quality of wool matter?
thanks
I had the my best wool experience (before discovering needle felting) Back in the 80’s handweaving was popular. I learned to weave on a 20″ ridged heddle loom. Then took classes with a local woman who had 20! in her barn. As my story continued I bought a 45 ” u 4 harness loom for my home. My amazing husband put a dormer edition on the house. Well then I had to have an 8 harness loom.
My husband was my weaving helper: dressing the loom and traveling over New England to buy yarn on cones. I tried many fibers, but wool was always my favorite.
In New England I belonged to three weaving Guilds. Our members wove, spun and all the other great woolen handcrafts…We did “sheep to shawl” contests and demos. Best 10 years of my 69 years. We had an annual show. We also went to The New England Weavers Seminar at UMass that brought folks from New England and beyond.
My husband died very young and I have done other crafts but needle felting has brought me back to wool. We are blessed that these groups are so welcoming and helpful.
Love this Nancy! Thanks for sharing your story.
I have the Sheep, for beginners. I believe I may have made the head too big?? But I love felting and I agree that it is very soothing and mindful.
I am going to make some pansy brooches. One, for Mothering Sunday on 22 March, 2020 and the others for the Pateley Bridge Art Club, Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, UK exhibition in April.
I have to say I purchased the yarn doe felting, the brooch backs from The Makerss at Stroud, England (as I did not want to pay the tax from the USA).
However, I am thoroughly enjoying the Ewe Tube videos. Keep them coming!!
Love this article, it gets back to basics and friendships!
I was visiting a store in Maine and a lady was feeling the wool that was available for felting. She commented she knew nothing about felting, but loved to feel the fiber.
I highly suggested the Bearcreek website and academy.
Thank you for sharing
Love this! Thank you.
I love that this came unexpectedly in your life!
You have a gift for writing that seems like I am hearing your voice instead of reading the words. How pleasant! This is the first time I have read about the Woolly Ladies. I have been felting for several years, but very sporadically which results in my having several unfinished pieces. That is okay with me because they are in various stages of completion & need to use them to illustrate presentation. But, they all will be finished eventually. Seeing your site and reading about your experiences give me an extra boost to get the projects finished. Thank you for sharing with us.