The Mysterious Package! Is it a wool bomb?
As Ann mentioned in her post we caved and succumbed to our basic default settings, BUY MORE WOOL! There was free shipping if you ordered enough. We both wanted footwear and Ann spotted these lovely colours natural and unnatural!! Did I mention there were colours and some were BLUE!!! How could I say no? ( Please don’t buy all her blue I would like to get a bit more!!!)
We spent a long time debating amounts and colours eventually settling on Grey, Really Dark Grey, some more Grey and some natural cream in the large 500gr batts as well as a Purple and a Blue, both over-dyed on Grey. What can I say? There was a sale, we got excited. We spent a lot of money at the on Etsy.com. (Remember don’t buy all the blue please.)
I got an email (Hotmail is sometimes intermittently working and then sends mail the long way around the planet) a couple of days after we had placed the order, requesting a phone number for shipping. I seemed to have missed that in the order instructions. 3 days later, while working in the side yard studio, a nice man from Fed-X came up the driveway looking a bit confused by the potted trees and the rest of the garden. Sharkette and I put on masks (you saw the photo of her mask not fitting her well) and received the mysterious black taped package…insert spooky music here… OOOOH! Now I have to wait for Ann so we can open it together!!!!
1 Wool bomb?
Oh, the stress of waiting! So of course I dropped it off to her at the farmers market so I would not be tempted to peek! I was the mother of Evil, he was so cute and had such soft fur, so I left the temptation for Ann. She promised to bring it on Monday for the Great Unwrapping!!
2 Due to the stress, I’m sure I also picked up two fleeces at the other end of the market, a Shropshire and a Canadian. Both were large Rams and were much softer than I expected. They are now waiting for the humidity to drop so I can skirt and wash them!
3-5 I hid them under my studio table so no one would know they were there.
6-8 I re-bagged them into the giant ziplock bags from Dollerama it definitely needs a lot of skirting but it should be worth the work!
The day of the Great Unwrapping finally arrived. Well the package arrived Friday morning and this is now Monday morning so you know the agony we had to endure waiting 3 whole days; the same length of time it took to get here from Lithuania!!!
9-10 Ann in the guild library
We were both in at the guild studio, wearing our masks, to finish pulling books for guild members, update the library cards to match the membership list and receive library books that were still out with members. (There are a few that are now overdue! You know who you are! Please follow the instructions on the guild web page and arrange to drop them back into the studio)
We were very good and got the books pulled and cards updated before we carefully approached the package. Now we would find out the burning question, is this all the wool we ordered? It seems so small?
500gr / 17.6 oz each of Bergschaf Tyrollean Wool – 2x Light Grey 1 X Dark Grey and 1x Natural white(cream) =2000gr
Plus
100 gr / 3,52 oz each of Dyed Bergschaf Tyrollean wool – 1x Blue, 1x #56. Purple Grey Mix
Total of 2200gr of wool!! How can all that wool be in such a small ball?
After a quick debate, I had the camera. She had scissors! We got to work. Ohh I should film this!
Video 1 – getting through the outer layer
Video 2 – the bag inside
Video 3 – commentary on contents
11
Here is the 100gr of natural grey overdyed in a beautiful blue. The black plastic and tape outer wrapping can be seen to the right of the table it’s amazing all the fibre fit into it!
I am planning boots with mine. I think Ann will be making slippers. I have to look at soles and see if I can get rubber soles or if I should go with leather. My feet have been freezing lately and I am planning them as indoor boots. I had a pair of outdoor mid-calf boots about 20 years ago that were slit at the sides with the front and back overlapping. They were easy to put on and were great with calves that use to do horseback riding ( so not twigs). I want to try to recreate something similar.
I am suspecting more fibre will be required after looking at Ann’s sample so I will hope there is another sale happening Soon at
Now I better get back to working on Mer-pet two!!
9 thoughts on “The Mysterious Package! Is it a wool bomb?”
Im sorry!! between Ann and i we have argued with the vidios to let you see them. i have no idea why only one of the 3 posted here and the other 2 are timmid and wount leave You tube. if i have a flash of brilliance i will try again to perswade them.
Thanks for showing us the wool bomb! Such fun unwrapping wool. I look forward to seeing boots or slippers.
it was lots of fun opening it.
i think it will be a bit befor we start working on warm footware. maybe this fall will be the perfect time to start unless the weather turns chilly urly!
It’s always amazing how so much wool can be packed so small! Have fun with it!
p.s. enjoyed the videos.
Ann and i were hopeing to let all of you enjoy the fun of “whats in the package?” as you can see for the previous post Ann did it will be grate for a vary furm felt. im glad we didnt have to try and get all of it back into its little package! as it sat there after its unpacking it seemed to get even larger!
That’s great. I particularly liked the fact that you didn’t have any inane music on your videos. It seems these days that even (or especially) news services can’t show us a moving picture without assaulting our senses with loud unnecessary music! Sorry – rant over.
I’m not sure if you’ve used Bergschaff wool before for felting? i was introduced to it at an IFA workshop (International Feltmakers Association) and it is very fast to felt, despite the fact that it is coarser than merino. It does give very sturdy felt, ideal for footwear, but it’s only drawback as far as I can see is that if you don’t like “hairy” felt, it needs a shave when you’ve finished.
Ann
i have notice the music thing too! i just thot it odd, but its the choice of music and a bit of Rammstine, Buck tick or the Hu would make that better! really if the music wasn’t there when you are filming and you want to show what was happening (not making a dramatic movie), do you need to add music? (ok i did have to pull the audio on one video we made at the guild social but that was because someone had been chatting in the background not on a topic fit for you tube.)
Nether of us has tryed Bergschaff wool before and from Ann Mc’s test piece i am vary excited!. i will need to by a bit more or make shorter boots. as nice as Merino is i want the strength and stiffness to be grater than what merino can offer. its important to select the best type of fiber for the perpuous you want to use it for. nunofelt would be good for merino but not socks or boots. the sample Ann did was not too herry but i will keep an eye out for that. i want to try a bit with needle felting too but maybe on the next order or after i have made my boots, so im not short on that project!
thanks for the info!! have fun and keep felting!!
Wow, thats quite a haul! No wonder you were so excited. It’s always fun to get those special packages. Beautiful blues. I look forward to seeing what you both do with all that!