Marilyn aka Pandagirl

Lambing in Sweden 2015

May 25, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 24 comments

Our guest author/artist today is Zara Tuulikki Rooke. She recently shared the experience of shearing her sheep with a note that Spring will bring new lambs. So, today we share her experience of the birth of new lambs.

Spring has arrived (according to the calendar), which means the lambing season has started. Most sheep become receptive to mating in the autumn, when the length of daylight starts decreasing, and have their lambs in the spring, after almost 5 months of pregnancy (on average 145 days). However, some breeds are less seasonal, and can be manipulated with artificial light to mate at other times of the year. Spring is often late in the north of Sweden, so we waited until mid-December before we released our ram with our ewes. That postponed our lambing until May.

Now, it would be nice if one could calculate the exact date for lambing, but nothing is ever that simple. The 145 days is an average plus/minus 3 days, and you never quite know when (or if) the ram actually mated with the ewes, as they are in estrus for 24 to 72 hours, every (again on average) 17 days. So when it is getting close, you need to look for tell-tale signs. Some are quite obvious, such as the swelling bellies (which look especially large when they are lying down). The base of the tail will also feel very loose (as if the tail had been dislocated), and when the belly drops, the area between the ewe´s hips and ribcage becomes concave. Suddenly the ewes look underfed, which mine are not. And the day before lambing, my ewes had conspicuously enlarged udders, showing that milk production had started.

I thought that Citronella (on the photos above) would be the first to lamb. She was huge and we watched her closely (and frequently) for two weeks. But then suddenly, Lisen developed a huge udder overnight, and the next morning my eldest daughter found her with a lamb by her side. After watching and waiting about 30 min, the kids had to leave for school/preschool (they were a bit late that day, but we phoned ahead to explain why). I then decided to just quickly run back to the house to fetch a cup of coffee. And sure enough, when I got back less than 5 min later, Lisen had just had a second lamb.

A few days later, we found Citronella in the barn with two new-born lambs. Luckily, the kids did not have to go to School/preschool that day, and could sit on a bale of straw (dressed in boots, nightclothes and a jacket) and watch the new-borns as long as they liked. It is such a relief when all goes well, and all the mothering instincts are in place. As a sheep-owner, you need to be prepared to intervene if there are any complications during lambing. We have opted for easy-lambing, traditional breeds, with smaller lambs (compared to meat breeds), and we do not give our ewes extra feed before mating (which can increase the number of lambs). Ewes only have two teats, and if a ewe has more than two lambs you usually end up having to bottle-feed the additional lambs. So far, all I have had to do after lambing is check for milk – and admire the lambs. I also weigh the lambs after birth and the next day, to ensure that they are gaining weight.

Last to lamb was Brittis. She looked so much smaller than the others, so we thought we would have to wait at least another week. But, suddenly, she also developed pronounced udders, and the next morning she was not very interested in her portion of pellets. Hmm… a sure tell-tale sign! Now this lambing I was determined not to miss! So, I climbed up on a bale of straw and waited, as Brittis moved around and pawed the straw-bed. It is a sort of nesting-behaviour before lambing – although a bit annoying when I had just laid out a fresh layer of straw for her. Now she was digging up the older layers of dirtier straw. She laid down, stood up, moved around, laid down again, breathed heavily and stood up again. Over and over. And yes, I do remember how uncomfortable I was just before I had my kids… After an hour, I just had to run back to the house to get a cup of coffee. After another hour, I fetched another cup of coffee and an unfinished crochet project I had laying around. I ended up spending five hours on that bale of straw. But it is quite a pleasant way to spend time – as long as you have coffee and a piece of craft to work on. Finally, she went into labour, and I actually got to see the whole lambing. It really is amazing to see how quickly these newly born lambs scrabble to their feet and start suckling, during the constant licking and low, encouraging, grunting noises from the caring mother.

Here is a short video of the first few minutes of the newborns life.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tvzwkr8mzd8vw9d/Video%202015-05-23%2002%2027%2047.mov?oref=e&n=93043268

A general rule is to keep the mother and her lamb/lambs in a small lambing pen for as many days as the number of lambs, plus one day extra. This gives them time to bond properly before they are released with the rest of the flock. Suddenly our little flock has more than doubled in number and there seems to be little black lambs running and jumping around everywhere. It will still be a while before we can let them out to graze (spring is very late this year), but they have access to an outdoor enclosure. And they sleep in the barn at night, which is much safer with a lot of foxes, and occasionally other larger predators around.

And I just cannot resist also showing you some photos of the first chicken that hatched here this spring. There is something very beautiful about a pair of small child’s hand carefully cradling a newly hatched chicken. The same goes for small arms hugging a lamb.

Thanks Zara for sharing this wonderful experience with us.

That Doesn’t Look Like My Old Jeans

May 17, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 35 comments

A while back I made a note to myself to make paper from and old pair of jeans. I wanted to play with some fiber in a different way from felting.

The first thing I did was to cut the fabric into small 3/4″ squares, discarding the seams. Then I dragged out my old papermaking equipment which includes an ancient blender.

Using warm water I filled the bender half way, then added a pinch of the squares and ran the blender for 30 seconds or so until the water turned blue. This was a long process since I couldn’t overload the blender.

The resulting pulp was strained. When I had about a quart (1.14 liters) of pulp, I gave the blender a rest.

The set up for making the paper included a big container of water, a mould, deckle, pellon and blanket sheets. The deckle in black, the screen covered mould on the left.

Using a handful of pulp, I added it to the water and agitated it. With deckle on top of the mould, I submerged the pair into the water at a 45 degree angle and came out with a pulp filled sheet. Without going into all the nitty gritty of all the papermaking steps and terms, I couched (pressed) the paper onto a wet pellon sheet and repeated the steps until I had used up all the pulp and had a pile of sheets.

The next step was to press the paper in my homemade paper press.

After letting it sit awhile, I gently placed the paper on a white board and used a haki brush to place it on the board to dry.

Since the blender was old, the fiber didn’t get chopped very fine, but it made an interesting texture and look with the various long fibers running through the paper.

Like an old pair of well worn jeans, the paper is soft. One side is smooth where the paper dried on the whiteboard, the other is textured.

I could run it through the process again, but I think I’ll try to felt with it before I do. What would you do with denim paper?

Dyeing with Plants

May 9, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

Our guest artist today is Cathy Wycliff (Luvswool). She shares her adventure into dyeing with plants.

Recently I went to the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas for a two-week artists’ retreat. My plan was to spend two whole weeks felting with some time out for photographing the natural beauty of this area (think NW Arkansas, closer to Tulsa OK than Little Rock, AR. ) I also contemplated doing some natural plant dyeing, but it was the wrong season for collecting some of the natural plant materials in the area, such as oak galls and walnut hulls. I ended up ordering some botanical material from The Woolery, which amazingly arrived two days later!

While awaiting delivery, I got going with natural pine needles from the huge pine tree growing in the backyard. I snipped about two dozen clusters and began boiling them, later adding the white wool (domestic 56’s). The ending color did not jump out and grab me, but still I was pleased with the natural beige color which the pine needles produced–and a bonus was that the smell was heavenly.

Once my dyes arrived, I got to work rinsing and mordanting the wool (all of the wool I used was domestic 56’s from RH LINDSEY.) I began with madder, but this was quite a lengthy process of soaking the wool for over an hour, then mordanting the wool by cooking the alum and cream of tartar. Later when everything had cooled down, I then added the madder and wool.

Each dye I used required this lengthy process, and unfortunately, I had only one usable pot. After the first wool was dyed in madder, I changed the composition by adding iron, which developed a deeper color of red/orange.

I continued with the logwood as above, also developing a second shade of purple by adding iron.

Overnight drying time was needed, and here you can see the pine, madder and logwood drying in the kitchen.

I continued with osage, which achieved a golden color, not orange as is sometimes possible.

Next you see the osage and deeper shade of logwood drying.

Although I have done other kinds of dyeing previously–including indigo, food colors, acid dyes and even beets–natural plant dyeing is a whole new level of dyeing. I began thinking about the Native Americans and their use of natural plant dyes, as well as other very early ethnic groups around the world who had no other choices. And they didn’t even have gas stoves!

I was pleased with all of the results, which you can see here:

Left front –pine needles; Left rear — osage; middle two shades purple (+ iron), Middle rear — osage, Right — two shades madder (+ iron); Right front — cutch

I am looking forward to additional dyeing this summer, and perhaps even growing some of my own dye plants.

Thanks Cathy!

One Artist’s Journey into Fiber

May 1, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 20 comments

Our guest artist today is Jill Chadek with Merino and Mulberry in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. She is also our banner sponsor for May on the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum.

To touch something soft and silky awakens our earliest emotions!
The pleasure of the touch of silk started my exploration of silk painting. A few
years later I was introduced to felting, that magical process of transforming
dampened clumps of wool fibers into cloth! Then, when I discovered that I
could incorporate the two, working the fibers to lock into the silk I was hooked!

Through time, that magical process of felting has inspired and allowed me to
express my passion for color, pattern and texture. Felting, allows me to “paint”
with fibers to create personal accessories such as scarves, shawls, vest, hats
and handbags.

Prior to felting I had dabbled in many mediums but none have held my
attention and interest like felting has. I love working with my hands, the tactile
experience of painting with the fine and silky fibers. It still makes me catch my
breath when I wet the fibers down and the wool gets all loose feeling. I have to
remind myself that soon the fibers will start to migrate and tangle and the
magic of creating a fabric will happen right in my hands!

If you are new to felting, have patience and have fun! It will be frustrating at
times! There are as many different ways to create felt as there are felters, and
you will find that everyone swears their way is best! So many variables are at
play: the type of fibers, water hardness and temperature, soap, pressure,
thickness, and added embellishments, just to name a few. No wonder no simple
equation will work! It is only through exploration and experience that you will
learn the “feel” of the fibers at the different stages. So have fun and play!

Though I consciously have a design in mind when I start a project, my
unconscious, and the fibers influence my hands and the final outcome, which is
usually fabulous!

I enjoy that even after all of my years as a felting artist there is still something
new to learn and to explore. Right now I am loving creating hats! I do not use
any hat forms but instead let each hat tell me what shape it would like to be. I
love that while making a fashion statement they are also keeping it’s wearer
cozy warm! I am truly grateful for the joy that I experience in the creation of
each item and trust that wonderful emotions are also awakened in the wearer.
Please feel free to browse my website www.merinoandmulberry.com. It is my hope
that my creations will inspire you to stretch and grow as a felting artist. Also on
my website you can view a video of me using the E-Z Roller Felting Machine of
which I am the international representative. This machine has allowed me to
continue felting when I was experiencing terrible vertigo and more recently
when I had shoulder and neck problems. It removes the 1 negative of felting –
the physical chore of rolling your project, therefore allowing you to focus on the
fun, creative aspect of this beautiful medium. If you would like to learn more,
just contact me!

Thanks for sharing your artist journey with us Jill!

Wine Anyone?

April 23, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

I wanted to try making a gift bag for wine in felt. I first made a resist using the wine bottle as a model. But I wasn’t sure about shaping the bottom.

The base layer was black corriedale. Then I used a layer of merino. And finally I made a batt using forest green, a heather purple, sage and black bamboo for the last layer.

For embellishments and design I made leaves from a nuno prefelt and used 100% Peruvian wool thick and thin yarn, locks and needle felted grapes.

I finished fulling the bag on the bottle, but because of the narrowing of the design it’s not an easy in and out for the bottle.

After it was semi dry, I cut holes at the top to thread some yarn through to tighten it around the neck. Then I turned down the top and sewed extra leaves on and wound the excess yarn from the closure around a small dowel to emulate the ringlet vines on a grape wine.

Also, the bottom ended up having “wings” so I tucked them under and sewed them to the bottom. There was a hollow in the bottom of the bottle so it worked out well.

It was a little hairy so I shaved it. Next time, I would only use two layers and redesign the shape.

Even with some problems, I think it will make a nice display on a bar.

Have you made anything similar? Do you think it needs anything else?

Shearing Sheep in Sweden

April 15, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 36 comments

Our guest author/artist today is Zara Tuulikki Rooke. She shared with me the fact that April was time for shearing her sheep. So, I invited her to write about it so that we can all experience it since most of us don’t have the opportunity to see it first hand.

Winter is finally giving way to spring, also in the north of Sweden. Or at least, we hope so. Yesterday all the snow almost melted away, and today it has snowed heavily all day… It´s what we call typical April-weather. In any case, the lambs are expected in about four weeks, which means it´s time for shearing. Apart from getting rid of the thick winter fleece before summer, it´s good to shear the sheep before the lambing starts. It makes it a lot easier to see what condition the sheep are in and to follow the lambing in case there are any complications. It is also more hygienic and easier for the lambs to suckle. We only have one ram and four ewes, of which three are expecting lambs and one was born here last spring (you can see the family resemblance between mother and daughter below). But we synchronize our shearing with a neighbour and bring in a professional shearer (Carina Jälkentalo). And that is what this post is about.

In Sweden it´s common to use what is called a “shearing stool.” It´s a platform that can be easily raised with a contraption where the sheep´s head is secured. First you shear the head and neck, then the front and shoulders, and then along the back of the sheep. After that, the platform is raised (to a better working-level), and you continue shearing each side, and finally the belly and legs. The model below is Citronella, the most social of my ewes, and she just calmly stood there during the whole process.

Citronella even got a kiss on her muzzle for being such a good sheep. That´s what I really like about Carina – she always takes the time to talk to and interact with the animals, which is reassuring for both sheep and sheep-owners. And after the shearing they also get a manicure (hoof-clipping), which is often needed after spending much of the winter on a soft straw bed. Citronella´s daughter Stjärna (which means Star) does not like being separated from her mother, but was given some extra attention by one of my daughters.

And who wouldn’t give a little bleat if you got your private parts sheared…?!

Next up was Brittis, my shy sheep with shiny, white locks. All my ewes are cross-breeds, and the three older ones are half-sisters by the same Gotland ram. Citronella looks like a typical Gotland, white Brittis got her looks from her cross-breed mother. This year she managed to stay quite clean until shearing – I guess there are some benefits to having more snow than bare ground and mud in their outdoor enclosure.

The last of my ewes is Lisen, once black but now turning grey. In the photos below you can see the difference in the fleece from the different parts of the animal. The neck and front often has nice locks, but is also where they collect a lot of scraps of hay during winter. The top of their backs can be matted from snow and rain, while the sides are usually nicer on a winter fleece. Lower down on the sides and on the belly, the fleece is often too dirty and matted or even felted to use for anything sensible.

Finally, we sheared our ram Teddy. He seemed really pleased with all the attention, and considering what a mess his fleece was (it felts really easily) I am sure he was glad to get rid of it. But I did save it, with plans to lay it out in my vegetable garden. That should provide some nutrients, keep the soil moist and weeds at bay, and I have heard that slugs don´t like crawling over wool. On the other hand, I have also heard that slugs thrive under wool. Hmmm. I´ll just have to try and see. In any case, I now have a ram that looks like a small mountain goat.

All the sheep got a little extra attention (and pellets) after the shearing. Their appetite increases when you shear their wool, which is beneficial also for the lambs they are carrying. Now we are ready for warmer weather and lambing next month.

Next in turn was our neighbour, or rather, our neighbour´s sheep. Their ewes are mostly white cross-breeds, also including meat-breeds, and most of them are much larger than ours. Their grey ram Edwin is of an old breed called Åsen, the same as our ram. One of the younger ewes was black with a small white patch on one side, but you can clearly see how the fleece has turned grey half way. So from underneath all that black wool, a little grey sheep came out.

The winter fleece is generally of lower quality than the summer fleece. But even with bits of hay in it I couldn’t resist the temptation of accepting my neighbours offer to take care of some of it. The thick winter fleece holds together and does not fall apart into separate locks like the summer fleece. This makes it suitable for felting entire fleeces. As my neighbour doesn’t use the wool herself, I ended up packing the best parts of 9 fleeces in my car. Needless to say, my stash of raw wool is getting quite large, and I am hoping for a warm summer with plenty of time for large, outdoor felting projects.

Thanks Zara for letting us come along on the shearing process. Stay tuned for lambing! And let us know how the fleece works to keep the slugs away!

Sampling with New WOW Fibers

April 7, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

Cathy Wycliff (Luvswool) and I placed an order with WOW last month. A real treasure of new fibers to try. But we had a dilemma, do we make samples or wait for a project. Cathy had a good idea to make samples to the prefelt stage. This way we’d have an idea of what the properties were of each of the fibers, but could still use them in future projects.

Cathy did the first few samples. The first photo shows all 3 samples — White Woodland, Jacobs Fleece and South Down.

The second photo is Jacob’s fleece with rose fiber embellishment. The fleece is coarse and scratchy and not an easy felter. It reminds me very much of the Hebridean wool roving I purchased in the Scotland isles. The rose fiber easily felted and finished with a brilliant sheen. It’s gorgeous against the dark brown/black Jacob’s wool.

South Down is next and the and beneath is Whiteface Woodland–very little difference in look or feel or felting ability. Both were were medium coarse felters. All three base fibers were felted only to the pre-felt stage.

I decided to try different fibers since we had a variety to choose from. I was very surprised at the differences between the feel of the fiber and the end results. Here are all four before felting. Top left is White Eider, top right is White Norwegian, lower left is Oatmeal Blue Faced Leicester and lower right is Manx.

The Manx ( top) had a staple of about 4-6 inches and was soft with a very slight crimp or coarseness. I used a half ounce of fiber for each sample. The Oatmeal BFL (bottom) was similar to merino during the layout.

Sorry the photos aren’t great. I use my phone. After felting, the Manx was spongy and coarser than expected. The BFL was slightly spongy and wiry than before felting. It wasnt as coarse as the Manx.

The White Norwegian had a slight coarse feel and a staple of about 4-5 inches. The White Eider top was coarse to the touch with a staple of 3-4 inches. It also felt a bit clumpier.

The Eider is on the left and was very spongy and coarse to the touch. The White Norwegian was coarse after felting and somewhat spongy.

It was fun experimenting, but I’m not sure how I’ll use these fibers. Cathy uses more of the coarser fibers than I do. Any suggestions? Have you used any of these fibers before?

Felt over Wire

March 30, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 18 comments

A couple of years ago while thrift store shopping, I came across a cute little wire baby buggy. I set it aside hoping for a reason to use it.

It is 5″H x 5″ L x 2.5″ W (12.7 cm x 12.7 cm x 6.35 cm).

I made a resist with a 30% shrinkage rate added two layers of merino per side which I thought would be a nice thickness to cover the wire.

Her is the outside layer done and stretched over the form to dry.

There seemed to be plenty of extra felt around so I could turn it inside except for the very front of the buggy top.

I made the second layer and inserted it inside.

That was a little tricky since it was a tight fit for my fingers so I used my trusty scoop and crochet hooks to get it in position.

It was a tight fit and there wasn’t enough felt to overlap the front of the buggy top. I had planned to do a blanket stitch to join them but the cluster of wires on the top made it impossible to do that.

I wrapped the front with some roving I rolled into a rope, then basted the stitches together, but I didn’t like the way that looked.

So I glued the layers together both on the top and sides then pulled out the basting. Not a great plan either since I burned my fingers with the glue gun even though I was using a cuticle stick to push into place. If I had more pink roving, I would have made a resist using more over the buggy top and perhaps made a double resist for inside and out in one piece. But I had to work with what I had.

For the inside, I placed a piece of cotton batting on the wire as a mattress. Then I proceeded to wrap the wheels with white yarn and stitch on some lace around the bottom and top of the buggy.

I still have to clean it up a bit then I’ll send it off to my daughter in law for the baby’s room. I thought it would be useful to store qtips or scissors, thermometer, etc. on her dresser.

Have you ever used a wire structure with felt?

The First Quarter Color Challenge

March 22, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 6 comments

I’ve been playing with the color wheel in fiber and paints for our first quarter challenge.

When I made the samples for the fiber color wheel I started out using my fingers to blend them. It took a while to get them to look like they were supposed to. (I apologize for the photos and the shadows.)

Since I needed more of the secondary colors to make the tertiary colors, I decided to use the dog brushes. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. So, I decided to use the carder to make a bigger amount then to move on to blending tints.

Secondary orange then on to adding white, then black for tints.

I stopped with the reds. You can see the outward progression with each color group blending red with white, then red with black then down the line doing the same. Some of the colors look a little reddish brown.

Once I finished the red group I wanted to try paints. It was actually a little harder than I expected. On the left side is the acrylic, the right is watercolor.

When I started the project with fiber I was in Florida with my grandson who wanted to help me. Here is his secondary blending.

Not bad for a five year old! Had he spent more than five minutes with me, he probably would have done a better job than Grandma.

Have you tried the first quarter challenge? We’d love to see your results on the forum www.feltandfiberstudio. proboards.com

Making a Gift for a New Grandma

March 14, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 32 comments

As you may be aware my daughter in law Mari is due to have a baby girl any day. While we wait for the “phone call,” I decided to make her mother a small cosmetic case/clutch. This is her first grandchild and she has traveled from Japan to be with her daughter and my son for the big event.

I made a template allowing for a 30% shrinkage rate. I had planned to use some prefelt and merino, but I realized I was almost out of black merino. So, I substituted some black Corriedale for a middle layer. The bottom half of the resist was 9″ x 11″ (23 cm x 28 cm).

The inside layer was a turquoise merino.

The second layer was the Corriedale batt and the last layer was a black prefelt. Then I laid out the embellishments. As usual, I was so engrossed in the process I forgot to take pictures. The embellishments were 100% Peruvian thick and thin hand dyed wool yarn, a turquoise and metallic silver mohair yarn, silk hankies and green and turquoise throwsters waste. The template for the flap was not used as a resist, but as a pattern for the shape and size of the flap.

Once I was finished felting and fulling, I shaped the bottom and sides using an ice cream scoop. The shrinkage was less than I expected. But it was well fulled so I was satisfied. The finished size was 8″ x 7″ high (20 cm x 18 cm)

I used the yarn to put on her initials — ST on the flap and embellished it with a silver button and will either use a velcro or magnetic closure.

I was pleased with the outcome. It is sturdy, yet not heavy or bulky.

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Author: Marilyn aka Pandagirl

Lambing in Sweden 2015

May 25, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 24 comments

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That Doesn’t Look Like My Old Jeans

May 17, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 35 comments

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Dyeing with Plants

May 9, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

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One Artist’s Journey into Fiber

May 1, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 20 comments

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Wine Anyone?

April 23, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 22 comments

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Shearing Sheep in Sweden

April 15, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 36 comments

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Sampling with New WOW Fibers

April 7, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

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Felt over Wire

March 30, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 18 comments

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The First Quarter Color Challenge

March 22, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 6 comments

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Making a Gift for a New Grandma

March 14, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 32 comments

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