My trip to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York was great. I went in quest for a white Wensleydale fleece to make a wooly lock collar for my dear friend Cindy for Christmas. She asked me to make it so it became a challenge.
If you have never been to a Fiber Festival, this is my first stop! The tent with all the fleeces for sale. I couldn’t find the fleece I wanted in the tent and felt very disappointed. There was one fleece that was “okay” but cost so much money for a so-so fleece.
So, off we went into the vendor tents. I found a lovely Wensleydale fleece being sold by the shepherd in her own booth. I was really fortunate because she shared her passion for her flock and creating awesome pieces with the locks.
These are the shepherd’s scarves. Aren’t they awesome?
Time to clean the fleece!
I have to admit, I really love cleaning fleece and this one was actually the nicest I have ever washed up. I learned about using Amway LOC from Mary Egbert’s course. Highly recommend it! In the past, I was using Unicorn Power Scour but this worked amazingly well. The fleece is soft and white.
After washing the fleece, learning how to felt the locks without messing them up was my next step.
I tried using a crochet hook and pulling the locks through chicken wire so the locks would be able to keep their structure while I felted them together on the other side. It worked out fairly well. Some of the locks were loose and I needle-felted them into place.
Turns out Cindy didn’t like the “long” locks. So, I did it again and cut the locks shorter after they were all placed on the chicken wire. Came out much better the second time. Haven’t seen her wear it but I am pleased with how it turned out. 🙂
OTHER WAYS TO DO THIS!
I found a couple other ways to do this and am saving those ideas here to use in the future. The first one wraps the locks in small bundles to keep them from felting together with no need for the wire mesh.
And here is a video with yet another technique.