Felt Scarf

A BIG Shout Out!

Posted by kenleighacres on November 25, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Felt Scarf, felted birds, Felting. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

I want to send a big THANK YOU out to everyone that has supported this small business!

My dear husband that puts up with my crazy schemes, the friends I can bounce ideas off of, my mom who I can call at all hours to discuss and brainstorm, and our fabulous customers!!!

My studio was open today for ‘Small Business Saturday’ and we had a great time.  For those who couldn’t make it, due to distance or schedule, I am offering FREE SHIPPING in my Etsy Store.  This special will continue for the rest of the month!  Use the code SHOPSMALL.

Having the studio open was a great excuse to finally get it cleaned up, organized, and find someplace for all of that fleece!  I can finally see the bed in the little bedroom and you can walk on the floor in there now 🙂  Tomorrow I will be sorting through the fleeces and deciding what their fate will be – roving, yarn, batts, felt, for sale, or a special project for me.

Here are some close-ups.

Felt critters, felt kits, yarn, and colored roving.

More felt kits, felt owls, felt sheep, bird pillow, prints, and cards.

Aromatic felt soaps.

Books to make your own Felted Friends!

Colorful Nuno Felted Scarves.

I did a little of my own small business shopping and bought a couple Bluefaced lamb fleeces from Tumble Creek Farm in Bend, OR.  They arrived a few days ago and I spent part of today washing and dyeing them.

Any guesses on what they are going to become…

Little Felt Poodles 🙂

Thank you again for everyone that has supported us!

Gearing Up!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 21, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Felt Scarf, Felting, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , . 10 Comments

I have been madly preparing for a couple shows coming up in November.  The first show is Fiber Mania in Grants Pass, November 12-13.  I am really excited about this one because my friend Joan from Mud Ranch is going to come up from California and share a booth with me.  The second event is a Handmade Holiday Sale in Eugene, November 26-27 at the Spencer Creek Grange.  This is the first time I have done any shows in November, I am trying really hard to stay ahead of schedule (instead of putting things off until the last minute) so I don’t feel overwhelmed with Christmas just around the corner.

Here is what I have been working on…

Felt Soaps – If you haven’t tried these, you need to!  It is your wash cloth and soap all in one.  Wool is an excellent exfoliant.  Your soap will last longer and you can reuse the wool scrubby when the soap is gone.  The scents I have done so far are – Lemongrass, Honey Almond, Lavender, and Jasmine.

Dyed Silk Scarves – I have been dyeing these silk chiffon scarves that will then be nuno felted.

Here is what the finished scarves will look like.  The wool is felted through the silk resulting in a very lightweight scarf.

Awhile ago I sent a LOT of wool off to Zeilinger to have processed into Batts.  The Batts are VERY large, so I have been sorting them into smaller, 4 oz. batts.  I have approximately 20 of this dark gray and…

20 lilac packaged.

I haven’t started on them yet…but I have a lot of bag ideas circling around inside my head 😉

and last, but certainly not least…are all of the little felt sheep that are occupying my office!

We have the natural colored crew – all made with wool from jacob sheep.

The colored crew – made with wool from jacob sheep and wool from a friend’s border leicester and a little bit of dye.

and the ones that wanted to be a little special.

A little scarf to keep them warm this winter 🙂

Please come say ‘hi’ if you happen to be at either of these events!

The girls in the background

Posted by kenleighacres on January 18, 2010
Posted in: Felt Scarf. Tagged: , . 3 Comments

We are on the final countdown for 2010 lambs!  Only 7 days left…where did the time go?  I still need to get a few supplies! 

I was looking at the 2009 Breeding page to refresh myself as to who was due first and who everyone was bred to – I have an official list out in the barn.  It dawned on me as I looking at the girls that some of the ewes are very good at being in the front of the flock – first out of the barn, first to the food, first to get into trouble, etc.  Then there are the others – the ones that I sometimes forget about.  They are always in the background.  Not freaky and not friendly – perfect right in the middle.   A few of them even have their spot at the feeder and they will patiently wait until I have given them their food.  Unlike Dolly who likes to climb up my legs as I am carrying hay 🙂

This is a special post for the girls that make my life easier!

Liberty

Legacy

Symphony

Rae-Ann

and last, but certainly not least, one of our first lambs and my special girl Holly.

‘Like a duck to water’

Posted by kenleighacres on April 25, 2009
Posted in: Call Ducks, Ducklings, Ducks, Felt Scarf, Felting. Tagged: , , , , . 5 Comments

The idiom definition is that if someone has a natural talent for something and enjoys it, they take to it like a duck to water.

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After watching our 2 day old ducklings jump in the bowl of water and start bobbing and swimming, I completely understand where this saying comes from.

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These are the babies that we have raised, so it isn’t like they have watched their mom swim.  As soon as I set the bowl down they ran over and jumped in. 

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You may have noticed that there are a few more ducklings in these pictures – that is because the second mama that hatched 11 babies turned out to be a somewhat negligent mother.  She would keep her babies warm as long as they were under her, but she wasn’t going to go look for them.  Unfortunately, we lost one of the babies the second night, so we have lots of babies in the brooder now.

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Which means we had to make some adjustments – first item, bigger brooder.  Thanks to my husband that was a fairly easy task. 

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Second item – come up with a way to keep the brooder dry!!!  Ducks LOVE water 🙂  They go through the quart of water within an hour.  They don’t drink all of it, they sit there and dabble in it and play in it.  Unfortunately, that means there is a lot of water everywhere.  We had this tray out in the barn, I’m not sure what it is really meant for – but it works awesome.  I have to dump it out once a day, but the rest of the pen is staying clean and DRY!!!

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Since she asked – here are some pictures especially for Lora 😉

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He loves his babies!

Going back to the title of this post – I have also discovered that my son has taken to felting like a duck to water.

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He loves playing with the soapy water.

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He helped with one of my classes a couple weeks ago and everybody got a kick out of him!

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Here is the scarf that he was working on in the pictures above.  He did 95% of it by himself and did a great job! 

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and this is the snake he made.  A very fun project for kids and adults 🙂

My first class!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 1, 2009
Posted in: Felt Scarf, felted birds, Felting, Fiber. Tagged: . 7 Comments

I had my first class in my new fiber studio today.  I am calling it my guinea pig class, lol.  It was a test class to work out all of the kinks!  It was a lot of fun.  My students were my mom, my sister, my grandma, my sister-in-law, my soon to be sister-in-law, a friend and her daughter.  There were a lot of laughs and a few tears (felting needles hurt a lot when you stick yourself).  There were multiple projects being worked on…

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My mom and grandma made 3D felted birds, several people worked on needle felted wall hangings, and my soon to be sister-in-law, Patricia made a wet felted scarf.  They all did a fabulous job!

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As I said, there were a lot of laughs and here is a picture of my mom looking shocked that her lump of wool was actually looking like a bird 🙂

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Aimee and her daughter, Hailey, were instant felting pros.

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All of the fun and hard work wore poor Paisley out and she spent most of the day on the bed 🙂 

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Here is Patricia holding up her beautiful scarf.

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Here’s Hailey with her adorable needle felted cat.

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My grandma’s bird is going to hang in her window and warn all of the little birdies outside to not fly into the window.

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Julie didn’t finish hers, but she needle felted a background that had a watercolor feel to it.

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She is going to needle felt the word ‘Dream’ on it.  I can’t wait to see the finished piece!

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My mom with her darling bird.

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and the shocker was Aimee and her Rooster

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I love the details and I never would have thought to outline the feathers with blue. 

I’m not sure how she managed it, but my sister didn’t get in any of the pictures.  She worked on a wall hanging with a whimsical goat, sheep, and cow on it.  I will have her send me a picture once she has finished it! 

My first ‘real’ class is next Saturday and I am really excited about it. 

Thanks to my mom, I now have the perfect sign for my studio –

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Felted Scarves

Posted by kenleighacres on January 11, 2008
Posted in: Felt Scarf, Fiber, Merino. Leave a comment

Here is a picture of the felted scarves that I have been making the last couple of days.

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They are wet felted using merino fiber that is dyed by a gal that lives in the town I grew up in – Rancho Cucamonga – small world!  She does a beautiful job and the fiber felts very easily. 

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Here is a close up of the blue one….

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and here is the same one on my very cute model 🙂

You can see all of the scarves and the rest of our fiber products at – http://www.kenleigh-acres.com/Products%20For%20Sale.htm