On a very rainy Saturday Sean and I took a felting workshop at Tilden Park in Berkeley. There were lots of options of what we could make.
The instructor gave us wool from the Little Farm’s black welsh mountain sheep to use. The wool was slightly brown because the wool gets “sunburned.”
Sean helped out with the carding – preparing the wool by pushing it through a series of combs.
Then came the gentle stage of softly pressing the wool for a while, with a little added warm water and soap.
And then much later the stage of pretty vigorously rubbing rubbing rubbing, and then rubbing some more.
The rain cleared for a while and we got to walk around the farm. And we got to meet the rams our wool came from.
pretty impressive horns.
She was flirting with us.
After bringing them home, rinsing well and letting dry, we have little pouches! Sean made a little wallet pouch with a cool decorative moon, and I made a slightly bigger purse that I will add straps to.
The East Bay Parks have an amazing Activities Calendar. They have such a variety of interesting classes, workshops and walks – and at a very reasonable cost. And it is a great way to start to explore some of our many regional open spaces. They are a valuable resource. Check them out if you can:
http://www.ebparks.org/activities
click on the Activity Guide PDF.
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