What can you make with wool?

Today I am taking part in the 'Crazy about wool' blog hop organised by Denise from Pieced Brain I love wool  and so I thought it would be fun to take part. I asked Moses if he wished to appear and before I could say baaaa he was posing for his photo.

Moses is a cute soft cuddly sheep made from fleece fabric and sheep's wool. As you can tell he has been very well loved. His fleece is meant to look like the corkscrew fleece of the Wensleydale sheep.

The fleece of most modern sheep is white which makes it easier to dye it any colour that is wanted either for knitting yarn or to be woven into fabric.

Who can resist the adorable wooly lambs in spring. Of course wool doesn't just come from sheep. The definition of wool is; 

'the fine, soft curly or wavy hair forming the coat of a sheep, goat, or similar animal, especially when shorn and prepared for use in making cloth or yarn'

So we get mohair from the hair of the Angora goat and also use the hair from Llamas. Llama fibre is usually mixed with sheep wool to make it easier to handle.

So what have I been making with wool for this hop. Although I love quilting , I also enjoy knitting and dressmaking. I decided I wanted to make a skirt for this hop. In my stash of fabric I have quite a few pieces of wool fabric. I choose a soft fine wool fabric with a check on it for my skirt. When planning the cutting I had to ensure that the checks matched up. Here is a view of the front seam. I am very pleased with how well I matched this seam.

I love the blue, gold and red of the check. I usually hate having my photo taken but I can't make a skirt and not show you what it looks like on. 

The skirt is extremely comfortable sitting just below the waist. I have plans to make a jacket out of this pinky red fabric, again another light weight wool. The colour perfectly matches the red in the check of the skirt (even though it doesn't look like it in the photo.)

This is my goal for next weekend.

As well as sewing I also knit. Not all yarns for knitting are made of wool but I prefer to knit with 100% wool or a blend of wool and other fibres. Recent knitting projects have included  several baby blankets for Project Linus

Although I use different patterns for these blankets I like the basket weave pattern as it is easy to knit and so leaves me free to talk to family and friends or to watch television.

A little cuddle toy for a baby,

A special baby blanket for a friend's baby and Lucy my daughter knitted her boy friend a cuddly elephant.

One of my favourite wooly knitting projects and one I still use is my Christmas cardigan. I knitted this years ago when my children were young and my youngest daughter is now 22. Scamp insisted on trying to get into the corner of the photo. If I've been sewing he always seems to have bits of thread on his paws.

Last week on the Pin it blog hop I made a felt pin cushion mouse. Felt is a great wool fabric to use in projects as it doesn't fray.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my various wool projects. Now you need to go and visit the rest of today's participants.

Tuesday, September 24

Marla's Crafts

Bird in the Hand Primitives

Secretly Stitching

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Sew Many Yarns

Val Spiers Sews

Quilted Crow Girls Design

I hope you'll come back and visit soon. I'm going to get my machine out and finish my latest quilt top once I've taken Picasso to the vet for his yearly check up and immunisation. 

I have a give away of charm squares I cut from the left over wool fabric I used to make my skirt. It is open until 27th October 2013. If you would like a chance to win click here

Lyndsey