BAYMULE FINALLY HAS SHEEP!!!

[ninnymary]

Bee, what do you do with your wool?

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

The Katahdin wool was soft and lux enough to do some things with it but the St. Croix/Kat mix wool is like really cheap shag carpet...very low quality, comes off in small clumps and isn't good for much but putting in the garden.

I never really had much time to fool with the wool but had plans of tanning my lamb hides from the pure Kat ewe...those were beautiful, soft and luxurious hides. Never got around to it, though, had to move and get rid of my sheep in the process. I gave my hide I had intended to tan to a fella who tanned it for his motorcycle seat.

I'll be anxious to see what Bay does with her sheeples as far as the wool, milk, meat, etc. Milking sheep is not much like milking goats due to the small teats...a little more difficult to grasp or use a bucket milker on.

They have a neato little hand pump milker that can be used on them but it's kind of pricey for such a little apparatus. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be just as efficient to use a breast pump meant for humans on sheep instead, especially with just a few to milk.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's probably too short to spin easily, you need long fibers for that. Even cotton is a pain to spin compared to regular wool because of fiber length. It might make pretty good felt though if you washed it really well.

 

[thistlebloom]

Felt is a good idea Ridge.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't know of a practical application for felt except for hats and such, maybe krafting? I'm not much for working on something just for looking at, so it would have to have a more useful purpose to get me interested in it.

The tanned lamb hides sell for $65, so that was my purpose for them.

 

[Nyboy]

Felt can be used under objects that will be on wood furniture to protect wood. The bottoms of all my lamps and ashtrays are ccovered in felt.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, one of my parents gave me this soap that smells really good and is wrapped in felt/wool. I don't know how they wrapped it around since I don't see a seam. The soap is supposed to melt and come through. It was from an upscale shop.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a video in this that shows how to make felt.

http://www.mongoliancashmereandcrafts.com/traditions/traditions_feltmaking.html

 

[Beekissed]

There is a video in this that shows how to make felt.

http://www.mongoliancashmereandcrafts.com/traditions/traditions_feltmaking.html

That vid was very interesting!!! I didn't know they covered homes with it, but if it's waterproof as wool normally is with all that lanolin, it would be ideal for that and also think of the warmth and windproof aspect of that little hut covered in wool felt. Might be a little smelly in a wet season but over years that would diminish, I'm thinking.

Anyone ever see anything like that here in the states? I found a site or two that sells gers or Mongolian yerts. I've been inside a yert and found it to be a fantastic dwelling and not a bad place to live at all, so if a person had a large herd of these hair sheep, this felting might not be a bad way to go as there seems to be a market for large sheets of such felting.

http://mongolian-yurt.com/gallery.html

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment...kes-nomadic-housing-3233326.php#photo-2376133

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just something for you to do in your spare time, Bee.