Free Icelandic Fleece Giveaway

Okay, so here's giveaway #1.

When the farm's Facebook page reaches 1,000 fans, I'm going to give away this beautiful Icelandic fleece: 

 
It's an entire raw fleece, weighing 3 lbs. 5 oz.  Retail value, $40.  It came from this lovely spotted ewe named Mona, and is a mix of creamy white and chocolate brown wool.

The fleece is suitable for either felting or spinning.  You can separate the two colors for a brown and white project, or blend them together for a more "heathered" shade.  There's enough here to make an entire sweater, or other good-sized project.

To enter, all you have to do is comment on this blog post! 

But remember, the giveaway happens once our farm's Facebook page reaches 1,000 fans (as of this writing we have just 74 more to go to get there).  Help us reach our goal by forwarding this page to your friends and family, Tweeting about this giveaway, posting a link to this page on your own blog or Facebook wall, etc., and then the giveaway will happen sooner.

If you're not the "crafty" sort, don't worry, there's a giveaway for you too.  I'm also giving away a handspun, hand knitted scarf in my next blog post.

One entry per person for each giveaway, but you can enter all three giveaways if you like:

Free Icelandic Fleece Giveaway (this page)
Free Handspun Wool Scarf Giveaway
Free Sheep's Milk Soap Giveaway

Name That Lamb Contest: Grand Prize and Finalists

As I promised back in March, everyone who submitted a winning name to my Name That Lamb contest gets one entry (per name) into my grand prize drawing at the end of lambing season.

Well, guess what?  It's the end of lambing season now, so it's time to announce the finalists.  Just to add a little bit of suspense, I'm going to wait until Monday to announce the grand prize winner.  But I don't have to wait that long to announce what they will win!

One lucky participant will win the following assortment of fun sheep-and-lamb related goodies from our farm:

1 bar of Sheep's Milk Soap

1 bar of Felted Sheep's Milk Soap

1 pack of "Sound Asleep" lamb notecards

1 "Peekaboo" lamb magnet

1 pair of Ear Tag earrings

1 pair of needle felted Fortune Cookies

Total value of the whole collection:  $45.50


Now for our list of finalists (including the number of entries each one earned:

Beth at www.cotondogs.net   (5 entries)

Carol at http://plumpfairy.etsy.com (1  entry)

Carol Volker of http://loafkeeper.com (6  entries)

Catherine Sanchez (no web link given)  (1  entry)

Channa at http://www.ohsewnice.co.uk (2  entries)

Chris Conrad of http://www.facebook.com/chris.conrad (3  entries)

Cindy of http://www.etsy.com/shop/mommysdream (1  entry)

Debra Chase (no web link given) (1  entry)

Donna Chase of http://siberia-farm.com (1  entry)

Elizabeth Brockman (no web link given) (4  entries)

Jeanne (no web link given) (3  entries)

Laurel McGilvery (no web link given) (29  entries.  If that seems like a lot, it's because Laurel earned it.  She submitted more than 300 name suggestions!)

Molly Bailey of http://www.baileygirl5.blogspot.com (2  entries)

Monica of http://crazyhousequilts.wordpress.com (1  entry)

Pat at http://www.patelliottpaintings.co.uk/ (2  entries)

Robin at www.mommymommyland.com (3  entries)

Rowena at http://cherrypik.blogspot.com (1  entry)

Skye (no web link given) (2  entries)

Stephen Pappas  (no web link given) (7  entries)

Tika at http://theyellowjournalist.blogspot.com (7  entries)


Stay tuned on Monday to find out who is the winner!

Why Make Felted Soap?

Ever since I posted my tutorial on How to Make Felted Soap, lots of people have been contacting me, all asking the same question:

"WHY make felted soap?"

Oops! I guess I didn't explain that fully in the tutorial, did I? Sorry!

Wool felted around a bar of soap forms a natural scrubby, with pleasant, gentle exfoliation, like a good washcloth.

It also makes the soap easier to grip. As the soap is used, the wool shrinks to fit what is left, so you can use the whole bar, avoiding those slippery little end bits of soap that are hard to hold, slip down the drain, and are wasted.

When the soap is gone, you can even cut a slit into the remaining felt "jacket" and use it as a small pouch! Or fill it with catnip for an all-natural cat toy.

Also, if you've never tried felting before, felting around a bar of soap is a quick, easy project, perfect for a beginner.

It's easy enough for kids to do, so it makes a fun craft activity for them. They may even enjoy bath time more if they get to use the results of their project! :-)

If you would like to try it, Soap Felting Kits and finished Felted Soaps are available here.

How to Make Felted Soap

Since one of the options in my current giveaway is a Soap Felting Kit, I thought I'd make an instructional video and post it here, so everyone can see how easy it is to make your own felted soap.




Prefer written instructions? No problem! Below are the basic soap-felting instructions that come with our kit:


Felted Soap Instructions

Felting over a bar of soap is easy and fun. Besides the soap and wool included in this kit, the only things you need to provide are a bowl of hot water and about 15 minutes of your time.

Your hands will get wet and soapy while you’re doing this, so you’ll want to work on a counter or tabletop that won’t be harmed if it gets damp. You may want to set out a clean towel to wipe your hands on, and to set your finished soap on to dry.

Ready to get started? Let’s go!

1. Fill a medium sized mixing bowl with hot water. The water should be as hot as you can comfortably put your hands in. Don’t make it so hot that you burn yourself!

2. Remove the wrapper and label from your soap.

3. Take the wool out of its bag and set it nearby so you can reach it easily, but where it won’t accidentally get wet before you’re ready to work with it.

4. You’ll find that your wool separates naturally into fist-sized lumps because of the way that it has been carded. Take one lump and gently unroll and spread it so that it is fairly flat and even. Wrap this pad of wool gently but snugly around your bar of soap.

5. Take a second lump of wool, spread it out, and wrap it around your soap in the other direction. If you wrapped the wool lengthwise the first time, wrap it around the width of the soap this time. Try to spread all the fibers around so that all surfaces of the soap are covered.

6. Repeat the previous step, always alternating the direction that you’re wrapping the wool, until your soap is thoroughly covered. I usually find that 3 lumps of wool are about the right amount. You will probably have some wool left over when you’re done, so don’t feel like you need to use all of it just because it’s there.

7. Once your soap is thoroughly covered with wool, cup it in both hands to hold the wool firmly in place, and dip it into the hot water. Still holding the wool in place, lift the soap from the water.

8. Gently begin to pat and press the wet wool against your soap. Don’t use too much pressure at first, or you’ll slide the wool out of place and expose the bare soap (If that happens, slide the wool back into place before you continue). The soap will start to lather. Just keep patting, being sure to show equal attention to all sides.

9. As the wool starts to felt, you’ll feel it begin to hold together on its own, without you having to hold it in place. At that point you can begin rubbing the wool more vigorously. If you need to, you can wet your hands or dip the soap in the water again. Slide the soap through your hands over and over, flipping it frequently so that you’re rubbing in all directions. Keep doing this for about 10-15 minutes or until the wool has formed a solid felt pad all around your soap.

10. You’re done! Rinse the soap in the bowl of water one final time to wash off the suds, then place it on a towel to dry.


UPDATE: If you've read all this and you're asking yourself, "Yes, but WHY would I want to make felted soap?" read my followup post.

Ingleside Farm Felted Soap Giveaway!

Today is my birthday, and I want to give YOU a present!

Starting today, I am accepting entries for our big Felted Soap Giveaway. On March 15, I'll choose one winner at random. The winner will receive his or her choice of the following prizes:

(1) Deluxe Felted Sheep's Milk Soap Collection: Five bars of our fabulous felted sheep's milk soap, one in each of our five natural colors. Click the link above for details.


or (2) Deluxe Soap Felting Kit: Everything you need to felt your own soap. You get five bars of our fabulous sheep's milk soap, five 1-oz. bags of pure Icelandic sheep's wool, and a set of instructions. All you need to provide is a bowl of hot water and a few minutes of your time. Click the link above for details.


There are multiple ways to enter:

1. Become our fan on Facebook (If you're already a fan, that still counts).

2. Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter, with a link to this page.

3. Write a relevant post about this giveaway to an appropriate online forum or group (Please don't spam your forums with inappropriate posts!)

4. Write about this giveaway on your blog, with a link to this page (you may use any of the photos above, if you like).

5. Post a link to this giveaway on your web site (you may use any of the photos above, if you like).

By doing more than one of the above activities, you can earn multiple entries, but only one entry per URL, please.

You must send an email to keepingthefarm@aol.com with details of your entries. Put "Felted Soap Giveaway" in your subject line.

Don't forget to include your name and an accurate email address, so I can let you know if you win!

Felted Sheep's Milk Soap (and Other New Products)

I've been working very hard over the past few weeks, developing several new lines of products for my Etsy shop. As of today, they're finally ready!

First, there are the Felted Sheep's Milk Soaps. Luscious soap made from the milk of our own sheep, then encased in hand-felted wool to form a natural scrubby, with just the right amount of gentle exfoliation, like a good washcloth. Available in five natural colors: White, Beige, Brown, Gray, and Black. You can buy them individually, or as a collection that includes all five colors.


Next, for the do-it-yourselfers out there, I have Felted Soap Making Kits. Making felted soap is easy and fun! With these kits you get everything you need; all you have to add is a bowl of hot water and about 15 minutes of your time. Included: our wonderful sheep's milk soap, hand-carded Icelandic sheep's wool from our flock, and a set of instructions. Available in five natural colors: White, Beige, Brown, Gray, and Black. Buy a kit for a single bar of soap, or a deluxe kit to make one bar in each of the five colors. Get together with a few friends and host a soap-felting party!

And finally: I'm now offering hand-carded Icelandic Sheep's Wool for felting and needle felting projects. This is the same wool that I use for all of my own needle felting. I shear it myself, wash it by hand, and card it the old-fashioned way, with hand carders. It is available in either 1-oz. or 4-oz. bags (1 oz. is quart-sized, 4 oz. is gallon-sized). Choose a single color, or buy a collection that contains one bag of each of our five colors: White, Beige, Brown, Gray, and Black.

Each bag of wool comes with an information card showing the name and photograph of the specific sheep who provided that wool!

Needle-Felted Sheep

In an attempt to find new ways to make fun, salable items out of small amounts of scrap wool that I would normally just throw away, I've recently taken up a new craft: Needle-felting.

To do needle felting, you just get a lump of wool and poke it repeatedly with this barbed needle, and the wool magically felts.

It's really cool---you can do amazingly precise flat things like this:

http://members.peak.org/~spark/gallery.html

But you can also do 3-D sculptural things like this:

http://www.woolpets.com/galleries.html

Here's my first attempt at needle felting: a little Icelandic ewe. She is 100% raw, unwashed Icelandic wool throughout, except for her 2 beads for eyes and her bell on a ribbon. Her body, head, neck, and legs are felted hard, and then soft loose wool is applied like hair over that to give her a fluffy fleece. Because I used unwashed wool, she even smells like a sheep!