Whiskers and String

A few new critters are now residing at in Lititz.

Hi there. A little behind-the-scenes for you. A few years ago I started mixing my own wool to get the colors I wanted. For woodland animals, mixed colors just look more realistic. It took a few years to save up for a tiny drum carder, and I can only make small batches, but it is much better than hand mixing (which I still do for just one critter at a time).

Today I was mixing up some squirrel fur. I wanted to make it a little darker than the last batch. I used four colors: light gray, a lovely tanish from a local farm, some basic beige, and some black.

Basically, it all gets fed into the carder in bits, removed, fed into the carder again, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat until it is all mixed well and the correct color.

The images show you various points in the process ending with the final gray. It was too brown, so I added more light grey to get the final color. It's a long process. Today it took about an hour to get enough wool for about 6 squirrels. Then the clean up. Wool everywhere!!

2026 goal: Work ahead and have some holiday items put aside before things get busy. Felted Santa hats are very difficult to make--they can be too thick and inflexible. I'm trying my hand at crocheted hats. Wish I knew how to knit!