Zoom Loom Shelby Sheep Kit from The Woolery - Day 5

The perils of pom-poms...

Pom-poms.  

I have a sketchy history with the little buggers.  Mine never come out looking fluffy--mine often end up looking like little mangey puppies.  So you can imagine my trepidation at the prospect of the more than two dozen of them awaiting me for this project.

Luckily, the kit provides super-detailed instructions on the size and construction of the pom-poms.  They are loopy--you don't cut the ends--so that helps with the unevenness that always plagues my pom-poms.  While mine always seem to look like they are weeks overdue for a decent haircut, these are supposed to look uneven.  I stand a chance!

The tedium of making 27 one-inch pom-poms, however, should not be underestimated.  It’s a lot of looping and tying.  Make sure you have some really compelling or amusing television on hand for this part of the project.  In my case, a couple of episodes of my new television fave Scorpion fit the bill.  

I am daunted by all the sewing that will be involved in affixing these colorful little fluff balls to my sheep.  As I’ve stated before, hand sewing is not my thing. But I take heart in the knowledge that adding fleece will most certainly doom the "sheeping mantis” mystique. Fleece installed, my creation will finally resemble the right species (even with the rainbow fleece) and all will be well.

Zoom Loom Shelby Sheep Kit from The Woolery - Day 4

Beware the sheeping mantis...!

I am a very good knitter, but I rot at crafts.  

The trouble with sheep assembly, in this case, is that it feels very much like arts and crafts.  Actually, it feels like an invitation to an appearance on Pinterest Fail.  I just know this is not going to turn out as sweet and charming as the picture on the kit package.

The body and legs were pure geometry.  Make a tube.  Sew ends on the tube.  Stuff said tube.  Make two rectangles.  Wrap pipe cleaners with the rectangles and sew them shut.  Bend wrapped pipe cleaners into legs and sew them onto the body.  These things went relatively as planned.

The head however, gave me fits.  I worked it twice, and even then it looked, well, not exactly sheepish.  The real kicker came when I showed it to my husband, who got that not-quite-hidden “what is that?” expression on his face parents know all too well.  We use it when our toddler children show us a blue blob from finger painting.  We apply that face until they tell us “it’s an elephant,” after which we gush about “Well of course it is!  What a pretty blue elephant!” 

My better half looked at the black body for a moment until he pronounced the head looked like…a praying mantis.  And, don’t you know, he was right.  I had a sheep body with a praying mantis head—something out of a horrid 1950’s sci-fi flick or the Don Dixon song.   For the whole next day, every time I looked at the thing, I saw “sheeping mantis.”

Finally, after looking up half a dozen photos of sheep, I realized it was the ears.  I'm going tack the ears to flop down. Then I'll have a sheep.  Or something close to a sheep.  At least something closer to a sheep than to a praying mantis.

The fleece will save me.  No one thinks of a fluffy, fleecy praying mantis.   

Do they?

Zoom Loom Shelby Sheep Kit from The Woolery - Day 3

Rooting for squares...

All my nine squares are done!  I got faster and faster as I went along, and by the eighth and ninth squares I didn’t have to look at the directions.  This is still hard to do in all black, so reading glasses, a light surface underneath, and good lighting were essential.

I miss knitting.  I guess that means I truly am addicted.  I had to find time to knit each day as well, because as intriguing as I find this process, it doesn’t meet my creative and tactile needs the way knitting does. On the bright side, I guess that means my checkbook is safe from danger of any large, expensive loom purchases.  They look cool, but I have no hankering to own one.

I’m wondering if I’ll feel the same way about the upcoming assembly process.  27 1-inch pom-poms?  I’m cringing just thinking about it.  And sewing?  The huge pile of un-mended clothes in my house should give you a hint as to how much I like hand-sewing.  And I used to sew many of my own clothes in my 20s, so it’s not like I don’t know how.

What was fun was watching how the wool changed with a wash.  As the oils were bathed away, the fibers puffed up to make a near-solid fabric.  Beforehand, the cloth looked like too loose a weave and I had visions of my poor sheep leaking stuffing.  Nope, my little herd of black squares came out just right and ready for assembly.

Stick around—it should be fun to watch how nine black squares turn into a sheep body!

Zoom Loom Shelby Sheep Kit from The Woolery - Day 2

Blah Blah Black Sheep...

This isn't nearly as much fun in plain old black.  While I love the crazy colors that make up the "fleece" on this sheep (and I still haven't quite figured out how that bit works, even though I've read the directions twice) the body is all black.  After my fun green squares, that feels boring.

Don't get me wrong--I understand the need for the base color.  That doesn’t mean I have to like it.  I’m not having enough fun...yet.

To be fair, this is no fault of the kit.  It’s just that even in knitting, all black is always a bit of a challenge.  It's hard to see the stitches.  That's just as true of the collection of five squares I've woven to date.  I've taken to weaving it with something light on my lap to help me see the necessary details.  I've gotten to the point where I can make a square in front of the television (I can knock out a square in the span of a "Big Bang Theory" episode), but I still need the directions in front of me in order to navigate the tricky corners correctly.  The skill is still new enough that it isn't peaceful, but it is repetitive enough to feel tedious.  Maybe this is the reason granny squares never caught on with me and why I loathe to do laundry—I dislike doing the same thing over and over.  

Hey, wait, isn't that exactly what knitting is?

Sigh.  It’s a fiber mystery.  And one that will continue, since I’ve got four more squares to go. 

Zoom Loom Shelby Sheep Kit from The Woolery - Day 1

It's not kid stuff...

Let’s get this out of the way first:  If you’re even half my age, you probably had the same reaction I did when you first saw this gadget: It reminds you of that loom we all played with as kids, one that came with colorful jersey loops, that created mostly potholders.  It was a toy.

This isn’t a toy.  This is a grown up, spiffed up version of that same idea, but it’s definitely intended and built like a crafting tool.  You rather have to get your mind out of the “toy” concept at first, but using this won’t feel like you’ve borrowed your niece’s craft kit and gone back to your eight-year-old self, trust me.

The package says “on the go,” but I wouldn’t take this anywhere but to a knitting group or other craft gathering.  As a matter of fact, I had a plane travel during this project and didn’t take it with me.  Not because of the long needle involved, but because to me it just didn’t feel portable.  And while I knew it wasn’t a toy, I couldn’t shake the notion that other people would think of it as such.

Having said all that, I was truly surprised at how much I enjoyed using it.  It’s a remarkably clever little thing.  The manufacturers advise you make one or two out of scrap yarn first, which I heartily recommend. And for extra fun, use a hand-died or other yarn with a long variegation, because watching how the colors interplay is half the fun.

The kit says I have to make nine of these in black.  That sounds a bit tedious, but doable.  How those nine squares turn into a sheep?  You got me.  We’re going to have to find out together.