I was an exchange student in New Zealand at 16 and learned to knit VERY fast and well. I haven't done anything in years but came back with many homemade / handmade sweaters, gloves, vests and knit every chance I had for years. Here is a post about that.
I bought a spinning wheel when in New Zealand and have never really done any spinning as I got married soon after graduation and had moved across the country so my spinning wheel was stored for a few years. Now, I have it displayed in the basement room where the bear is on the wall. Maybe is was my love of wool and needle work but she has mastered all that is art and skill with fibers. She is doing things I have never even heard of! She picked up an art called "felting." The only thing I had ever heard of that way was milliners using felt on top hats. She is on many fiber groups online and picked up this interest and has even gotten commissions for work. Who knew? She has taught Grand-Princess One to do it and they have both made me a few small things. Enjoy this video of her work.
She decided to enter a Christian competition and wanted to make something that had meaning on many layers. Sheep are used so many times in the scriptures and bible to reference us and talk about Christ being the Shepherd so she decided to do a cross. She used wool from over 100 different sheep and from 46 different breeds of sheep. She got online and found breeders of different types of sheep and asked them to send her a small sample of that type of sheep's wool. As you can see, some are smooth and white, others have curls and texture to them, and others brown to black and grey in color. 
She went from the blood spilt red in one corner to the white purity and atonement on the right top corner going from bottom to top as is represented by our repenting and how the blood is washed away the closer we get to Christ. She also made the cross out of all the breeds of sheep she could find representing the different races and individuality of each of us that the time on the cross wasn't just for one, but for all his "sheep" cleansing us all of the sins and blood of the world. 
I LOVE the thought and inspiration that went into this piece and I wish I had taken a better picture of it. She is going to send a few I can put up if they are better than what I have. This piece of art reminds me of a piece of art my mother made with a very similar concept and she wanted me to have the art and I didn't take it and I don't now where it ended up and now I regret not taking it as I remembered making it with my mom. I am sad that I didn't take it when offered. I have a picture of this but it is in the boxes of stuff needing to be scanned.
Maybe I will post a blog eventually of my mothers art. She was a talented artist. I found some of her painting just the other day while cleaning out the garage. Christ was at the center and she had dowels cut off in individual sizes and stained them all different colors and put Christ tall and white in the center and the rest came together to him. It was fun to make mixing and matching the dowels. I can't help think that my mother was sitting beside Princess One when she was working on this as it is something my mother would have LOVED! I included the picture of her notes and ideas above as I thought it showed how much she pondered on how to make this. I can't imagine how many hours she spent working on this. I texted and she said she spent over 120 hours from design to finish on this!
She shared with me that she felt strongly that she should learn how to spin, weave, and do fiber crafts as maybe someday she may need those skills. Talk about being prepared for an emergency! Princess One also bought a spinning wheel and a loom. She made her first blanket this year and I will post about that on the next blog post but she really is becoming a skilled artist developing those talents God has blessed her with.
Have a Blessed and Talent filled Day!
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