Albert &

Victoria

 

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The Adventures

 of

Albert and Victoria

 

                 Every fall members of the Down Home Spinners along the Maine-New Hampshire border are very busy trying to finish all their projects for the hand spinning booth at the Fryeburg Fair, Maine’s “Blue Ribbon Classic”, to make an attractive display, really “show our stuff”. We were looking for something new and different for the booth and needed to have a new banner as the previous one was still lost in a move. Time was getting short. We had talked about various styles, but never settled on anything long enough to get started. We had talked about rainbow dyed sheep holding the new banner up on the back shelf, but never got them started either.

 

             The week before the 2000 fair opened I was digging around in a box of fabric looking for some Sherpa cloth I knew I had tucked away somewhere. We needed some sheep and needed to start somewhere. Once the cloth was found the next question was how to “build” some bodies that would be fairly easy to construct and were capable of standing alone and holding a banner. Out in the shop in the barn I found some pieces of ½” plywood and some 1½” diameter dowel. Two rough body shapes were cut from the plywood, one a little smaller than the other. Four “legs” were cut to length, then notched to  receive the plywood bodies. So far, so good. Bodies with legs.

 

             Forelegs, sheep needed forelegs – two pair of forelegs with hooves. More doweling was cut to length and, using a variety of tools, I managed to fashion what looked like a sheep hoof on one end of each leg. These legs were cut to half length because the top of the forelegs was going to be made of the Sherpa cloth so the legs would hang and be moveable. For contrast all the legs were then painted black. The lower legs were secured to the body and I found some more wood for the bases. Sheetrock screws fastened the “sheep” to the platforms and they were able to stand, indeed!

 

             With the sheep under one arm and a bag of quilt batting under the other I headed for the house. It was fairly easy to wrap each body with the batting and to stuff the behinds and the shoulders with a little more for shaping. The next step was to “clothe” the bodies in the Sherpa cloth “wool”. Laying the body down on the cloth I lapped the material over and cut a piece big enough to wrap around for each one leaving extra at the top to cover the head. With heavy thread on the needle I sewed the “fleece” up the front of each animal and fastened the area between the legs. Using a little more stuffing to fill out the form I then gathered the material around each of the legs and secured the thread. So far, so good. Tails, they needed to have tails if they were going to be proper sheep.

 

             Actually, I was stalling for time so I could think out how I was going to complete the top half of the sheep. The forelegs posed no real problem. I fashioned four tubes of “fleece” and secured the legs at the end with glue, then tucked in the top edges and stitched the forelegs to the shoulders of each sheep just slightly to the front. It was working. They did begin to look like sheep. One more day to go. Getting late. Time for bed. I would have to figure out how to do the heads in the morning.

 

             The day dawned sunny and bright. I stared at the sheep all through breakfast and still had no idea how I was going to make the heads. Not to worry, the day was young, plenty of time to come up with a plan. Canvas might work. I went about my household chores. Lo and behold, coming into the workroom I saw cones of yarn sitting on the shelf right next to the headless sheep and saw the solution right there! Wrapping a piece of canvas around the cone of yarn of the appropriate size for each head I was able to tuck in the front edges making a reasonable facsimile of a sheep’s nose! This was perfect! I made some ears, folded and attached them to the heads. Taken outside they were spray painted and left to dry. Then the heads were stapled to the top of the plywood bodies, the excess Sherpa cloth cut, tucked and stitched around each one and there they were, two fully-realized sheep standing before me!

 

             The next day they went to the fair and were positioned up on the shelf in the booth holding a new banner between them. As we busied ourselves down below with the background cloth, setting up the display of socks, mittens, sweaters, hats and skeins the two sheep looked down and…asked what else they could do to be of service. In no time we had taught both of them to spin with a drop spindle and gave each of them a spindle and enough fiber to keep them busy all week while they held the banner.

 

             You may be somewhat skeptical about this, but like Pinocchio becoming a real boy, these two took on a life of their own! Albert and Victoria were no slouches. They entertained fairgoers all week and were already making plans for next year when it was time to take down the display at the end of the fair. They were such winsome characters that we thought it would be fun to include them in the spinners’ activities and we created a challenge right then and there. Using handspun yarns we would make sweater vests or shawls for Albert and Victoria to show off at the next Fryeburg Fair. This would be a chance to exercise our skills at designing a garment, choosing the fiber, spinning and dyeing the yarn, working with gauge and making a garment to fit one or the other. We could use small amounts or samples to make this project. It would be small enough that it would not take forever to complete, and we would have all these items to exhibit at next year’s fair!

 

             I took them home and put them in the closet with the other things used in the fair booth and went back to my regular “life beyond fair week”. A few weeks later I was making supper when I heard a racket coming from the closet and went to investigate the noise. Albert and Victoria were banging on the door to come out. It seemed that they were totally rested up after the fair and were anxious to have a regular life, too. It being Halloween they decided that going trick-or-treating with the other neighborhood kids was as good a place to start as any. Before too long they were going through the drawers looking for the makings of their costumes. Albert fancied himself as a debonair vampire complete with pointy teeth and a cape, while Victoria decided on being an Indian princess after finding a length of rich red wool and some long “eagle” feathers.

 

             This is where it all began and there has been no stopping them. They were not content to go back into the closet and chose, instead, to stay out and be full-fledged members of the family. They were the first at the door to greet guests, learned how to tease the dogs without going too far,  and quickly adapted to life beyond the closet. As anxious as they were to cook the Thanksgiving turkey we had to draw the line somewhere. At Christmastime they went out to get their own small tree and learned how to send photo greetings on the computer.  New Year’s Eve they stayed up sharing popcorn and playing board games with the dogs. One afternoon they got the sleds out of the barn and spent hours sliding down the back hill and making angels in the snow before coming in to dry their tails and have cocoa.

 

             They converse regularly with friends on email and make plans for summer outings and educational trips. In March they posed for a CD cover at the ocean. As it was rather cold at the beach we thought an island vacation would be just the ticket for them. It prompted one of the spinners to make a bikini for Victoria and a pair of “Kool-Aid” jams for Albert.  So much for sweaters and shawls! Slowly their wardrobe is materializing. Albert has a Fair Isle vest made with soft dog hair and another with a scenic view of the mountain in our back yard. Victoria has a red cape, a linen lace shawl, and a vest with dancing ladies on it. Who knows where it will lead?

 

Well, the people who run the Agricultural Exposition building at the fair heard about what Albert and Victoria and the spinners have been up to and decided that it would be more fun if everyone could play. They published the challenge in the fair booklet complete with Albert and Victoria’s measurements and diagrams. It was a real surprise at the fair in September seeing what  clothing had been made for them.

 

This is the end of my tale as far as I can tell it. From scraps of wood and dowel in the shop Albert and Victoria have gone on to become fiber ambassadors around the world. They have traveled by email to Europe and Australia, to many of the states in the USA, to the world of academia, and to sheep and wool events here in the Northeast. Be assured that they have many adventures before them and may report in again when you least expect it. They have very few limitations and miles to go before they sleep.