Bedford News:
A love of music and sheep farming has added up to an unusual fundraiser, New Hampshire-style, for Bedford High School’s music department.
Donna Ferranti was the only one of four children to move away from the Rollinsford sheep farm where they grew up. Her parents still live there, and her sister and two brothers are still nearby.
Ferranti says Bedford is suburbia by comparison. But she maintains close ties to her family and the farm.
She loves the feel of lanolin from raw sheep wool, and shares her sister’s belief in the importance of making music part of their children’s lives.
So when Ferranti’s sister, a veterinarian-turned-sheep farmer, asked her if she’d like to take a flock’s worth of wool from her sheep, Ferranti soon thought of a way to bring music and wool together.
The mother of three young musicians, including a junior at Bedford High School who plays the upright bass, Ferranti wanted to do something to support the school’s music program.
She decided to make high-quality lap blankets emblazoned with the school’s logo, the Bedford Bulldogs. It would be perfect for cold evenings watching games in the football stadium, she thought, along with a hundred other uses.
“I use them when I’m watching TV, because I get cold,” Ferranti said over a cup of coffee at her house earlier this week. “And I keep one at the end of my bed and in the car.”
The heather-gray blankets, with red striping along the edges, are naturally flame retardant, like all wool, Ferranti said.
Photo by LollyKnit