Ramses scarf: A ewenique gift of shear craftsmansheep

One High Point woman took her and her family’s connection to UNC to another level.

For Christmas, Joy Key made her father a scarf spun from the wool of UNC’s living mascot, Rameses.

Key, a UNC graduate, has been spinning and knitting for many years.

She said her father initially brought up the idea of using Rameses’ wool for spinning one day during conversation. Although the idea piqued her interest, she didn’t give it any more consideration until he brought it up a second time.

“I thought, ‘I guess I need to at least try,’” she said.

Key said she then did some research on how to acquire the wool, which led her to Hogan’s Magnolia View Farm — the home of Rameses.

She called and asked if she could have any excess wool after Rameses had been sheared for the season.

After playing phone tag back and forth for a while, Key finally received a call in late May saying they had two and a half pounds of wool for her to use.

Key said she was given the wool for free and even got to visit a freshly sheared Rameses, who was hanging out down in the woods with some cows, when she went to pick it up.

“The idea of making my dad a scarf came when I knew I could get some,” Key said.

How much wool she was given determined what she could make out of it. She also wanted to make something she knew her dad would love.

“I wanted to do something that a man would appreciate,” Key said.

“What do you get someone who’s 89, almost 90?”

Bernie Sheffield, Key’s father and fellow UNC graduate, said he actually found out about the scarf through a local newspaper article before it was given to him as a gift.

“I was quite surprised,” he said. “I had a vested interest in what she was doing.”

Sheffield said he thought the scarf was beautiful, although he still had one thing to say to his daughter:

“You little sneak.”

From the same wool, Key made Sheffield a hat for his birthday in January and her great niece a sock monkey. With the remaining wool, she said she is toying with the idea of making another scarf.

Junior Danielle Wallace said she thinks the idea is creative as long as no harm is imposed on Rameses.

“I wouldn’t want it to turn into a business over time,” she said.

Key said Rameses’ caregivers extended an invitation for her to come to Chapel Hill sometime and help with his preparations before a home football game.

Although she doesn’t make it back to Chapel Hill often, Key still follows UNC’s sports teams and holds the University very near and dear.

“It’s just a very special place,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade having gone there for anything in the world.”

Key, fittingly, spun the scarf for her dad on a spinning wheel that he made for her years ago.

“I never in a million years would have dreamed that I would have been a spinner, for one thing, and spin the mascot’s fleece, for another thing.”

@MariaMullis2017

arts@dailytarheel.com