I spent the weekend with some very creative people! We danced, sang, played music AND needlefelted.
I provided the hats, purses, and scarves for people to decorate. It’s a great way to visit and play!
Here are the results.
Also, notice Sofie’s scarf (at the bottom). She has a lovely rose growing on her scarf. Who says needlefelting has to be flat!
I just arrived home from a great road trip to Port Wing, Wisconsin. I went “up north” to visit friends and participate in the 2nd annual “Sashay ’round the donut”. A fun evening of music and dance held in the town hall. And I might add, more fresh home made donuts than one could possibly eat!
I spent the evening playing fiddle for the square and contra dancers. . . and also put my needlefelting hats and roving out for those who wanted to have some fiber fun. A few people decorated hats (as seen below) and others needle felted designs on their own clothes. One 4 year old girl was sporting some very cute wool pants! Her Mom had felted two sleeves from a sweater and sewn them together to make the pants. Now Mom has needlefelted some fun color into those cool pants! Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the sleeve-felted-into-pants-and- decorated item.
Here are some snapshots the creative needlefelting that went on!
A few weeks ago, I was at St. Catherine’s College selling felt hats and needlefelting supplies. Sales are always best when demonstrations catch the eyes of those passing by. This 15×15 inch design is the result of my demonstrations. Don’t yet know what it will become. . .I could frame it. . . I could make a pillow out of it. . . any other ideas?
This 15 x 15 ” square is left over from a needlefelting party I facilitated in January. A group of co-workers wanted to spread some warmth, love and color into a sick friend’s life. They each needle felted a square with a design reflecting a connection between them and their friend/co-worker. Here are the results. I think it is lovely!
I supply the felted squares (made by me) and all the roving and tools for decorating. Even those who don’t think of themselves as “crafty” successfully created colorful, meaningful squares. Blanket stitching the squares together was a community project as well; lots of love and well wishes were sewn into this warm blanket. I hope that I have the opportunity to lead more parties like this one. It was a great deal of fun and quite touching at times.
Led another workshop in needlefelting last Saturday and here are the lovely results! A few are missing. There was a lovely dotted green (or maybe brown?) scarf that I loved, but forgot to photograph. A bunny rabbit hat didn’t make the photos because I can’t seem to stand still while taking photos. I had a grand old time, thank you everyone! Shawn
She needlefelted these lovely twists all around her hat!
Whimsical swirls surrounded this hat.
I love this scarf. The talented needlefelter gave me a new idea by braiding the roving and then needlefelting it on the item. Thanx!
Another great scarf! This one was done by needlefelting with the help of a stencil.
Another whimsical hat!
Two views of the same hat. Very Scandinavian!
This photo demonstrates my inability to take photos. . . This is a gorgeous hat!! the flower has lots of texture and depth and I’m sorry not to have captured it better!
I haven’t blogged for a few weeks. . . my how time flies at this time of year.
Here are photos from another hat decorating party! This was a really fun way to spend a really cold Friday evening!
Some other new projects are in the works as well. . . a pair of socks on tofutsie. . . and a cable sweater in a beautiful silk/wool blend yarn from Blackberry Ridge. I can’t seem to get a good picture of this work. I’ve tried but the silk flecks, which are lighter than the wool, make the picture look fuzzy and don’t show the cable work. One of these days I will get this figured out!
I’ve also started another free form sweater. This one will be greens and blues.
Look in my flicker account to see these works in progress.
Here is my knitting Haiku for the day:
But my shelves are full of yarn
I want to buy yarn.
Isn’t this always the way it goes!
Happy holidays,
Shawn
Yesterday I led a needlefelting party at a friend’s home and I thought I’d share some of the beautiful work done by the participants. We shared good conversation, red wine and our creative juices were flowing.
the top of a beautiful blue hat!
And here is what it looks like from the side.
Look at this classy teak hat with it’s whimsical flower!
I wanted to take this beauty home!
The hostess of the party decorated this fine hat! A splash of color all the way around that looks GREAT on her.
Just a few examples of how these great hats (for sale at my esty store) can look.
Off to do some well deserved knitting! Tata.
Hi everyone,
I finally did it! I set up a store on Etsy to sell my felted hats.
For the past 3 years I have been holding needlefelting workshops, well I call them parties, to which I bring felted hats and scarves plus all the supplies needed for needlefelting. When I first started doing these parties very few people knew what needlefelting was, but it is becoming more and more popular. To see some of the hats I have decorated with needlefelting see my other post under needlefelting.
Now, my felted hats are available to you on line. So far I have only put up one color. (My goal is to get a different color felted hat that is in stock on line every day. A bit of an ambitious goal me thinks.) They fit young adults through adult size heads. I am experimenting with child sizes but it may be a while before I get those up there. And child sizes aren’t all THAT different from our adult heads. Who knows how old one is before their head is the size it will be for the rest of their life?
It’s a perfect day for knitting. . . too bad I won’t get to it until later this evening. (and then I’ll be taking pictures of felted hats to get on Etsy)
Tomorrow night at the 331 Club some friends of mine are playing at 7pm; the Ditch Lilies – an all girl honky tonk band. I have tap class from 7:30 to 9pm but will be at the club after that. See you there?
Happy Knitting!
Shawn
Thank you everyone who voted for my hat in the Needlefelting competition!! I won my first blue ribbon.
I knit this hat, then fulled it. The design is applied through needlefelting. Some people tell me I should do one like this in white…it looks like a baseball with stitching to them…hmmm…it’s meant to look like a ring of wheat.
Here are pictures of a few more hats I have needlefelted.
The hats are knit and felted in the washing machine. I also sell plain hats if anyone wants one (or more) of their own for decorating! Hats are available in 50 colors!! Just drop me an email note with Hats in the subject line.
