Needlefelting of the Irish

Needle Felting, , ,

Another needlefelting party come and gone.

Some great items were decorated at this party on Saturday, March 15th.

Look for the clutches to be sold soon on etsy!!

greenpurse.jpg Here’s an elegant green clutch.

greenscarf.jpg Green was the color of the day (not really). We couldn’t decide what these looked like. . . I opted for sea creatures.

redpurse.jpg A beautful red clutch. So dainty and pretty

redhat.jpg A beautiful red hat. Grand daughter Emily picked this out for Grandma to work on.

redsculpturehat.jpgAnother red hat! The sculpure winner of the day!

The beautiful colors and designs that come out of inexperienced needlefelters is AMAZING.

Geez, I love this job!

Another needlefelting party!

Knitting, Needle Felting, , , , ,

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!

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Trip to Port Wing WI, and more needlefelting!

Knitting, Needle Felting, , ,

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!

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Needlefelting fun

Knitting, Needle Felting, , , ,

flowersquare.jpg 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!

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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.

Henry’s Sweater

Knitting, ,

Lest you think I haven’t been knitting. . . I worked up this cute little number for Henry. My friend’s dog loves his sweaters, especially since it is once again 37 below zero if you’re standing in the wind.

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“Now this is living!!”

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“What could possibly be better than to be warm and toasty in my multi colored sweater?”

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“You expect me to walk in all this snow? I could do it if I wanted”

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“See look, here’s me sniffing like a dog does. Every once and a while I humor my humans and act like a dog”

Cheers!

I’ve finally warmed up!

Knitting, On My Needles, ,

Yes it has been cold here. . . last night 15 degrees below 0. . .and I just finally warmed up. (meaning, I’ve been too cold to blog). Believe it or not

Though cold and chilly with numb fingers, I have been busy knitting. . . I started a bohus sweater. I got THE book on Bohus knitting, “Poetry in Stitches” and decided I HAD to start a sweater. Only one slight problem. Yarn. I actually had 15 oz of Fairy Hare fiber (called for in many of the patterns) but not enough of one color for the body&sleeves. Being the compulsive person that I am, I decided to forge ahead and just fill in the colors on the body and sleeves as I used up the yarn. The top part looks pretty good. But keep in mind I only have about 3 more oz of the burgundy color and will then have to switch to one of the other colors you see here. I decided to go for “blocks” of color and not “stripes”. bohusbeginning.jpg

I also started a freeform knitting project. My friend Ellen, went to Beijing and brought back some yarn for me. It is a mutlticolored earth tone yarn. . . .but don’t know what it is. I gave it the old test of fire. . . and it, smouldered, melted and burned. Seems to me like it may be a blend of poly/wool/and?? It flamed, smelled like burnt hair and part of it squiggled and danced like melting plastic. I can’t even guess at the fiber content from the label because it is in Chinese characters. Anyway, I found some complimentary colors and started knitting. I haven’t done one like this before. . . I am knitting on the piece itself as I change directions. (I usually knit pieces and them sew them together)Here is an almost finished back.freeformback.jpg

And I have been knitting a pair of socks. I don’t necessarily liked striped socks, so when this yarn was on sale I bought it but decided I would try to knit wavy stripes. Ah ah, feather and fan results in waves, add a few cables and here you have it.ffsocktop.jpg

It’s a bit difficult to see the Feather and fan pattern but I am getting a nice scallop. Of course I didn’t swatch and this sock will fit Ellen. (it is small and she wears a size 6 shoe) and for me ( a size eight) I will have to add about 12 stitches. And I already know where I will add them. . . hee hee. Now I’m anxious to finish these so I can start the pair for myself. Since I started knitting socks, and wearing them, I only want to wear hand knit socks. mmm mmm good. got to get knitting. . .

More needlefelted hats!

Needle Felting

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

bluebraidhat.jpg She needlefelted these lovely twists all around her hat!

russethat.jpg Whimsical swirls surrounded this hat.

purplescarf.jpg I love this scarf. The talented needlefelter gave me a new idea by braiding the roving and then needlefelting it on the item. Thanx!

pearlscarf.jpg Another great scarf! This one was done by needlefelting with the help of a stencil.

goldhat.jpg Another whimsical hat!

bluehattop.jpgbluehatside.jpg Two views of the same hat. Very Scandinavian!

purplehat.jpg 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!

fingerless gloves and cowl

Knitting, , , ,

I had a great time knitting these gifts!

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The fingerless glove pattern I found on line. It was a joy to knit, especially since I could finish one in a night.

The blog that contains this pattern is in German but if you scroll down she has also provided it in English.

The yarn is a sock weight from Fairy Hare fibers. . . a blend of Angora and Merino. I love the saturated color too.

The cowl I made up myself. I started at the head end and worked down. I worked short rows over the back of the head to avoid bulk under the chin. Then I did a few rows of ribbing at the neck to pull it in a bit. The bottom is a simple lace pattern with increases worked in. I wanted a lace pattern that would scallop the edge but when I started I wasn’t home with my pattern books, so I guessed at a lace pattern that might work. It didn’t scallop like I wanted, but looks nice none-the-less. I added about 5 rows of garter stitch on the shoulder edge so it wouldn’t roll. It turned out okay and I have a general idea of what I would do different next time. The important thing is that the recipient loves them and has worn them both!! (Even though the cowl makes her look a bit like the flying nun.)

What did Santa bring me? With a small dent in my checkbook, my knitting library has expanded!!
I got “Handknitting with Meg Swansen” from Schoolhouse Press. This is a cool little book. It has a pattern for gloves in which the fingers are knit like an I-cord. Then stitches are picked up along the “float” to open up the tube to fit your fingers. I can’t wait to try this!

Book #2 “Poems of Color, Knitting in the Bohus Tradition” by Wendy Keele. Over the holidays I fell in love with Bohus Knitting. While rooting around on Ravelry I found a few site links to some Great pictures of Bohus sweaters that took my breath away. Had to know more about it and this seems to be the definitive book about this Swedish Tradition.

Book #3 “KNitting in the Old Way, Designs & Techniques from Ethnic Sweaters” by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson. I’ve started reading this one too. Lots of good general information about sweater construction. Seems I can never get enough of this kind of information. One of these days the info will actually stay in my head.:)

Book #4 “the Art of KNitting, Inspirational stitches, textures and surfaces” by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne. I”ve wanted this book forever. A gift certificate to Borders, a trip to the knitting section where I saw this book and snatched it right up!! It is full of color photos of landscapes and knitting and stitches. I saw this book 5 years ago when I took a class with Prudence Mapstone. She had one and I’ve wanted one ever since. This is a truly inspirational book. It was only yesterday that I saw past the pictures and realized there is text in the book too. Now I wish I had a week off to read!

More needlefelted hats

Knitting, Needle Felting

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!

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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:

I want to buy yarn

But my shelves are full of yarn

I want to buy yarn.

Isn’t this always the way it goes!

Happy holidays,

Shawn