My First Attempt at Needlefelting

This is my first attempt at needle felting. I have no idea what kind of dog it might be but I love it. My grandaughter helped me. Between the 2 of us, I made the body pieces and she started building up the fur on his back and sides. I finished up the face.



I have Penny's kit and book but rather than use her nice fleece for my first one I thought I would use some of the fleece I have laying around. As you can probably tell, we only slightly followed her directions, we were having too much fun to read step by step...(sorry Penny).



I'm still not ready to use the "good stuff". I can see how this might become addicting.

Knitting

I joined Knitting Daily http://www.knittingdaily.com/ just about the time they first came up with the idea. Its a little email connected to a web page full of chat about new (HK) patterns and best of all, old patterns that were previously published in Interweave Knits Magazine--oldies but goodies that you can now buy in .pdf format very inexpensively.

They also have lots and lots of free patterns, knit and crochet, that you can download. The emails come at least once a week and have some great tips and tricks you can learn from. Today I got an email talking about increasing and decreasing when HKing...and I went to the web site just to see what was new and to read more about the inc and dec. While there I clicked on Free Patterns (my favorite of course) and found this beauty. I LOVE THIS RUG!!! Hummm, I wonder, if I made it would I let anyone stand on it? Well---I think I might give it a try. I have lots of hand spun and Country Classics dye that I need to pack up for moving or---hey, I think this is the perfect project for it. I could make the rug in the colors shown which would match my new furniture. and I can already see it in front of my new couch!!! Doggone it, I wish I could start it today but you know my latest thing--finish what you started!!! And wasn't it just yesterday when I said I was taking on a new project? Needle Felting little doggies? Well---its going on my ever-growing to-do list. HA! If I live to be 110 I won't finish all these wonderful things I want to do but what fun it is to try.

Felted Foursome Finished

The Mobius twist is in the handle.

Not totally thrilled with this...2 buckets are shorter than the other two. I re-wet them and put drinking glasses in them to stretch them as good as I could. So-another project done although I'm not totally pleased...they sure do seem taller than Cat Bordhi's but then I used handspun rather than the wool she recommended. I did rewet it with the glasses in, hoping that would stretch the short ones a little, we'll see what happens.

Now, its back to the LK 150 and the Feather and Fan shawl that I started before Christmas. Will I ever finish it? Let's say I'm shooting for this week and maybe a little of this weekend thrown in. I know its going to turn out beautiful, it already is.

Foursome's Done (almost)

There it is, 4 buckets and a handle with a twist in it. But I've spent all day trying to figure out how to sew it together. Supposedly I'm going to sew the inner parts together. I've looked at the picture in the book and the picture on the web site and I'm still not exactly sure what to do but I've sewn it 3 times now...all 3 times it didn't seem right. I'll get it. The book has a smaller picture of it but I found a better picture here: http://www.catbordhi.com/downloads/Treasury_2_pv.pdf

I was hoping I'd find directions for sewing it but no such luck although the book is pretty specific, I'm just having a hard time following directions. I probably need some chocolate and wine!


Meanwhile, I've been looking on ebay whenever I rest my needle from the Foursome. I ended up with a needle felting kit to make a Maltese Dog. Soooo cute. I hope mine turns out this cute. I think I'm going to take it to Michigan and let the grandaughters help me make it. When finished I'll knit a Cat Bordhi mobius dog bed for it. This kit was Item # 270218984758 . I've been looking at them now for a few weeks and today I couldn't resist any longer.









OH, did I forget to say I also bought a finished dog? Well, I miss my dogs and while the house is for sale, I hesitate to get another one, even a small one for fear they'll mess up the furniture or floor or, well I'm trying to keep the place clean. (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it). The finished Matese was Item # 230231548973 and if you want one, she does have more dogs. I'm tempted but I'll see how mine turns out first. Here she is, she measures only 3" long x 3" high to the top of her topknot. She's made of White merino wool and 100% Cultivated Silk. Her pink bow sports a Pink Swarovski Rhinestone set in a silver jewel finding.



Hopefully sometime tomorrow I'll have a picture of a felted Foursome to show.

2 UFO's On Saturday

At Christmas time I was trying furiously to finish up presents for local relatives while I was also trying to get ready to leave for Tacoma. One niece got left out in my rush. I promised her I'd get her present done as soon as I got home from Tacoma but here I am, over 2 months after Christmas and I still haven't delivered her present. Maybe it was meant to be, she's moving from a camper to a house in the next couple weeks. They're really excited and working to get the house painted and fixed up before they move in. So--I decided to get that throw finished and make it for the new house. I picked a design that was on sale this week at Embroidery Library. I think its perfect.

Meanwhile, I am still working on the Felted Foursome. I probably could have finished it if I had worked on it while the machine was embroidering but instead I was reading a book...so I took the foursome to the Mill rather than my spinning wheel since bad weather was predicted and I didn't want to get the wheel wet.

I am definitely going to finish it today, I can't wait to felt it. BTW, people at the mill couldn't figure out what it is...they all said, it did look like ...something...maybe a bit obscene??? Good think I took the book so I could show visitors the picture of what it is going to look like (hopefully)

Another UFO finished

In my quest to pack stuff up instead of making a bigger mess in the loft, I decided to finish up my UFO's and I have quite a few. Yesterday's UFO was an embroidered throw that I started at Christmas. Unfortunately the machine messed up, jumped around and totally ruined the design I was doing. I tossed it aside and grabbed another throw because it was a Christmas present for my BIL. Yesterday I sat and picked out as many stitches as I could from the thing. I actually ended up with a couple little holes and some very thin fabric in places but I was pretty sure that the proper embroidery design could hide the flaws and correct the mistake so I proceeded. After getting out as much thread as I could I hooped it up, making sure the old remains were centered in the hoop. I figured, even if I didn't succeed, I could cut the corner off the throw and somehow make lemonaid out of the lemon. I'm thrilled with the results. You can see a bit of the old design (blue) between the girls' legs but if you look close at it, it looks like flowers. WHEW! Throw saved!!! and I get my own Hummel design on one of the great throws I bought at Tuesday Morning last year. I think I was the only one who didn't get one in my effort to make everyone a present. Hummm, I wonder if they still have those throws? Never mind...everyone I know has one now, including me. I extremely glad that it was one of those nice green throws, its my favorite color.

2 Evenings work, I'm almost done

Here it is, I'm almost finished with the 2nd pot in my Felted Foursome, I will probably sit down today and finish that one and start the 3rd tonight.

Meanwhile, during the day I refinished my bay window that my dogs sat in every day as they watched the world go by. They scratched the wood up quite a bit so I decided to sand it and give it a couple coats of satin poly. I think it looks spectacular.

The more I fix things in this house the more I think if it doesn't sell....I don't care !

BTW, the huge plant in the window is my Aechmea, a bromelaide. These plants have a beautiful flower when you buy them, the flower stays for quite a long while and then finally dies. But the coolest thing about a bromelaide is that they put out "Pups"...Suckers that grow up from the base of the plants that can be detached and inserted in small pots to grow into a brand new plant. There's all sorts of varieties of these plants and my sister-in-law and I have been nuts about them now for a few years. Both of us haven't had any luck with our Pups but this one is VERY hopeful.

Today I'm going up to the loft to start emptying the cupboards "under the eaves" on the far side. I did the first side a couple days ago and sent Natalie 50 lbs of yarn that I found under there. I should also say that 2 big huge bags of yarn went to the garbage bin because it was dusty and dirty and very old. Natalie is getting the best of the best and I have told her to store what she doesn't want in her basement so I can retrieve it. Included are 2 cones of Denys Brunton Magicolor. I hope she doesn't want it because it makes fantastic socks and of course, we all know how great it is when fair isle'd. (is that a word?)