Saturday, April 26, 2008

April Showers Bring Felt Flowers


My felt group's April workshop was to make felted flowers. Paige and Grace showed us some techniques using a cardboard cone. Above is the bouquet of flowers they made to show us examples of what we could try to do. The vase was felted in an earlier workshop.


A closeup of their flowers.




Paige showing us how to fine tune the felting of the inside of the flower. Materials included duct tape wrapped cone, bubble wrap, olive oil soap, netting, water.


Two of the finished flowers.


Our finished flowers. Now I just want to make an entire garden of felt flowers!


This is Judy's silk scarf that she embellished with pieces of felt, along with her flowers.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Spring Tour


I haven't blogged in awhile because of extreme dyeing, skeining, kitting, and everything it takes to get ready for a studio tour. Unfortunately the days I chose to dye yarn were miserable for drying yarn. It was 40 degrees, cool and misty. My yarn was spread on every available surface in the house and studio. Mmmmmm, wet wool. It took days to dry, compared to about an hour if it's hanging in the bright sunshine and breeze.


My friend, Ann, made these adorable clothes pin bags. We are huge proponents of hanging out laundry and these bags will just make the chore all the more cheerier.


I have new summer yarns, cotton mostly, some organic. That purple thingie hanging up is my market bag made from sturdy cotton dyed in rich earthy colors. I also had my last shearing sent off to Prince Edward Island to made into yarn.


The twist yarn is called 'Brambles Yarn' (my Jacob sheep), the grey is 'Mocha's Yarn' and the white is 'Sparkleberry's Yarn'.


The bins are filled with color. That's the Baby Surprise Jacket in my Salsa.


My new colorway, Cheer Up.


Sock Hop and Bee Bop, both a superwash yarn, great for socks. The Sock Hop is being used by some in the Sock Madness contest.




A beautiful, thin young girl bought this adorable short jacket that I had felted out of a jacket that a friend had given me. I cut the sleeves and bottom off to make purses and had this cute cropped jacket left so embellished with hand dyed felt cutouts.


A customer (sorry, didn't catch your name) had gotten some of my Salsa and Loopy in the Mermaid colorway and wove this stunning shawl. WOW!




And here is Dorie modeling my Ladybelle Shawl. She had a hard time deciding on which colorway to knit and finally chose this one, Carnival.
So now I'm dyeing like mad, getting ready for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest, May 3 & 4. Hope to see you there!