Do have a go at this challenge no matter what materials you prefer and no matter how new or how experienced you are. The first challenge for this year is to make one, or more, experimental textile samples using repurposed items such as old clothing or furnishings. For example, you could deconstruct an old shirt and use specific pieces or just rough cut pieces or even shred the fabric down to threads. You could unravel an old sweater or scarf…
Each year towards the end of the year, I like to go back and review what I have created throughout the year. That is one reason that I like blogging. It helps keep track of what I have done and many times, by the end of the year, I have totally forgotten some of the things that happened at the beginning of the year. Does that happen to anyone else? One of my themes this past year has been to…
This is a guest post by Lyn and Annie who were unable to post today but will be back soon. Annie decided to make a lariat as she’d never felted one before … she likes a challenge… it’s 350 cm (138′) long! You can wrap it round and round your neck loosely and you can leave the ends hanging or tie them or just tuck them in. You can see in the layout close-up below that Annie has used wool…
It was back to school week so I was busier than usual. re-adjusting times and schedules. Last time I showed you the finished visor. It had a lot of fulling and it was nice and sturdy. When the piece is well fulled, you often end up with a dull picture. This is caused by the backing fibres migrating through the coloured fibres. Sometimes they end up dull or fuzzy looking. When I make pictures that will be mounted or framed…
The knitting I’m very glad to have finally regained my knitting mojo after such a long hiatus. Once the days started lengthening and getting slightly warmer, my brain seems to have understood it was time for my hands to get busy making again. However, my attention span might have been left behind somewhere, for I ended up making a few mistakes that I missed until much later! I’m glad I did catch them though. I was knitting a Poet jumper…
For the last 6 weeks I have been immersed in an online course through Maiwa’s School of Textiles (https://maiwa.com/) called Print and Paint with Natural Dyes. It’s been quite intense, but I have learned quite a bit about printing with natural dye pastes. We used powdered dyes. I wasn’t cooking up anything from scratch although I was crushing up cochineal bugs with my mortar and pestle! Ewww!! Quite often I felt like a mad scientist mixing up various ingredients to…
Our best wishes to you all for a happy, creative new year! And what better way to kick-start your creativity in 2023 than taking a challenge or two 🙂 The first challenge for this quarter is from a post by Caterina on the Felting and Fiber Forum after she had made some arm-warmers. Quote: “Couldn’t we have a Quarter Challenge on felt things that are purpose made to address a need that we can’t find a way to address with…
They tell me it’s Summer already. To be honest, I haven’t noticed… I know most of you reading after this post is published might be complaining about how hot it is, but I can inform you I’m currently writing this with a jacket on. Ah, Scottish Summer… I had lots of lovely knitting projects in mind for the warmer months of the year, two of which involved making some season-appropriate tops to wear when the sun was out. This would…
This title made me chuckle. 🤭 It sounds like I’m going to lecture, about good hygiene. But no, my post is about felting soaps, as take-away gifts, for my niece Lauren’s bridal shower. The shower was in Phoenix, this past weekend. I declined my invitation, knowing I would surely melt in July’s hot temperatures – never dreaming there would be a triple digit heatwave. However, as her only aunt, I wanted to send something special, to help with the shower. Felted…
As January started I found I wanted something unimportant to fiddle with. You know something that didn’t have a deadline, had to be made for a class or show, or have any practical purpose. I had been sorting through all my bits and pieces of felt that accumulate, the ones that may be good for a picture or are just too good or interesting to get rid of. I was trying to sort them into possible uses and tidy up…
