Shopping and Felting, I promise (New picture started & Blue Whale)Part1

Shopping and Felting, I promise (New picture started & Blue Whale)Part1

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Today we will get to felting, but first…There is a new Fiber festival, Ontario East Fibre Fest, in October, south of Ottawa (Canada). Let’s get up early and drive south just past Smith Falls to check it out. I saw ads on Facebook; it looks like there will be a good selection of vendors. Some of whom you may recognise from past shopping opportunities. This looks like fun you might enjoy joining me! Don’t forget to pack your window shopping money and meet us in the driveway by 8 am. Afterwards we can visit the cottage and continue the felting.

Saturday Morning heading to Lombardy:

The drive is just over an hour; it’s one of those places you can’t quite get to in a straight line. If we had more time, we could stop while going through Carlton Place, at the wool growers co-op and look at fleeces, but there may be some at the sale, so let’s keep going. Smith Falls is part of the canal system that runs from Ottawa to Kingston. (The locks were built to help thwart American ideas of trying to liberate us from the British. The Americans were surprised we liked being British and not American.)

map of part of eastern Ontario and close up of Fair grownds at Lombardy1.1) Map of eastern Ontario & map of the event.

Just south of Smithfalls is the town of Lombardy; we are stopping at the Lombardy Fair Grounds. There is a complex of agricultural buildings, lots of parking, and when we arrived, we could see food trucks. We had made good time on the drive, found the handicap parking, and went to start the line to go in. (We are early.)

3 photos of buildings at the Lombardy fair grounds1.2) The buildings

The event was spread over 3 of the buildings (there were a couple more they could expand into, if they had more vendors in the future). It’s a bit of a hike between the 3, but with the walker it was fine. The organisers had a good mix of vendors, with offerings from raw fleece to finished goods and tools. It was not as yarn-heavy as some large fibre festivals have been at lately, but still had a good variety of yarn. Keep an eye out for Toby’s fluorescent yarn; it glows in black light!!! Do you want to knit something for a rave? Let’s have a quick look at some of the things for sale. There is always room for more virtual fibre in your hoard! Luckily real fibre is quite squishy, so there is room for more of that too!!

3photos of things for sale at the Ontario East Fiber festival 6 photos of things for sale at the Eastern Ontrio Fiber festival2.1- 2.2 ) photos from booths

They had asked one of the local sheep shearers to demo on Saturday and a farmer to bring their alpaca on Sunday.

- Setting up for sheering, - sheering of goat, - volinteers to get sheered, - fleeces and sheep after sheering3.1- )sheep shearing (there were also 3 mohair goat volunteers for a haircut. The youngest was having his first haircut and was not impressed!)

They had arranged 2 food trucks, and one little building had Chapman’s ice cream on cones or cups. One of the food trucks was selling food featuring cheese (I found out later they had a fantastic variety of grilled cheese sandwiches, one with pineapple! The other was handmade tacos. I should have gone over to look more closely!!! Next year.

2 photos, - 2 food trucks, Husband with icecreem4.1) ice cream and food trucks

It’s now past 2 pm; if we are going to also get some raking and felting done at the cottage, we probably should head out soon. By the time we got there, Glenn was wiped, and I was busy trying to get a shot of all the cool things I found. So we put off the raking of the pine needles until Sunday morning.

3 photos - new 3D printed combs, New Fiber and handout from event5.1) Jan’s Loot from the Ontario East Fibre Fest

I wound up working on the blue whale after dinner. I can’t find more of the tongue colour I had used. It’s probably in the missing box with my photo reference pictures. So used what I had left and then started to join the top and bottom sections together.

Sunday:

Glenn inspected the progress Sunday morning

building up under-structure of blue whale5.2- Whale on chair in 2 pieces, working on felting down mouth and colouring tongue, Glenn inspecting whale with 2 parts joined

It’s amazing how weather can change over a short space of time. I was inspired by the steam coming off the creek that looked like little figures dancing above the water (looked a bit dangerous dancing on water; you could fall in and get wet).

The water was flat and reflected the trees and fall colours at 7:30 am. After breakfast, it was still calm, and Glenn spent a couple of hours removing the pine needles over the septic field and up the driveway. He made 3 big piles by the edge of the driveway.

 

While he was busy with the pine needles, I started lunch, ginger orange chicken with peppers and onions over rice. During lunch, we noticed odd noises on the metal roof and finally figured out it was pine cones being pelted by the pine trees at the house! This shock was followed by an increasingly gusty wind and the Pine-Snow-Apocalyptics!!! The beautifully raked yard, the driveway and even the previously clean porch were covered in pine needles and stray leaves! As if Sunday morning raking had never happened.

https://youtube.com/shorts/h0QWWmRMf-U?feature=share

5.3) video of snowing pine needles 

pine needles carpeting the deck, thedrive way and a photo of the creek 5.4) Photos of the area around the cottage of the pine needle apocalypses.

pine needles cerownd rectangle where car was parked which is clearly deliniated5.5)Where the car was parked during the event; you can see the per-raking level of needles under the car.

I guess we can try again next week? Oh well, I did get to work on the blue whale; he now looks more whale-like, but his fin-wires are too high. I promise I will lower them.

Monday was the guild meeting, so I was in early to set up the library, do a check of the circulation file and add a few donated books and a new magazine. Then it was time for the meeting, which was on sock knitting machines and was very interesting. I had a selection of the guild’s books on socks from the post-spinning section. (Post-spinning is things you can do with thread or yarn after you have spun it). (I also have a post-weaving section of the guild library, formerly known as sewing.)

OVWSG library display for topic of sock knitting and photo from meeting about sock knitting machines6.1- shots of the meeting/library set up

Tuesday, I have the new mini tower computer back and am trying to get it set up. I lost all my old beloved hardworking programs when the huge tower computer died. No more Windows 2010 and its fabulous artistic photo editing tools!!! No more Publisher supported by Microsoft, so I was going to dump all their products as soon as I lost my old owned copy. I had been pointed to OpenOffice, but the one I found was very clunky and took much longer to write a blog post on. I later found the newer version LeberOpenoffice, it has lots of features and is still getting updates. I wrote the last blog post in that. I didn’t have extra time to investigate it too far, but I did discover it can open Publisher files, so I’m very happy. I had to reinstall PhotoPad, which both Ann and I use, but the new version is more limited and keeps trying to get us to buy the suite. (annoying)

It took most of 2 days to edit the photos for the blog. It is still slower than windows/old photopad was, but I will create a workaround, and it will get faster, I hope.

Glenn was home earlier than he has been in over a month, so we packed up and went to Kanata for the evening. Glenn played another horrible train game for about 3 hours, and I lowered the whales fins/

As you may remember from the smaller humpback whale armature, they have upper and lower armature body parts. For the bigger blue whale, I had moved the fins to the upper armature since they seemed a tiny bit low on the Humpback whale. I realised I had added more to the underside of the upper body than I had anticipated, so as I joined the upper and lower body parts together, the fins seemed a bit high…. drat. Oh well, if I had left them on the lower armature, they would still be too low. I can relocate them down by adding an extra wire. I tried just bending them to a lower their position but that made the fin support too short. I will get that fixed before I make the wet felted skin.

I inserted a 6-gauge wire between the two armatures about where the fins should be. Then cut the trailing end of the fin wire I had mis-located and wound it around the new, much stiffer wire. Once the wire was positioned, it was time to spend a bit of time firming the area between the eye position and the far side of the fin.

adding 6g aluminum wier through whale then using original 12g to wrap around 6g and hold it in place 7.1) Fin Fixing with augmented 6g wire inserted between armatures.

Oh dear, it’s already very long. I will stop here and share the rest next time.

 

A Nuno Felt Workshop.

A Nuno Felt Workshop.

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I’ve had 2 Nunofelt scarf workshops recently. I will tell you more about the last one. Just a small class in a local hall. It is so nice to help  keep these small halls active and this one is a very active one.

The 4 ladies had a lot of fun and so did I.

The scarves were all very different. Here, they are just about to get wet.

Then everyone got to rubbing. Everything is covered with plastic. The thin painter’s kind. They are using the Starburst Tupperware lids for rubbing.

I thought I got a rolling picture, but I don’t seem to have one. So here is what they looked like finished and wet.

I got dry pictures from 3  of the ladies

I am working on being ready for our upcoming Sale and Exhibition, labelling and making soap mostly. I did 2 batches like these. I had very clean hands. I packaged my little spirals (could I call them worlygigs?), but I don’t like the packaging. So, now I am trying to think of a different way to package them.  https://www.facebook.com/events/1756344002068064    https://www.ovwsg.com/sale/vendors/

 

 

Painted Christas Tree
Painting Christmas Cards and a Bit of NYC

Painting Christmas Cards and a Bit of NYC

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Last year around this time, my group and I painted some triangular tree cards to be used for Christmas cards. I didn’t use them but found them recently and decided I would make a few to sell. The tree is easy to create. We used watercolors. Have your card size determined and make a tall triangle out of low stick tape. Then paint the center with green paints. You can stamp or brush or whatever you decide.

Painted Christas Tree

Then you can add details with stamping or black pens or paint pens or gel pens or whatever. I looked at some examples online to give me inspiration.

Painted Christas Tree

These are mostly decorated with acrylic paint and black ink pens.

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The centers can be made however you want them and the decorations can be simple or ornate. Whichever you prefer. I made a variety of styles.

Painted Christas Tree

This one is a combination of acrylic paint and ink.

Painted Christas Tree

I kept this one simple just adding gold acrylic details.

Painted Christas Tree

And the last one. Again, black pen and acrylic stamped on in circles. I haven’t added in wording. Would you add holiday wording or just leave them as is?

I haven’t gotten much fiber art completed (that I can share right now) as we have been traveling and I am working on pieces for a spring exhibition. I will share the exhibition with you after it’s hung, hopefully in March 2027. We did go to New York City again and we found some new (to us) public art. That is one of my favorite things about NYC is the free public art around every corner.

Public art in NYC

A relatively new set of sculptures just outside of Central park on the southeast corner is Dogs by Camille Henrot.

Public art in NYC

It was a circle of dog sculptures and such fun interpretations of various breeds.

Public art in NYC

So now there’s a “dog park” just outside of Central Park!

NYC Subway Mosaic

I also found a few new subway mosaics that I hadn’t seen before.

NYC Subway Mosaic

Such fun to find new ones in our travels through the city.

NYC Subway Mosaic

The details in some of these mosaics is fantastic. I hope you enjoyed seeing a few photos of art in NYC.

Textile Portraits

Textile Portraits

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Earlier this month I went along to a talk I’d seen advertised at the Louth Textile Group. The speaker was Textile Artist Holly Capstick who specialises in mixed media textile portraits and free motion embroidery.

It had been a while since I’d done any fabric projects but I’m a big fan of free motion stitch and so seeing the examples of work on Holly’s website made me want to know more about her techniques.

Holly is a very generous speaker and gave her audience lots of tips and advice on creating textile portraits. We were encouraged to handle the work on show and seeing it at such close quarters really helped us to understand the process of layering which she uses. These are some of the fabulous portraits Holly brought to show us…..

 

Needless to say I drove home that evening feeling very inspired by what I’d seen and keen to have a go myself. Holly was running a workshop the following day but there were limited spaces and I was too late to get booked on it. So the next morning I decided to have a go at home and found this photo of Mark to use as inspiration.

I got the image up on my iPad, cropped it to just show his face and changed it to black and white. 

The next stage was to make a (very) rough outline tracing to ensure the correct positioning of the eyes, nose and mouth. I placed this under my cotton fabric on the light box and traced it using an HB pencil, at the same time adding a little of the shading.

 

Holly works with paint and fabric snippets, built up on a base layer, and tops this off with a sheer silk organza. A search through my fabric stash confirmed what I suspected, I didnt have a fine enough silk organza and my synthetic sheers were all too shiny! In a way I was pleased because I wanted to create a portrait inspired by Hollys work but which looks like my own so I chose to work more simply with a base of cotton fabric, the hair and shadows created using a fine black tulle and black organza for the neck of the jacket.

I was keen to just get on with this so although sampling came to mind I dismissed that thought and got straight on with the stitching. Not the best decision I could have made! About a quarter of the way through I realised the thread I’d chosen was too dark for the wrinkles (wrinkles, what wrinkles said Mark?) so I ended up having to take those out and do them again. The bit I was most concerned about, to the point of dreading it, was stitching his teeth. I think I held my breath all through that bit but fortunately I managed to keep the stitiches where I needed them and his teeth worked out fine.

I’m really pleased with the result, its very different from what Holly was teaching but more true to my style. I did think about adding colour but decided to stick with black and white and maybe try a coloured version next time.

Members of the Louth Textile Group who were at the Portrait Workshop said it was great. Holly not only provides excellent tuition but also a light box and sewing machine for each participant to use which is particulalrly helpful as it saves you lugging your machine about!

These are two of Hollys workshop samples….

And a few of the students work in progress photos….

These are what they created on the day and will finish off at home. I know a couple of the ladies who attended and although their work wasnt finished at this stage their faces are instantly recognisable. I might have a go at doing my own portrait next….. if I can find a light enough thread to make my wrinkles less visible!

 

 

 

What if I ……?

What if I ……?

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Like a cat (and like most of us here) I have had many previous lives. At one stage I worked in finance, I was never really let loose on customers (possibly a good thing for all our sakes). When not fitting out apartments, I was strictly a numbers gal. This was before computers landed on all our desks. When they did, I found them mouth wateringly fascinating (I guess you are beginning to understand why I was best kept in the back office). The first software I had a chance to get my head around was called Symphony. It was one of the first spreadsheet packages the company bought into. I loved it. It had a great function called “What-If”. It’s still around today although Symphony is long gone.

You might now wonder why I am bringing this up. Well, I was bored recently. So I decided to play and to resurrect my own version of the ‘What-If’ function. In short, I had fun. Honestly I don’t do it enough.

So I just kept asking myself ‘what if’ questions, actioning them and seeing the results. I suppose this is the question we all quietly ask ourselves when we play….

Anyway, back to my playtime. What got me started was the question, what if I just doodle a resist? The only limitations I put on this was that I wanted an opening at the top and the bottom. Here is the result:

The resist I used

 

Next, it was decision time, the background colour…. What if I used black merino for this? Would it swallow up all my decorations? Would the whole experiment be a waste of time? So what if it was! Chickening out was not an option!

The last big question I wanted to ask was what if I laid all of the decorative elements against the resist and then laid my background? That’s not really rocket science, is it to felt blindly. But it does add to the loss of control over the piece but also provides an interesting element of surprise when the piece is turned the right side around after the resist is removed (and there’s no going back).

So here is the result of my what if experiment. I will take you through each element briefly to give you, I hope a clearer picture of the game. Each decorative element began with the question ‘What if’ so I won’t bore you with constantly repeating this. Let’s get started:

I laid a thick mix of linen and viscose on the widest opening of the vessel.

shiny viscose and no sheen linen

The reaction was quite interesting. The sheen of the viscose disappeared to a great extent so I suspect what I am looking at is more likely the linen element which was a dull red to start with. Both have adhered well and have produced a nice wavy pattern as they felted into the shrinking black fibre.

Viscose with linen fibres – viscose sheen is drowned out by the linen

I laid down some art yarn that I had purchased from someone who was reducing their stash.  This was in no way guaranteed to work as I don’t feel that person who sold it to me ever experimented with it. Here is what it looks like on the ball. I have absolutely no idea of its composition but I reckoned it was worth a try.

Art Yarn from a stash someone was selling off

 

So I meandered it around two sides of the vessel. I actually love the result! It was caught by the black merino and is firmly embedded but not swallowed. A total win!

art yarn

Next I laid down a thick layer of viscose in two different colours; first the red and then a beautiful shade of purple.

red and purple viscose (purple too close in colour to back merino – swallowed in felting)

The purple was laid over and alongside the red. Because I was working in reverse, I expected that the red would dominate the line with the purple acting as an edging when the vessel was turned right side out. I was hoping that where the viscose laid on top of each other, they might decide to mix a bit. This result was surprising as the purple viscose was swallowed up by the black merino. The red adhered beautifully and kept its sheen so it looks quite different to the fibre mix used at the opening (mentioned earlier).

red and purple viscose

 

 

Next, I used a piece of lightweight silk chiffon that I dyed some years ago and had been foolishly keeping for a ‘special occasion’. I do have to ask myself why I find it so hard to cut into beautiful fabrics (I have too many of these!).

I dyed this silk some years ago (clamped)

 

 

I expected the black to swallow up the silk completely but this didn’t happen (confession: I did give it a light shave to see what would happen). Very pleased with the result here.

Hand dyed nuno

 

 

On a rummage, I found some prefelt I made ions ago, it was time to throw this into the mix.

Remnants of thick red merino and viscose used in raised lines

I had made this red prefelt using viscose as a decorative element so I roughed up the back, cut it into strips and laid it down on the resist. I was able to play with these lines when I was fulling it and create a 3 dimensional surface on the vessel. It was fun twisting and turning these as I worked them. The black fibre migrated through and they now remind me of coils for some reason.

red viscose and merino prefelts felted in and then pinched to create ridges

Turning over to the other side, I played with the notion of a felted ‘shibori’ element. I found some prefelt and made the 3D elements stuffing the prefelt and tying it off. I then roughed up the back. I laid some black merino on top of the prefelt (avoiding the balls) so that the ‘shibori’ would protrude from the vessel background. These were then laid face down on the resist. I did not have the same control when felting as I could not get my hands near the bases of the ‘shibori’ That said, it produced interesting results.

Prefelt – shibori effect

 

My next experiment was to nuno felt some fabric into the vessel but to leave a hole where there was no merino used.

Silk, lace and pencil roving used in window and nuno (purple silk)

I was inspired by something I learned on a course with Jorie Johnson but I used a different process to Jorie’s here.   I decided to double up on the fabric to make the hole a little more interesting I used a purple silk behind a very delicate lace which came from an old mantilla someone donated many years ago. Before laying down the fabric I outlined the future hole with pencil roving, then popped the fabric on top. The purple silk extended way beyond the featured hole and it felted in wonderfully. I love the overall effect.

Purple Nuno, and window (black lace and purple silk)

 

Then I used some very special locks. The donor was a Leicester Longwool sheep aptly named ‘Bright Eyes’. These were sourced from my buddy Leonor who is the creative genius behind Eleanor Shadow (https://eleanorshadow.com/) Be sure to check out her website and all her beautiful hand dyed products.  Here are some of the locks I used.  The colours are gorgeous!

Eleanor Shadow’s beautiful hand dyed locks

 

I thought I would add a little of Bright Eyes to the mix to see how it would react to being totally felted into the vessel. The fibre kept its lustre and happily felted in without being swallowed. I do have to add that I would prefer to see these beautiful locks move freely as a statement on a piece rather than being ‘imprisoned’ in this way. Just glad I only used a few!

Bright Eyes locks felted in close-up

 

Finally, my last experiment involved taking some of the hand dyed silk I had used earlier, I gathered it by hand stitching, I laid it down on the resist so that the hand stitching was uppermost and then added the black merino background. I had no real control as to how this would felt in so I needed to do a bit of pulling to loosen up the fabric once I turned it as the black fibre had come right through all the layers. All a learning experience. Next time I will work with the stitched fabric on top of the fibre as I will be more in control and have less tugging and pulling (and cussing) at the end.

gathered silk then nuno’d

 

All in all, the play was fun. No methodical approach to sampling here, just good fun. And sure don’t we learn when we are having fun!  Here is the final piece:

 

Next: the update on workshops taken. Just one this time, flowers with Diana Nagorna. I supersized one of two of the flowers (just for fun of course) Here are the results.

 

 

Lastly, registration is open for my online course wet felting a spiral. The course will start on 30th October and run through the month of November.     You will have access to step by step videos, a downloadable PDF and, of course yours truly here in the virtual classroom. Please feel free to click on the following link to find out more https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/hanging-felted-spiral/   It will be the last spiral session for 2026 and as I plan to do a bit of travelling next year I am not sure of my scheduling for 2027.

Happy felting (and playing) all!

Helene x

close up of part of jacket and braid closure
Morning Has Broken

Morning Has Broken

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My sister Jean was a very competent spinner and weaver. She started her spinning journey in Wales, to where she was evacuated in WWII. She was staying with my mother’s family in Ogmore Vale, South Wales and in those days everyone walked everywhere. Every time she came across bits of fleece from the local Welsh Mountain ewes attached to fences and brambles, she collected it and taught herself to spindle spin, using a stick and a potato.

Fast forward to the mid 1960s and she was living in Dorset (UK), a teacher, and in her ”spare” time a spinner, with eyes on getting a weaving loom.  She was an active member of the Dorset Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers which met in Dorchester, and also belonged to a local group of spinners meeting regularly in a nearby village.

In due time she acquired several looms, including one large floor loom, which was set up in her workshop.

By this time, Jean had prepared and spun fleece from various breeds of sheep, making scarves and “twit” hats (I think they are called “beanies” these days) from Jacob fleeces. She progressed through various types of tops purchased from Wingham Woolwork on several of their visits to the Guild bringing with them vast amounts of their stock.  These were a wonderland of opportunity to see and purchase all sorts of ready prepared and blends of fibres, not easily seen unless you lived in Yorkshire.  In those days fleece and fibre festivals were only a glint in wholesalers’ eyes!  I do remember that she spun and wove sufficient Welsh Black and silk tops into a length of fabric large enough for me to make her a skirt.

Eventually Jean turned to spinning silk tops with the idea of making sufficient fabric for a jacket.

skeins of spun silk - but not showing actual colour of natural silk
Some of the spun silk – I don’t know what’s happened to the colour – most odd

At about that time the idea of using music as a basis for fabric design was circulating amongst the weaving fraternity.  There were articles in the Journal – the magazine produced by the Association of Guilds of Weavers Spinners and Dyers – and also the American magazine Handwoven.  Jean decided that she would design the fabric for the jacket by making a threading draft and subsequently a draw down based on the hymn “Morning is Broken”.

I daresay that these days there will be umpteen video clips on YouTube with step by step instructions on how to do this.  It is a bit complicated to explain unless you’ve got a couple of hours – especially if you haven’t done much in the way of weaving on a loom with a minimum of 4 shafts.  Basically you assign each letter of the alphabet to each shaft in turn, having numbered the shafts 1-4.  The simplest “code” is AEIMQUY = shaft 1; BFINRVZ = shaft 2; CGKOSW = shaft 3; DFILPTX = shaft 4.

Then you translate your phrase or title into numbers accordingly.  However, just to make life more difficult, you can’t have the letters on the same shaft adjacent to each other (don’t ask) so you need to add a different shaft number between them. This gives the threading sequence on the loom for the warp threads.

To see what your phrase will look like when woven, you can draft it out on a piece of graph paper, making what is called a draw down.  This will have on it not just the threading sequence but also the lifting sequence of the shafts when you are actually weaving the fabric.

I don’t have the draw down which Jean made for her fabric, but I do have some which I made when we were playing around with other ideas and making name drafts.

I suppose it must be possible to look at a woven pattern and work out the words the pattern represents.  Perhaps this is one way that textiles may have been used to pass secret messages, though it’s not likely to be a quick way of getting information back to base!

Anyway, Jean designed her draft and draw down for Morning Has Broken and dressed her large floor loom so that the pattern would appear in bands throughout the fabric she wanted to weave.

Once the fabric had been removed from the loom and any loose ends woven in, Jean passed it to a friend who had offered to make up the jacket.  In the meantime, Jean used some of the left over yarn to make some lengths of kumihimo  braid.  From this braid I made some “Monkey Fist” buttons and braided fastenings sewn onto the jacket fronts.  Unfortunately the jacket, not having been lined, did not really hang properly or keep it’s shape. Jean asked me to take it apart and, using habotai silk as a lining, put it together again, which I did and included some hand made shoulder pads.

 

 

Making a weighted blanket.

Making a weighted blanket.

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Weighted blankets may often be helpful for anxiety, and the pressure of this type of  blanket may help to calm, and reduce stress. They can be, and are, used by both adults and children; they can be described as a comforting hug, and used as an aid to restful sleep.

These blankets have also been used to help calm children with a diagnosis of autism or a hyperactive disorder.

Five years ago my nephew and his wife adopted 3 children – siblings  (the youngest would not be born for another two months. They were unable to conceive, and IVF attempts had failed twice. So, they adopted the two siblings, and agreed to adopt the expected baby at birth. An instant family. The children have their challenges, and I was asked to make two weighted blankets for the two older children about 18 months after their adoption. The blankets are really helpful during stressful periods for the children, and they love them!

The third child now needs his own blanket – the older siblings are fed up sharing! I hope this post gives an idea of how I made the blanket – but you may already know how to make one? I did not make any notes first time round unfortunately, Youtube is, as always, a help.

It is most important that the blanket is not too heavy for the child, or adult. They need to be able to move underneath it, and the blanket must never be placed over the child’s head. It is recommended that the weighted blanket should be no more than 10% of the child’s weight, this includes the blanket weight before the beads are inserted. The beads are very small, and can be made from plastic, or micro glass. The glass variety are more expensive. This photo shows the size of the beads in comparison to a few grains of rice.

I used plastic beads for the blankets. The Youtube tutorials describe various methods of blanket making, but skip over the tricky bit of inserting the beads. I had kept a long cardboard tube on which some fabric was rolled, from some years ago. I was so happy to find the tube again. I had used it with the other blankets too. The use of the cardboard tube was definitely a lightbulb moment the first time i made these.

I had the blanket measurements, and the child’s weight, so I just had to calculate the channels and number of pockets needed, so that there would be an even distribution of the pellets all over the blanket. So, a regular quilt, but with two layers of batting, stitched together on three sides, inside out, and then turned the right side out. A further reinforcing line of stitching one inch from the edge removed the need for any binding. I did not use any special fabric, both top and back were repurposed cotton, and actually match the fabric of the first two.

I measured and stitched six channels down the length of the blanket, and measured again to decide on the size of the pockets.

The weighing scales, and small pots for holding the small portion of beads for each pocket were assembled. Once each group of beads was inserted, I made sure that they were shaken down to the bottom, and two rows of stitching to secure those pockets, and repeated this process to complete the blanket. The top edges were turned in, and stitched to secure. I weighed the blanket and I was happy that it was just over 10% of the body weight. A label with the name on completed the look.

Grand daughter No 2 is requesting similar for Christmas……….

Top view of two feet, one wearing a very oversized knitted slipper.
I tried felting some slippers. It didn’t go well.

I tried felting some slippers. It didn’t go well.

Comments 33 comments

*So… I scheduled this post to come out yesterday, but made a mistake on the month… Apologies! Here it is today, 12th Oct*

I am usually late to the party when it comes to viral trends; that is, if I ever decide to embrace them at all. A while ago however, there was a knitting pattern called Sailor Slippers that garnered a lot of attention, and I filed it in my brain as Something To, Maybe, Perhaps, Try One Day. I never expected it to come to anything, as my ADHD brain often has its own crafting agenda.

As it happens, my brain actually nudged me 3 weeks ago, and as I was vending at the Scottish Yarn Festival I was tempted by a fellow vendor’s wares and bought the yarn to knit said slippers. I chose two colours, black and purple. Both yarns in Aran weight have little bits of tweed that complemented each other.

I decided to also use some very old stash yarn, two single-ply and very bulky mystery skeins in black and teal for the soles and edge trims.

Now, the keen minds among you may have noticed one tiny, barely remarkable, detail: the yarns I was using weren’t of the same weight or, indeed, the same brand or composition. Yes, they were wool and non-superwash, but that was likely the end of the similarities. Nothing wrong can come of this, right?…

The way this pattern works is, you knit the slippers in a specific size and, once you’re done, you machine wash them and they should shrink and felt. Here they are before felting, fit for a giant. The aran weight yarn was doubled to reach appropriate gauge.

Top view of two feet, one wearing a very oversized knitted slipper.

Top view of my feet with socks, one of the foot is wearing an oversized knitter Sailor Slipper. My cat Marshmallow is next to my feet.

I would have normally worried a little bit at this stage, but having seen other projects out there (there are literally hundred of thousands), I knew the very oversized look was expected. Next step, knit the top trim, then machine wash. Voilá, a pair of Sailor Slippers ready to be worn.

Reader, they didn’t fit me. The bulky, single-ply yarn shrunk decently, but the top one refused to shrink like it was meant to. Into the machine it went again. Then once more.

One Sailor Slipper on my kitchen counter

I apologise for not taking a picture of the slippers on my foot, but by this point I was getting frustrated with the lack of progress and just wanted to see the back of this thing.

However. I am nothing if not stubborn, so I decided to do one more thing before calling it quits: hand felting.

If you know me, you know that wet felting is not my forte. It’s definitely not something I have a lot of experience doing, and I know the fulling process can take hours.

one Sailor Slipper in a tub with hot water and suds. My gloved hand holds it.

I tried, I really did. I alternated very hot and quite cold water; I rubbed it with soap. I told it to cooperate or else. All I got was fuzzier wool and not much, if any, extra shrinkage. In ultimate despair, I popped them in the tumble dryer. Nothing changed!

At this point I was ready to call it quits and forget I ever did this.

I vented my frustration to my other half. He listened and commiserated. That’d be the end of it…

…then I looked at his big feet. “Put them on,” I told him. Can you guess what happened next?

A pair of Sailor Slippers on my husband's feet

They. Fit.

At this point I didn’t know whether to be glad my time hadn’t been wasted, or to go bang my head against a hard surface. You see, my husband isn’t what we’d call Knit Worthy. It’s not that he’s not appreciative of the hard work that goes into a handmade garment, but he either overheats, or complains it’s itchy (gasp, merino wool, itchy?!)

I’ve now told him he has to wear these slippers often to appease the gods of wool, otherwise my next knitting project shall be cursed. I’ll also try not to look at his feet when he’s wearing them as I’d love to forget how much this did not go my way.

Want to share a “failed” project with me in the comments section? I’ll commiserate with you!

 

 

 

September 2026: Photography, shopping, student and teacher

September 2026: Photography, shopping, student and teacher

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The fall has started out with photography, a bit of shopping and the taking and giving of workshops. It has been busy but also fun. Would you like to join me?

We are first off to the town of Almonte. It is about 30 to 40 minutes away depending on traffic, and this year very pretty but hidden by thick fog. The drive displays more trees, a bit of swamp, a small escarpment, and rocks. The Mississippi River runs through the town. The river has cut falls in some of the rocks. When settlers arrived, some built mills (one of the cloth mills was later converted into expensive condos, and the stone building beside the mill, which held the mill office and cloth storage, was turned into a museum). Many of the houses nearby were used by mill workers but have long since lost their fibre workers. There are still lots of people who remember the mill working; my neighbour’s father worked there.

To help support itself, the museum runs Almonte Fiberfest each September on the weekend after the labour day long weekend. The local arena is filled with booths. In the hallway, many of the local guilds and fiber related groups have their displays. This year there was a local food vendor selling empanadas. I have no idea if that is spelt correctly, but the two I tried were delirious.

For a number of years I have taken pictures and sent them off to the museum to both give historical documentation, and future publicity options. I finally have a good working system to sort and organise shots. I have a small book with the booth number written in; I have a pack of Post-it notes with the names of the booths. I spend time Friday afternoon organising the booth page with the name. Then I take a picture of the page with the name, then take shots of the booth. This works until it gets very busy on Saturday morning when I try to get crowd shots. As it gets a bit quieter Saturday afternoon, I go back to booth shots and shopping vignettes. (Vignettes are shots to entice people to come shopping). I took some on Friday night, about 380 shots, so I can pull, crop and colour correct some of the best temptation shots to send to the museum to post on their social media. There were over 470 shots Saturday, and a few, 162, on Sunday while I was demoing needle felting. I still have to finish sorting them. Sorting is extra challenging this year, since I have been working on the old laptop and can’t see the tiny images clearly. (My beloved geriatric desktop computer died and the new tiny tower is not yet working). I mention the number of photos just so you can see the restraint I have shown in not showing you all of them!! OH no! Death by slide show!!!

lower 2 pictures are demoing at the OVWSG table1.1- 1.5)A few shots from Almonte fibrefest, to top up your virtual fibre horde

2.1-2.2)Felting Booths: two suppliers and 2 creators

Taking a workshop:

Before and after Fiberfest, the museum runs workshops. This year one caught my eye and I was excited to try it. How can I describe leatherworking so it sounds like a fibre art? Hmm, not sure I can stretch fibre or leather quite that far. Decades ago I made Viking booties(the leather was lightweight, so I would not say they were boots). Now I was going to try to make a cover for a small notebook or journal. This will involve stamping leather with patterns, dyeing it, then sewing it up.

It was a small class since it was a full day during the week. But we tried our best to be quality students, to make up for the lack of quantity. The teacher was great; she had everything we needed and had the leather pre-cut for us. Starting with a scrap piece, we tried out stamps (she brought a lot of options) on dampened leather. After a very difficult selection, we started on stamping the cover pieces. I chose a flurry of dragonflies across the front and back cover and up the spine. I continued with a few flying around on the inner pieces too.

stamping leather work at workshop3.1 ) Dampening and stamp-ening the unsuspecting leather

Then the box of leather dies came out, and again the choices were fabulous and a bit overwhelming. So I went from light to dark: a light golden brown, a green, then a blue. It was hard to tell when the first selection of die was dry so I could start the next colour. It was fascinating to see the die pool into the indentations of the stamps. At first the dye seemed to be just on the surface, but suddenly it was outlining the dragonflies in a darker line of the green or blue.

adding colour to leather4.1- ) Dyeing the leather

The next step was to stamp holes around the ends of the cover. To keep the leather in place, we needed to add a bit of leather glue, but just around the edge, or the notebook will not fit! We had used an adjustable tool to run around the outside edge of the cover. This was to guide the stamping of stitching holes. It is also used if you were stamping a straight border. Thinking ahead, I kept checking that the holes were clear on the back side, in hopes the stitching would be easier later. The stitching punches came in different sizes (number of points) to make it easier to turn corners. I have one of these at home; I can’t remember what I got it for, but I am pretty sure I did not use it to punch holes.

punching holes in leather5.1) hole punching for stitches

The stitching was assisted by a stand called a pony. It was so helpful to have the piece held, so you could use both hands. The thread was waxed, and the stitching required 2 needles, one on each end of the thread. (3.5 x the length needed to stitch). She showed us a cool trick to split the thread so the needle didn’t fall off the thread.

sewing leather6.1- ) pony stand, stitching and sneaky thread trick

We took quite a while to do the stitching neatly, but it was worth the careful work! I was extremely pleased with the result. There may be more leather working options next Almonte Fiberfest, if you are in the area.

finished leather note book cover7.1-) finished cover

I had a day off to finish putting together the needle-felted landscape kits, then Saturday, I was booked to teach needle felted landscape. I had all the notes (21 pages, plus 2 pages of quick notes), samples of various pictures I have done or am working on, all the supplies the students would need and a carload full of bags of various colours and types of wool for them to work from.

needle felting samples 2 pictures 2 partly 3d moose8.1) the samples of pictures and two of the moose bags

Taking a workshop allows the opportunity to learn something new or a new way of working. For new felters, it can also let them try different options. How will you know what you like to work with if you haven’t tried a few options? When you first start, you may not even know you have options. I brought them a few options to try.

For work surfaces to felt into; I have supplied them with a garden needling pad in a foam like a pool noodle (you have seen me working on one before). It has been seasonally available from the dollar store (Feb-Aug). It is not too expensive compared to the thicker wool mats. If you leave the plastic on, it reduces wool transfer. It has two sides to felt into, so it should last long enough to create a few pictures, which should let students decide if they are enjoying needle felting or not.

I also brought other surfaces for them to try;

  • -100% wool pad 1-1.5” thick (I like this one the best but not everyone does, and it’s quite expensive now.)
  • -Ann’s Woolie buddy, which is similar to the wool pad but has a different end feel: (how the needle feels as it is inserted into the work surface) (I have put it in a zip lock plastic freezer bag and like it much better, Unfortunately i still have to give it back to Ann!)
  • -the craft felt covered foam or sponge (I think I like this one the least, but someone may like it, so it’s good to let the students try it.)
  • -black packing foam, and the black foam sold for needle felting
  • -a burlap bag of rice (I like this one too, but it’s rather heavy to carry around for portable/movable felting).

I forgot the pink foam insulation (this is excellent to teach students not to stab too deeply; it screams at you with each stab). It comes in sizes up to 4’x8’ sheets, which allows for very big landscapes. I could not find my cellulose sponge (never leave a needle in this; it will rust since the sponge absorbs humidity – we are in a high humidity area in the summer).

9.1- 9.5)various surfaces to felt into, students’ pictures in progress, trying some of them

To use as a base or backing to felt their picture on, I had;

  • -a piece of 100% wool felt
  • -a thinner piece of Not-wool craft felt
  • -and a piece of 100% wool Horticultural felt, which we used to make a name tag. They can add more details or images to the name tag after the workshop. Having them felt their name is good eye-hand coordination practice before starting their picture.

I also had small samples of;

  • -100% Merino Pre-felt (because its thin it can stretch or distort as you felt into it) but it is worth trying to see how it works as a ground.
  • -hot-press craft felt (which is usually a mix of recycled fibres and glue); it can be felted on, but I do not like the feel to work with. If you don’t try options, how would you know if you hate it, are willing to work with it, or love it?

I also made sure they had a selection of needles to give them an idea of the options available and how they move more or less fibre depending on gauge and number of barbs. I gave them a reverse needle, which has the barbs positioned in the opposite direction to the other felting needles. The reverse needle is active as you remove the needle. It can loosen overworked areas, pull up under colours if you have a different core or under layer, or they are used to blend colour transitions that are too hard-edged. I also gave them a crown needle, since it has such a shallow working depth. It also is not an everyday needle but it is handy to have when you need it.

I asked them to come a bit early so we could start at 10 am, and they did, and I forgot to take pictures (my hubby forgot too, but he did carry in all the workshop bags and boxes, so he was probably tired! I know I should have been tired; I had a weird nerve irritation late Friday night, so I didn’t get much sleep, but my green caffeinated beverage kept me wide awake.)

The students mostly chose the window (Light-box) tracing option, but one tried Templating to transfer the image. She is an abstract painter and only used the image for suggestions. This time most of the students chose at least one of the two ocean scenes.

The name tags went well. Everyone seemed to enjoy needle felting but were very focused and found it more tiring than most groups. They only took a short lunch so I may have to try to get them to take a bigger lunch brake next time. A few students wanted to keep working on their pictures at home, so didn’t frame them (they did get a wooden frame with glass and a paper mat to put it in later), but half the class decided they had achieved the landscape they wanted. All seemed happy with their pieces.


10.1–10.5) students and finished or pictures in progress.

At the end of the workshop, I went through the fibre bags, sealing up ziplock bags and piling them by the door for Glenn to take to the car. I also packed up all the supplies, including the box of “Safety Fist” finger protectors and the various work surfaces (remember to give the woolbuddy back to Ann). I was wiped, and the nerve was getting irritable, so it was time to pack up and go home.

11.1-11.2) End of the workshop packing up

I will get back to working on the Blue whale. I am still not sure if it’s too long by a bout 2 inches or if it’s fine. But since we have gone through most of September I should give you a break, and we will chat about a new fiber festival just south of Smithfalls Ontario (Canada) and how that whale is coming along. I also did a bit more testing of that wool buddy that still has not returned to Ann, and I have found a modification that makes it much more appealing for me. (I will tell you about that too.)

Have fun and keep felting!

Autumn is always so busy

Autumn is always so busy

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Autumn seems to be crazy this year. I imagine it is crazy every year; I just forget how busy it is and schedule way too much to do. Two weeks ago I did a nunofelt class. So dying silk blank was necessary. This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, so our last market for the regular season. It will be busy, as everyone wants goodies for Thanksgiving and to stock up to get them to the Christmas shows in mid-November. I booked a nuno scarf class for later this month, the first full week in November is our guild sale,  and then there is getting ready for the Christmas market sales. I think there is something else too. Oh yes, Microsoft Publisher is going to stop working, so I had to convert all those files to PDFs so I may be able to open them somewhere else.

Oh dear, it sounds like I am complaining, but I am not really. I prefer to be busy rather than not, but it does sneak up on you.

Anyway, what it means is I am mostly doing some finishing work and more soap. Nothing very exciting. Here are some pictures of small spirals I made. They are waiting for the grommet kit so I can add key chain ends to them, and I haven’t decided if I will add a little curly lock to the other end yet. Sorry, these are a bit raw. They were hanging to dry.

 

This is a screenshot of the grommet kit, as I don’t have them yet. It says they will be here tomorrow. I thought I had some, but they were odd little things for paper.

 

I made some more lantern covers. They have to have thier bottom ribbons, and my tag added to them. I would like to make some more, but I may be out of time.

 

And there is soap to make. I haven’t done that, so you can see an old picture.

 

P.S.

I went to my studio Sunday to do some finishing work. And………. ended up making 3 more simple covers. They are still wet, so no pictures yet. The two leaves are to add to the short white cover in the picture above.