Looking Back on 2011
Looking back on what I’ve done in 2011, I was surprised to find it was a lot more than I originally thought. I have a hard time felting when it’s warm, I can’t bear to get too hot and the wool always seems extra staticy, so I only really felt for half the year. At the beginning of the year I finished making a series of lampshade covers from felt and fabric. I really enjoy making felt for book-covers and coasters and made quite a few of these. A lot of the felting I did this year was just samples. I treated myself to a whole load of ‘other’ felting fibres from World of Wool, things like plastic fibre, Milk protein fibre, Ingeo, Flax, and different nylon fibres. I also gave myself a refresher course in nuno felting and discovered that pink isn’t that bad, really. I ended up making quite a few things from felt that I had in my ‘spare felt’ box, like book-covers, purses, coasters, glasses cases and bookmarks, which was fun.
I wrote a few more tutorials this year: How to make a zipper purse from felt; Using the textured felt method to make a bag; How to degum silk; Direct Dyeing and How to make a website banner using Photoshop. While I was looking for a button for one of my textured felt bags, I came across some old Fimo buttons I’d made a few years ago and realised that having a good stash of original buttons would be great. It seems a waste to put the oven on for just a few buttons, so I ended up making a lot more than I’d planned to 🙂
Starting the Felting and Fiber Studio with Karen, Ruth and Ann was probably the last thing I expected to do this year. What started as a comment from Ruth about us all keeping in touch, quickly evolved into a website with lots of photos and information. We all worked really hard in a very short space of time adding the content to the site, which wasn’t easy as we soon realised there were limitations to how we can present photos, and a major feature of the site was changed on us as we’d almost finished, and we’d used that feature a lot. It’s been great to be part of a community though, especially since we got the forum up too and have been joined by so many great friendly and generous fibre enthusiasts 🙂
I think the thing I was most proud of this year was the felt scarf I made for my girlfriend. It was made from 18.5 micron merino with Milk protein fibre. It was the first full length, non nuno scarf I’d made and though it’s always a pleasure to make something for her because she genuinely loves what I make; I really wanted to make something special because she’s so supportive and makes it all worthwhile.

8 thoughts on “Looking Back on 2011”
It is interesting to look back at what you’ve done, isn’t it? I always find that I have managed to get more done than I thought I had. I love the scarf you made and starting the studio was a highlight for my year! I look forward to having lots of fun collaborating with you all in 2012.
Thanks, Ruth 🙂
I’m really looking forward to collaborating with you all in 2012 too, it’ll be great to be able to see all the things we’ve been talking about start happening.
you have been busy and after reading your post i am looking at my ugly lampshades and thinking I should get felting some. It was a great year sharing with the 3 of you. Left to my own devises I never would have started a blog and a forum.
Thanks Ann 🙂
I took a few photos of making the lampshade covers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedster01/5250881313/
There’s a link to a youtube video, showing how to roll/trace a shade to make a template.
Thats fantastic zed, you’ve all accomplished so much this year and i’m really looking forward to some Fun Filled Fibre Frolicking in 2012 with all of you to 🙂
Happy New Year Girls and Happy Felting, May the Felting Fairy Shine plenty of Fibery Magic on us all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha ha!
Me too, Kaz 🙂
Happy New Year!
It is fun to look back at the end of the year. You made so many lovely things. Plus, the tutorials that you put together. You are so kind to share your techniques. Kudos to all of you for starting this site. I hope to be more active in the forum in 2012.
Thanks, Sherry, that’s nice of you to say 🙂
We’ll look forward to seeing you on the forum, maybe you’ll convert some of us non-knitters 🙂