What I’ve been up to lately
This week I started thinking about spring. It is coming, so to help throw off the February blahs I made some felt bird houses.
They are made form Romney wool. the original wool is a mix or white and brown that I dyed. you get a really nice variation in colour that way. These still need their strings to hand them up and I think the big one might end up as a squirrel house.
The other thing I did this week was get 2 new book cases to store wool on. I wanted to get all the dyed wool out so I could see it and get all the breed specific wool out so I could see what I have. I thought it would be lots of room but I still have a bin of mixed colours( not in the picture), I have my white and black wool in a bin each and that works fine and the Romney batts that are at least in a cupboard. I also have 8 or so bags of raw wool to be washed. I need to find a way to store the bin plus of yarn so I can see what I have. It’s just not working to have it all in bags inside a bin. I would like to get the over the door hangers that have all the little clear pockets for the yarn. I haven’t found them anywhere yet. Oh well it is better than it was so I will just have to be satisfied for the moment.
18 thoughts on “What I’ve been up to lately”
I loved your birdhouses and it reminded me I put put mine outside… I wonder will anyone move in?
These are lovely Ann, I do hope the birds like them too. What diameter are the entrance holes? I have some in my garden, I really want to attract tits and smaller birds so used this as a guide for the entrance holes.
The entrance hole size depends on the species you hope to attract:
25 mm for blue, coal and marsh tits
28 mm for great tits, tree sparrows and pied flycatchers
32 mm for house sparrows and nuthatches
45 mm for starlings
Thank you Pixie. I am told the birds and sometimes squirrels like them. I have miniature apple trees and barn cats so no bird houses for my house. :O(
Koffipot, I plan to put some at my mothers this spring. I haven’t measured the holes. I’ve been told the wrens like big houses and they fill them up with sticks and just leave a little hole for the eggs and babies.
If Mr Wren takes a liking to them you could have many nests! He builds up to 5 nests, then invites his Jenny Wren to choose one! What a guy! :0)
Nice tidying, Ann 🙂
I really want to try a bird house soon. I get lots of Tits, Sparrows, Wrens and a Robin or two in my Apple tree because I hang a feeder there.
Your birdhouses look great, Ann. I just did an ‘inventory’ last week and I have some Romney from Kaz
The Romney I have felts harder than merino but is still soft. When I made the first ones It was really hard laying out the wool thick enough. After making lots of thin nuno scarves laying out thick was a challenge. If you want the birds to nest you you better get a move on your spring is earlier than mine. I blow a balloon up inside mine at the end to make sure they dry nice and round.
It’s weird that my Spring would be earlier considering how much further north I am. The weather is all over the place lately 🙂
I ordered some balloons, and did try a little vessel, so I hope they’ll work out.
Love the birdhouses! I hope they get used a lot by our feathered friends.
Zed, you get spring by mid march I think and we are doing “spring” skiing. we don’t plant gardens till mid May usually. We are on the same latitude as Lyon France by the look of it. It all has to do with the jet stream. We are having a very mild this winter.
Thank you Lyn. I hope so too, but if they don’t they look nice hanging in the trees.
I always run out of storage space. Your new shelves look nice. I hung up my bird houses so we’ll see what happens. We don’t plant until June!
I don’t think it’s possible to have enough storage, your stuff just expands to overfill the space available. Your on the shade side of a mountain aren’t you? do you finish early too? I won’t be hanging any just yet. I am teaching birdhouses next month, so I need some examples.
I think we’re very lucky with our climate here, it doesn’t often get ridiculously hot, there’s plenty of nice rain and there’s a really long growing season. It’d be a lot different if it wasn’t for the gulf stream.
I’m getting rid of books I never read, so there’ll be more space for wool 🙂
I love your bird houses Ann, Your new shelves look great, i think i need some more myself or just sort the ones i have out a bit better lol
Hello, I love your birdhouses! what did your use for the form? I just completed a felted nesing box. but would love to try on of these if you will share1 Thanks
Nancy, we would love to see your nesting box. We have a forum as well.http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/index.cgi?
If you join you can share there or if you have a flicker account you can post there. http://www.flickr.com/groups/feltingandfiberstudio/
I use a flat resist, mostly the shape of a gourd. I use circles and rounded diamonds too.
Thanks for your response, I am heading out to my studio right now to give it a go. I will join and post a photo of my nesting box later. It was made for a gallery exhibit but I photographed it before dropping it off.
Thats great let us know how it goes.