At the beginning of this quarter, Ann had posted about this quarters challenge theme being early Celtic.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/03/31/second-quarter-challenge-3/

I thought a lot about it and had several ideas, but wasn’t sure I could pull them off.  One of them was a pod with spirals.  Lyn got to it before me, but of course as she said, everyone does things differently.  So, I did.

I had some Llama yarn I hand dyed years ago in several colors.  I decided to use that for the spirals.  I made a little bit larger pod than usual in order to accommodate the design.  I laid one layer of Merino on each side, then two layers of Corriedale and a final layer of Merino.  I felt this would give the pod some substance.  Here is the start of the topside design.

Full design wetted down.

Bottom (I ran out of turquoise so I used yellow.)   I had actually had a yellow spiral on the bottom, but forgot to flip it over before starting the topside design so it ended up being cut out.

I did a lot of rubbing to get the design to stay, but the Llama was not cooperating.   It was felting to itself and not the Merino.  Frustrated, I let it dry out then needle felted the design in place.  That did the trick, but the Llama shed everywhere and blurred the design.

I tried shaving and shipping tape it but wasn’t helping.  So, I grabbed my tweezers and embroidery scissors and sat for an hour pulling long hairs out of the design.  There is still more I could have pulled out but goal was to get the black to look black and set off the design.

Much better.

I kept looking at the pod thinking it was out of shape, but it finally occurred to me it was an optical illusion because of the design.

As for the Llama, I thought I had used it before and if I did I didn’t remember it being problematic.  I don’t think I’ll be using it again.

Have you done the challenge yet?  You can post your work on the forum any time, but we’ll be announcing the next challenge soon.