It has been a longer break than usual between posts but it’s also been a busy time.  I am partway through writing about the carp fair (yes, I will tell you if you can felt with gloves on shortly but not today.)  Today I want to tell you of the continuing adventures of the Mer’s.

Was it just a week ago that Mr. and Mrs. Mer and I followed Glenn off to the Kanata Games (and Felting) Convention? I have gone before and happily, spent the weekend felting, listening to my audiobook and watching the convention goers gaming. After a 2-year break, they were finally getting back to the fall tradition.

While Glenn wandered off to play train games (the older trains rust out part way through the game and there is a lot of math, doesn’t really sound fun to me.) the Mer’s and I settled into an empty table in the corner with a view of most of the gaming.

We are a little out of sequence since I had been working on Mrs. Mer at the Carp fair (which you haven’t seen yet!) I had built up her fishy parts to the point I was ready to add the wires for the fins.

1-Mrs. Mer, lying on a felting pad, with fin wires for lower fins added to her fish body, the needle is adding wool to the lower abdomen of the fish section.

2- Close up of fish part of Mrs. Mer, adding folded wire that will be anal fin, the other fin wires are in place for lower fins and are wrapped in wool.

3-Mrs. Mer viewed from the back showing understructure of wool and adding the back fin wires.  She is lying on a wool pad on top of a handwoven cotton blanket of various colours of blue and bits of purple.

Since we cot Mr. Mer flirting again at the fair  I was determined to get Mrs. Mer closer to completion over the convention weekend.

4-Mr Mer, as his arms resting over the handle of my willow basket, is showing off his chest and smiling.

One of the tables designated for overflow games was suggested as a good spot so I was out of the way and it was large enough to work comfortably.

5-Table at the back of the gaming convention, gaming going on at tables in the background, Mrs. Mer lies on the table showing her back. She has her fin wires wrapped in wool and has a felting needle stuck in her sacrum.

I finished wrapping the last of the fin wires and was ready to start sculpting more detail into the fish bits and then add the actual fins. I still have work to do on her human parts but am focusing on her fishy bits at the moment.

I am interested in the intersection between human and fish again, this time playing with the echoes of lines that would have been gills.

6- Close up of Mrs, Mer’s gluteal muscles and the transition to fish, 2 ridges are developing reminiscent of gills.

As I thought about the transition, I decided to move to the tail for a bit as I considered her options.

7- Mrs. Mer on a wool pad on the table. Showing the tail fin being built up with white wool over the Alpaca underlayer.

8- Showing Mrs. Mer on the pad on the table, with very thin felt being built up between the upper and lower tail wire, there is gaming going on in the background.

9- Mrs. Mer, lying on a felt pad on the table, with the clutter of mini Chocolate bars, Ice crackers, glasses and extra needles spread around her. I am adding more fibre to expand the thin felted tail fin.

I added a lateral line on both her fishiness as well as her hips sort of where her IT band should be.

10- It band integrated with the Dorsal line on the fish body anal fin over a felt pad with a felting needle adding a thin wisp of fibre to the wire fin armature. Glasses and tiny pliers and cutters are lying on the felting mat.

11- Close up of anal fin and tale (Caudal) fin both with very thin wisps of felt for the fins.  They are lying on the felt pad with a needle sticking out of it.

12 – Starting the Ventral fin one on each side of the lower body of Mrs. Mer’s fishy body

13- Mrs. Mer is lying on her side on the table with her Ventral fin on the felting pad with a needle stuck in it. There is a bottle of mountain due (pop with a lot of caffeine), reference photos and my audiobook player also sitting beside the pad.

14- Mrs. Mer is now leaning on her elbows on the felting pad. I have all the lower fins added as well as the tail, I have started to add a bit of light skin tone to her lower back and glutes.

The gaming will go on until 11 pm on Friday night, there are still quite a few people that I can see and more in the other half of the hall. Since I have a bit more time I started the Dorsal fin.

15- Mrs. Mer Lies on the table with her Dorsal fin spread out across the felt mat. There are wisps of wool being added to the space between the spines.

16- Mrs. Mer props herself up on the table with a bottle of the mountain due behind her.

It is the end of day 1 at the Friday gaming and felting convention and time to send Mrs. Mer back to her project bag,

Day 2 (Saturday) unfortunately I had a previous shopping commitment when I learned about the gaming and felting convention planned for Saturday morning. Therefore, the Mer’s and I jumped in the car very early and headed north not just out of town but also out of province to Wakefield Quebec. They were having a wool day at the market.

17- Photo of the community center and the corner of some of the Market stalls with white tents.

We arrived in time as they were still setting up some of the booths.

18 -bin of wool and 5 small bags of tiny locks sitting on the small chest freezer, more of the market in the background

19- Feme sol Fiber yarn and batting for sail in pretty baskets.

I found Femme Sol and sorted through some of their fibre, selecting bags with small curls in white and dark brown. The next booth over was Rocks end farm with Icelandic sheepskins and yarn but no fibre this time.

20- Rocks end farms  yarn displayed on a table with driftwood support

I also spotted some colourful wool mitts, shooting mitts (have a finger for the trigger), fingerless mitts and toques.

21- table covered in boutique cloth with colourful mittens on top

22- 2 ladies looking at mitts one lady selling the mitts

Ginger had asked about Mr. Mer so I went back to the car to let them visit.

23- Mr. Mer and Ginger Chatting.

24- Mrs. Mer interrupts Mr. Mer’s Flirting.

There was a dyer of yarn there, Riverside Studio, who had a great selection of hand died yarn.

25- Grid racks of hand-dyed yarn, a woman with a large pink handbag admires yarn

I admired the last of the fall flowers in front of the Wakefield community center before heading back to Ottawa.

26- Ornamental grass and brown-eyed-Susan flowers with dark rose colours flower I don’t recognize and general greenery behind.

The trees are just starting to turn colour at the higher elevation around Wakefield.

27- fall colour along the highway is green, orange, red and yellow leaves on trees.

Did I mention the main highway in Ottawa is getting one of its overpasses replaced this weekend….. that would explain the odd extra traffic. I eventually made it back into Ottawa and then west to Kanata where the convention was underway.

Mr. Mer was very attentive to his wife. It may be she was annoyed with his flirting of earlier this morning.

28- Mrs. Mer on a felt pad on the table with Mr. Mer leaning over the back of the walker supervising her felting. In the background, gaming is going on.

Today’s focus is to firm up the fins I laid in yesterday.

29- his wife as she lays on the table with her Pectoral fin about to be worked on with the fake clover tool.

Glenn borrowed the camera so I have a picture of myself felting.

30- Jan using fake clover tool on pectoral fin, with Mr. Mer watching over his wife.

Many hours pass…

31- Mrs. Mer balancing on 2 mountain due bottles on the table, gaming happening in the background.

32- Mrs. Mer tries to go for a swim but it is now time to go home. Glenn had fun and so did i.

As Mr. and Mrs. Mer head home they share a project bag.

33- Mr.and Mrs. Mer share a project bag as they prepare to head home. Glenn sits behind the table ready to carry everything to the car.

Well, that was a good weekend of felting and shopping! I hope you are enjoying your fall, and that winter doesn’t arrive too soon.