I wound up spending more time working on moose bag #3 over the last couple of weeks than I had anticipated. My hubby woke up not feeling right, and we quickly wound up in emergency. As I ran out the door I had grabbed the moose bag, and my audiobook player, (an emergency to us, can be subjective to the hospital staff who assess your emergency), but this time he was quickly seen. After a quick trip to the magic doughnut (Cat scan), they decided they wanted to keep him. Then the usual speed of emergency kicked in, as we waited through the day for a spot to open up in the ward he was being sent to. Good thing I had my moose bag project, which helped keep my worry down. Glenn slept and I worked on the moose, there is no photography in the emergency ward so no picture of either of them, moose or husband. The wait was worth it, as he was transferred to a private isolation room on the ICU floor, (it happened to be the one that became free not that he was in need of isolation) at the far end of the ward. It was quieter and the lights could be dim which helped him feel better.

While he slept, I got to work on moose. I had built up the underlayer mostly to my liking using the greyish-brown Maori short fibre batt. I had begun to add the lighter tones for the legs and upper lip. I was still not happy with the head and spent time working on the upper lip and face details.

1.1 The under-structures are mostly good, now adding the last details and starting the leg colour change.

1.2 The walker made a slightly low table.

By the 27^th of January, the room was needed by another patient, so we were told we would be going to one of the ward rooms. That plan quickly changed and we were sent to a semi-private room, but not the bed by the window.  As he got comfortable in the newer bed, I got back to work on moose. I had printed off reference photos from online and had been propping them up against my hubby (he was sleeping and didn’t notice). He was very helpful in holding them for me while he slept.

2) Consulting photo reference for the surface colour of a moose

I had rushed off to Dollerama to get word and number puzzles for him to work on. I also spotted little cat brushes (like hand carders, but really tiny) so got 2 to help with blending for the surface colours. You may be able to see part of them just to the left of the bag with the reference info. They were perfect for making tiny amounts of various colours. Carders are faster and more ergonomic than hand mixing if you are making many little amounts or a larger amount of a base colour.

 3) Tiny carders (cat brushes), the reference photos, a pallet of small bits of wool, scissors and moose enjoying acupuncture

Like painting, it’s nice to have a pallet of colours to work from.

4) Working from the pallet of blended colours while moose hold bits of wool in his antlers

Since my husband was busy with napping or specialists, I decided to add an articulated jaw and brought in a wire to do so. I added the wire but I think that instead of a loop with a single wire, I should have used a “u” shaped wire, so the jaw would have two points of wire attachment to the skull. (That would make a better TMJ joint, temporomandibular joint.) I may have gone a bit overboard and added a pink tongue too. You may be able to see it when his mouth is open, (the moose, not my husband). You can also see he now has a felted eye, which has moved slightly higher, closer to the antler base.

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 5.1-5.2) mouth opens tongue is slightly elevated, and the eye has been added, in felt not a bead this time.

In my quest across the internet looking at Moose(S) (why is Moose the plural of Moose?), I found an article on the wonders of the Moose’s nose. It included a fabulous series of diagrams of moose nose muscles. Did you know they have muscles that can close their nostrils so they can root around in the muddy bottoms of ponds for plants and not get mud in their nose? How Brilliant!! If you are curious about this interesting topic you may want to look here to see the myology of a moose nose;

https://people.ohio.edu/witmerl/Downloads/2004_Clifford_&_Witmer_moose_nose.pdf

6) Moose is almost done just waiting for my hubby’s paperwork so we can all go home.

By the following Saturday, he was feeling up to a trip out to the Chesterville spin-in (he snoozed in the corner for parts of it). Both Moose were much admired by the spinners, some of whom bought their own un-embellished moose bag. I hope they will add weaving, spinning or felting to theirs too!

7) moose bags, embellished and un-embellished, Ann is in the background on the Left and Wendo is on the Right.

8) Another shot of that nose it is truly an odd shape!

Hubby is much improved but has a lot of medical appointments over the next few weeks particularly. while we are waiting, I still want to do a tiny bit of firming up on Moose’s hooves, but otherwise, I think I am done. I may have to start another moose bag to keep me busy at doctor’s offices waiting for appointments. Good thing dry felting is an easy take-along project, easier than carrying a floor loom or a wheel to appointments!!

PS. While we were in the ward we had nurses and other patients drop by to see what I was doing. I explained about needle felting, and how the needles work and told them how much fun it is, (and that they should try it too).  I heard that moose was very talked about by the nurses and I was referred to as the moose lady. I was very impressed with their work too, taking such good care of my husband and being supportive and positive about his progress. I am sure his recovery was greatly assisted by their attention.