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Metal bead shaft for decorated key ring, with a small ring on one end and a small globe screwed onto the other
A Few Oddments

A Few Oddments

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On looking through my file of possible posts I have found that there are several subjects on the list about which I don’t have a lot to say, so I thought I’d put them all together.

First, my work basket.  You may recall that I told you about the craft basket makeovers that I had done some years ago https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/06/12/craft-basket-makeovers-part-1/  After we moved to Dorset I acquired a marketing basket, can’t remember where from now but at the time it was “in” to be seen wandering around the shops with a basket on your arm.  I didn’t use it for that for long though as I was worried about my purse sitting on top of shopping and being a bit of a temptation.  So I decided that I’d turn the shopping basket into a work basket.  At that time I hadn’t been introduced to felt, I was still spinning, crocheting, tatting, sewing and embroidering so a market basket would be ideal for that.

I used some more of the fabric remnants which I had bought from the same shop in Maidstone where I’d got those which I’d used for the spinning baskets.  I lined the basket, having attached some internal pockets to the lining and made a padded/quilted lid.  That was fixed at one end of the lining and a covered button and loop held it closed at the other end.  I had found a miniature washing basket at a charity shop and I turned that into a pin cushion and I made a small pouch to hold small accessories like cotton reels.  That was fixed to the side of the basket lining with a snap fastener.

The basket got quite a bit of use, as you can probably see from the state of the lining.  One drawback I’ve found to sewing the lining to the basket is that it makes laundering it a bit difficult!

One of the first projects I undertook once I had learned to needle felt was a challenge from a company which used to supply packs of mixed yarns – at least I think it was from them though it might have been a Guild challenge.  It was back in 2002 and as I did not make any notes that I can find, I’m not entirely sure.  I seem to have taken some progress images as I have found lots of these though unfortunately they are not of particularly good quality.

What I do remember is that I had decided that I would make a miniature of a herb knot garden but |’m afraid that my memory of how I found/chose the design is now so hazy that I can’t be precise. I do remember that when I learned to needle felt our teacher gave us pieces of old woollen blanket on which to draw a design that we could fill in with needle felted fibres.  The idea was that we could then wash the work and it would become permanent.  I have amongst the progress pictures images of the design as drawn on a piece of blanket and of the lines becoming “box hedges” and the spaces being filled with “flowers”.  I can also see from the last couple of pictures that I added a “topiary tree” in each corner.

A couple of years later, I acquired a quantity of (I think) Jacob fleece which had been carded all together so that what I had was a sort of grey mixture.  I didn’t really want to spin it as I think I had been duped into buying a bag of really rough fibres.  At about that time I had become interested in stone carvings – gargoyles (water spouts), grotesques, and  heraldic beasts – particularly the Queen’s Beasts which are statues on display at Kew Gardens.  Anyway, I decided that I’d have a go at needle felting some gargoyles using the grotty grey Jacob.  No progress pictures I’m afraid, just finished pieces mounted on fabric covered card or canvas blocks.

Finally  you may remember that Ann M told us about some sheepy key rings that she had made.  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/06/13/sheep-key-chain/ These looked so good that I’m afraid I stole her idea.  I told you back in December 2024 about the Norwegian Gnomes that I made at our local Museum Shop, for sale there. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/?s=The+Museum+at+Christmas

Ann’s idea made me think that some miniature gnomes impaled on the metal “spike” could look good as bag charm gnomes to sell in the Museum shop.  I had to change the description from key chains to bag charms because the gnomes were a bit too fragile to sit inside someone’s bag/purse, but should look good dangling on the outside.  Here are photos of the “shaft” on which the gnomes are made, and a few of the gnomes.

 

skeleton of a hare standing on hind legs
Hare Today !!!

Hare Today !!!

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I had been wanting to go back to needle felting sculptures for some time, so when I came across a tiny picture of a hare in our local free newspaper New Blackmore Vale Magazine,  I knew I’d found what I wanted to do.  Rather than the usual boxing hares, which I may well have a go at sometime in the future, I felt called to this solitary speeding hare.  He only had one fore foot on the ground and was obviously in a great hurry.

Brown Hare running on snowy ground
Original Inspiration

On getting my necessary supplies together, it was clear that I would obviously need a good strong armature for him and a solid base to hold it steady.  Trawling through my drawer of wires, I found what looked like an unused coil of old, cotton covered, bonnet wire (probably pre-WW2).  I’ve no idea what gauge it was but it was obviously strong enough to hold up an old fashioned bonnet brim, so I was sure it would keep the hare upright.  Having  resorted to Google for images of hare skeletons (naturally I wasn’t able to find one in the actual pose I needed, but I did find a couple of useful references) I looked out some other wires which would probably do for the pelvis and rib cage.  I fiddled with the images and printed off one enlarged to the size I wanted to make the hare and then made a tracing/drawing to use as a working pattern.

My idea was to have a base made from two pieces of wood, with  extended leg wire from the only leg actually touching the ground passing though a hole drilled in one piece of wood, and then bent at an angle of 90º. The wire would then be pressed into a slot cut into the underside to stop the hare swinging around when mounted.

image of wire protruding from bottom of piece of wood
Showing the extension of the armature from the grounded foot protruding from the bottom of the base

The second piece of wood would be fixed under the first piece to keep the wire in place and also to add extra weight to avoid the whole thing being top (or hare) heavy.

I would use the bonnet wire for the spine and head, and pipe cleaners for the pelvis and ear armatures, then go back to bonnet wire for the limbs.

While I was working up the armature I first had the leg wire stuck in a heavy reel of wire.

Subsequently, when I was needle felting, the leg wire was passed through a newly made slot in my felt needle felting cushion.

Using more of my scoured merino, which I had bought quite some years ago now from Wingham Woolwork, I started to fill in the inner body.  The wool is scoured but not otherwise prepared, so it required quite some carding to get it into a state where I could use it to wrap the armatures and to fill in the muscles to give some substance to the animal.  Here are some views of that work in progress.

I had of course gone to Google Images for reference pictures of hares from an all round perspective, both for body shape and for colour, from which I blended various colours for my palette.  Here are a few of those.

Then I started adding the “top coat”.  Working on a sculpture rather than on a “painting” was a bit complicated (and painful at times) until I found myself a small piece of polystyrene packing foam to use when I couldn’t rest the part of the hare I was needling onto my felt cushion.

Another complication was transporting the hare from home to the various venues where I was working on him.  In the end I used an empty plastic box and turned him upside down into it.  It was a bit of a squeeze but he just about got in safely.

Bit by bit, over several months, he began to emerge from the fibres.

I had originally thought to use a pair of glass eyes which I had in stock as they were the right colour and had the black surround which can be seen on a real hare.  Unfortunately they were too big so I fell back on giving the hare orange woollen eyeballs and working them up from there.

When he was substantially finished, I added some “grass” and “rough undergrowth” to the “soil” on top of the wooden base.  This consisted of all sorts of odd bits of fluff, fibre, yarn and fabric selvedges, plus some suitable acrylic paint.

4 different images of waste fibres and yarns in greens, creams and browns
Some of the bits and pieces of scrub and grass

The footwire was poked into the hole in the ground and bent under so that he was running across the scrub land. Then, using his carry box as a stand, I added and secured the second piece of wood.

showing clear plastic box topped with 2 blocks of wood on top with needle felted hare attached upside down inside the box. The two pieces of wood are stuck together with masking tape and partly screwed together
showing his carry box and adding the 2nd part of the base

Although the 2 pieces of wood were from the same larger piece they did not look good when screwed together so I painted them green, obscuring the fact that they were not one large piece.  I thought I was done then, but unfortunately one of the pieces of wood started to warp and spoiled the illusion.  Eventually, after some thought, I removed the bottom piece of wood and glued some non-slip matting over the base (having first taped the footwire into its slot in the bottom of the base) and painted the underside the same green as the sides.

Whilst working and looking at the reference pictures of the whole animal, I realised that he probably had had lots of whiskers.  So I looked for more reference pictures of hare(y) faces and saw that indeed he did.  So how to add these essential appendages?

4 images of close up pictures of whiskery hares' faces
harey faces

I have for some years now been collecting cats’ whiskers.  (They make great fishing rods for fishermen living in the countryside of 00 gauge model railway layouts!)

Black paper with many white cats' whiskers
It’s the cat’s whiskers

I would use some of these for the hare.  Initially I was adding a dot of glue to the end of the whisker, poking a hole in the hare’s muzzle and pushing in the whisker.  The problem was that the whiskers were life-size for a cat, but too big for my hare.  The whiskers were actually strong enough to be poked into the hare’s muzzle without first making a hole, (provided there wasn’t a bit of armature in the way), so in the end I just poked them in and through and out the other side, chopping off the protruding bit and leaving the right length behind.  In fact, unless someone tries to pull them out, the whiskers will stay where they are.

needle felted hare's head with whiskers poked through muzzle and protruding ends being cut off with scissors
cutting the poked through whisker ends

I am hoping to find some form of clear box to cover the hare and stand, if only so I don’t have to keep dusting him.

Here he is.

completed and mounted needle felted hare placed on juniper branches to resemble running free
Out enjoying his run, whiskers and all

Since making him, I have inherited a book all about gnomes.

front cover of book "Gnomes" showing front and back images of gnome with pointed red hat, leather belted blue coat, brown trousers and "deer skin" boots. Gnome has brown face and white hair, eyebrows, moustache and beard
Cover of Gnome book

One of the fascinating things I have learned about them is that they can run as fast as a hare and are small enough to take a ride.  So you never know my hare may gain some friends some day.

Final thought – what should I name him, any ideas?  (Don’t say Harry, I don’t think the Prince would be amused.)  I understand that Hares were introduced to the UK, probably by the Romans, so perhaps he might be named after a Caeser!

 

Keeping out of mischief!

Keeping out of mischief!

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Between exhibitions and challenges, I have been busy for the past few months – at least it kept me out of trouble. I thought I might present some of the pieces to you here.

Just by way of background, I am a member of a small group of feltmakers. At any time, there are a maximum of 10 in the group and the group is called Unperfect 10. I recently learned the reason for the name.  It is in recognition that all members are very ambitious but far from perfect.  I like the name even more now that I know its history.  We meet online every six weeks and we agree a theme for a challenge, the result of which we present at our next get together. Although the theme changes each time, the weight stays the same. The piece we present should weigh 10 grams. It’s not always that easy to weigh in at exactly 10 grams (perhaps that is another reason why our group is called the Unperfect 10!)

So far, we have met three times this year. The theme for our January meeting was ‘Home’. Members’ interpretations were very personal. For me, home revolves around the kitchen. It is the place for gatherings, happiness and informality. This I represented in a cup of tea. Unfortunately I cannot find my original resist but I have drawn one here to give you an idea what it looked like. I laid out the orange fibre on the cup, the handle and just inside the rim and the laid the white and light brown fibre on the upper dome to represent the tea. I then added the circles on the cup as decorations. I felted and fulled the cup, cutting a hole in the base of the cup to remove the resist. I turned the dome top to the inside of the cup, shaped and finished it off. Here are photos of the result.

  • rough sketch of the concept
  • View of the cup
  • I’ll have a half cup!
  • View inside my cup of tea!

 

Our meeting in February required a little more planning. The theme was ‘Carnival’ and each member had to make a prefelt for another member and post it on to them. This prefelt then was used as the main fabric for our creations. Once finished, the piece was posted back to the person who made the prefelt. After a lot of research, I decided to make a colourful version of the Venetian Moretta mask. While in its day, the Moretta mask had other connotations (think Dangerous Liaisons) I was attracted to the button or ball which was attached to the back of the mask as it stopped women from talking, something I felt was pertinent in many societies today. I included curls on the mask – this was a ‘nod’ to the Romans who are believed to have invented carnival, although it was a different affair back then. I used part of the prefelt I received, added some extra fibre, margillan silk and, of course, a button.

  • Front view of the carnival themed moretta mask.
  • Side view of the mask. The Curls are a reference to Roman sculptures.
  • The back of the mask. I added margillan silk and, of course the button!

We had our third meeting in early April. The theme this time was a little more challenging as we worked from a number of words. M.C. Escher; Optical Illusion; Tessellations; Black and White fibre; 3D Sculpture; Resist; Template; Stencil. All of which had to be completed in a 10g presentation! M.C. Escher was a Dutch Graphic artist and if you like you can find out more about his work here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher

I found a section of an Escher piece that I liked and got to work. First, I made my pattern which comprised three identical diamond shapes that made up a cube. Then I made three different colour prefelts (Black/White/Grey) which I then cut out and made into 25 joined cubes (75 pieces). These were then felted together. Once dried and shaped, I stiffened the piece and mounted it on pins in a box frame. The optical illusion is the 3D effect, especially when it is viewed in the frame:

  • My inspiration: Portion of MC Escher’s artwork ‘Cycle’
  • Checking the diamond shapes
  • Checking the layout of the prefelts
  • prefelts are ready for felting!
  • Altogether Cubes weighed in at 9.65g
  • Another side view of the cubes. I removed the glass as it was causing too much shine!
  • Cubes front view. The shadowing can be seen here.
  • View 3: walking around the piece
  • Side view of the cubes. It is pinned into the backing

I also had two pieces in exhibitions during March. The first was a live exhibition which was run by my local felting guild, Feltmakers Ireland. The guild is very well run and there is always something happening in it. If you are based in Ireland, it is well worth joining. The theme of the exhibition was “Symbols of Ireland” and I chose the Irish dry stone wall which was recently formally recognized with its inclusion in UNESCO’s prestigious list of protected cultural heritage practices, and the native Galway breed sheep for my piece. Ireland’s dry stone walls have been around since the Neolithic period so I felt that it would fit the brief. The Galway sheep produce beautiful fleeces which are very versatile and can be used for spinning, weaving and of course felting.

I first had to design and build my wall on paper. Then I made lots of different shades of grey nuno prefelts which were cut to the shapes of the stone drawings. Once the wall was felted onto its background, I needle felted the sheep’s head so that it would add dimension to the piece. This was attached to the picture and then the main body was needle felted using Galway fibre. I made a variety of prefelts which I then cut into the shape of foliage and lichen. These were then needle felted onto the stones. Unfortunately I did not keep a record of my process but here is the result.

  • Irish dry stone wall with sheep
  • A close up of the 3D effect and nuno work
  • Another closeup showing 3D plants and lichen
  • The top of the wall with additions

My final piece was for the online exhibition of the International Feltmakers Association. The theme here was ‘Connections’ and I was not sure what I would do for this. One morning I woke up with the words ‘Chaos theory’ in my head. I knew I needed to investigate this. It led me to my chosen topic ‘The Butterfly Effect’. The butterfly effect suggests small actions can have massive, unpredictable consequences. In society, this idea highlights how individual decisions—like a single vote or a small act of kindness—can ripple through time, influencing social movements, global events, or personal lives, ultimately shaping broader cultural and political outcomes.

Lyn and Annie’s beautiful work with tree canopies provided me with the inspiration for the background of this piece. I have been looking up a lot more since reading their posts on the beauty of the tree canopy. My base was inspired by a photo I took in New Zealand some time ago. I then needle felted the butterfly and then wet felted it. I wanted to be able to manipulate its wings so I added a light wiring to the back of the wings. I then decided that the tree canopy deserved a different perspective – what did we do as kids when looking up at the sky? I remember spinning around. So my square picture became a circle. I attached the butterfly by needle felting it securely to the picture but I also secured it to the felt backing to give it added dimension:

  • My inspiration. Taken in Auckland NZ last year
  • The tree canopy is laid out
  • close up of the felted butterfly
  • Checking possibilities for butterfly placement
  • I decided to cut the background into a circle. This gave me freedom to hang at any angle!
  • Closeup of the 3D butterfly

I hope you enjoyed my little ‘retrospective’. I would love to hear about what you have been working on over the past few months.

Just a little reminder: Registration will open shortly for my wet felted hanging spiral workshop which will begin on 2nd May. Please feel free to click here if you would like to find out more.

Why do Felting needles break? Do you blame your tools or is it operator error? In 3 parts

Why do Felting needles break? Do you blame your tools or is it operator error? In 3 parts

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Part 1

Why do felting needles break?

Do you blame your tools, or is it operator error?

I have bumped into this question a couple of times so far this year but had not been up to considering the answer. The question has two factors which we should consider. The needle itself and how it is used.

Let’s start with a review, what industrial felting needles were originally designed to do: make nonwoven fabric in industrial machines.  We can divide the needle itself into two parts: first, the needle and its intrinsic qualities and second the machines the needles go in.  Then, we will consider our use of the needles.

DIagram of a felting needle with parts listed1) Parts of a felting needle

(The diagram above should be looking quite familiar if you have read the other blogs about needles.)

Quick overview of the properties of needles:

Length:

Needles vary in length, depending on the machine they will be used with and what they are making. Needle lengths range from 2.5”,(3”, 3.5”, 4”, 4.5”) to 5”. The most common Length for us is 3”, which fits in the clover and fake-clover tool holders. So sellers who sell needles by length, small, medium and large, may be selling you the same gauge just in different lengths. We will chat again about that silliness later.

2.1-2.2) range of Gauges used by hand needle felters

Gauge:

Needles also come in different gauges. That’s the thinness or thickness of the working part of the needle. We usually work in the range of 32g to 42g, with most needle felters preferring the 38-40 range. But within the industry, the range is much larger; standard Triangle needles range from 12–46 gauge.  The higher the number the finer the needle and the more vulnerable it will be to mishandling.

Shape:

You also have various shapes of the working part of the needle. The most common shape is the triangle. There are other options such as the tri star (3 Sides), quod or cross star (4 sides) (both stars are more limited in gauges and lengths available), Twisted or Spiral needles (Higher production speeds possible and good compaction of the non-woven fabric. They are used in the automotive and filtration sectors.), and the Crown, which is a Structuring needle (one barb on each edge of the working part, closest to the point. Used in Automotive interiors and home textiles: Floor coverings)

Some we don’t tend to see;

  • Vario barb (Graduated barb size per edge, 1-3 barbs per side. The closer to the point, the smaller the barb),
  • Conical (tapering angle from the point to the end of the working part, like the Vario, the barb size decreases the closer to the tip and up to 3 barbs per side; barbs come in 3 styles. Available in 18–43 gauge)
  • GEBECON (as the previous 2 needles, tapering working part and varying barb sizes up the working part.

These three previous needles are all used in Pre-Needling machines and are popular for their resistance to bending or breaking. They are used in the manufacturing in the automotive sector, synthetic leathers, geotextiles, filter felts and any type of technical felt.

  • Teardrop working part, 4, 6 or 8 barbs on one side. This needle is described as having a gentle effect on the warp and weft threads of the base material. It is used when base materials are used; examples given were in paper machine and filtration felts or for needling furniture upholstery fabrics. 30–40 gauge, 2 barb types and 2 lengths are the regular availability.
  • EcoStar 3-sided triangular working part, most commonly 2 barbs per side. It is described as having a Lower penetration force required in felting machines.

Barb:

 

verious differnt shapes of barbs on a felting needle 4 exsamples 3) Barbs: Some of the B.G Barb styles

Needles have barbs, little notches in the working part of the needle that grab one or many fibers and moves them into the felt or ground you are working on. For most needles, the gauge of the needle will determine the size of the barb. With Courser Gauges can have bigger Barbs that can grab larger and courser fiber or more of a finer fiber with each insertion. Inversely, smaller barbs/finer gauges will only grab finer fibers since a fiber larger than the barb will not fit in it, so it cannot be moved by the barb. There are different styles of barb shapes.  When perching from a reseller, we don’t usually know which type of barb or the barb spacing we are getting.

Point:

There are also different points on felting needles. Again, they are usually not listed when you buy them from a reseller, and now, many of the manufacturers are not listing them on their packaging. We seem to be getting the standard sharp point, which was stated as the most common, but there are other options available.

feling nedle tips options we usualy have the sharp option.4) Point options from G.B,  some are commonly found, and some are not seen by us

The Point comes in more than one shape. We tend to be sold sharp, pointy tipped needles. Although they are brand new needles, as you can see, they can have a rounded tip. These points are usually associated with needles working on a woven ground, so the point does not break the fabric as it is pushing wool into the fabric. These are not needles we tend to get our hands on. The exception is a fork needle, which is now being sold to us as a felting needle. It is not, it’s a structuring needle and does not have any barbs. It is used mostly by doll makers to add hair to their newborn baby dolls.

A few years ago, there were rumors in the technical papers of new coatings to increase the flexibility of needles and allow an increase in the speed the web could pass through the line (machines).  So far, the rumor has not given us a flexible needle, but a new coating/finishing process for barbs has been introduced. It reduced the speed the barb wares, once worn, it no longer grabs the optimal amount of fiber or grabs no fiber at all. This requires the replacement of the needles in the needle board. This new needle gave much longer run times before needing replacement.  This may not be quite as impressive for hand felters but it is an interesting development in technology. I will keep hoping for the mythical flexible needle to turn up, which will likely be helpful to us, but I am not holding my breath.

Different needle manufacturers.

There are various needle-making companies. Some make the machines and the needles, others seem to only make needles for others’ machines. When I was surfing around the web trying to find technical details on needles, I would occasionally come across a snide comment about “needles made in India” on a site not in India, or “fragile needles from China” on a site selling needles not coming from China. Oddly, I never saw anyone saying anything bad about the German Groz-Breckert company (G-B) (I have some of their needles and they are nice). That said, they were difficult to contact. When both Ann and I tried years ago (there was a branch office in Canada, now gone), they wanted you to buy in boxes of 1000 needles and ignored us. There are a couple of resellers who are getting needles from them. So, if you want to, you can try them out without buying a full box.  I can buy in boxes of 500 needles from Doer, but because of the weight the shipping is sometimes as much or more than the box of needles.

The advantage of going straight to the manufacturer is that you know the needle specifications and can reorder exactly what you find most helpful.  I have shown you photos before of the ends of the needle boxes I have bought with the needle code on the end. The disadvantage is you now have 500 of one type of needle!

A couple of years ago, I was reading one of G-B’s industry newsletters (for fun) and found an article that horrified me! G-B would be dropping the full specification of their needle boxes and instead giving a customer code that would work with the customer’s inventory system. DRAT!!!! Why would you want to do that? I want to know what the needle specks are, gauge, barb type and spacing (especially how far from the tip the first barb is), length of needle, (I will admit I am not as interested in the length to first and second step down), there is even a code for the type of tip!! I know I am a bit of a nerd in wanting to know all this but barb spacing and working depth are variables that interest me.

I kept reading the article….. and they finally got to the point. The removal of the needle coding is to thwart industrial espionage by snooping at the boxes being loaded into needle board/beds for a specific job.

old and new lables on boxes of felting needles5) GB new labeling.

Oh. Ok, I can see where that is important, but I still want to know the specs for hand needle felting and I am willing to share with other felters what needle info I have! Doer is the company I have been chatting with and buying boxes of needles from. They have not gone quite so extreme as G-B, but I have noticed they have reduced the info on their boxes, too. I ordered a box of “15x18x38x3 GB2222” and got “38G Star” stuck on the label.  I took a pen and added the rest of the code.  Ok, enough ranting about the lack of info on needle boxes.

Let’s look at what the needles are made of: I can’t find a document saying how the needles are exactly made (more sneaky digging in the internet in my future!), so let’s think like a blacksmith for a moment. What is the needle made of, and has it been finished to change the metal’s properties? From numerous times of dropping a needle on the floor (really, that can’t be good for the needle or my feet) I can pick it up with my extendable magnet. So the sites saying carbon or high-carbon steel are likely correct.

The amount of carbon in steel will change the properties of the metal. More carbon makes it stiffer but also increases the fragility. Less carbon will make it more flexible but not as stiff. Carbon content is not the only thing to consider.

extendile magnet and light with needle attached 6) Needle pick-up tool (extendable handle and light by magnetic end; I found mine on sale at Princess Auto)

If you have ever had the opportunity to watch a bunch of blacksmiths work, it’s not only a highly photogenic opportunity, you also occasionally see them changing or adjusting the hardness of what they’re working on. Think of a knife or sword. The blade edge must be hard and be able to be sharpened, but the rest of the blade must be flexible enough not to break when used. So I asked Glenn.

As you work with metal, it hardens.  This can be countered by annealing, quenching and tempering. You are wanting to create a metal that is strong and, in our case, flexible enough to withstand the stresses of repeated stabbing into the web as the machine is running and the web is moving.

Annealing alters the physical and mechanical properties of metals, improving their workability. Annealing involves heating steel to a specified temperature, holding it there for the right time and then cooling it very slowly. The controlled cooling helps refine the metal’s structure and relieves internal stresses.

Tempering increases the toughness of the metal, untempered steel is very hard but is usually too brittle for most purposes. Tempering involves heating the metal to a temperature below its critical point, holding it there for a specific amount of time, and then quenching it again to preserve its condition. Generally, low temperatures will reduce brittleness while maintaining most of the hardness. Higher temperatures reduce hardness, which increases elasticity and plasticity but causes some yield and loses tensile strength.

I also spotted information on optimal needle storage:

How could this lead to breakage? Well, if you have rust developing, especially on finer gauge needles, they become increasingly fragile and are more likely to break. So, poor storage may increase breakage.

Suggested optimal needle storage:

  • Air humidity < 40 %
  • Temperature 15–25 °C (59-77 °F)

When you are buying from the manufacturer directly, they will have tested the needles to ensure quality control. Getting a rejected box of needles is not too likely, but be wary of secondary vendors who don’t know what gauge they are selling, and are a bit iffy on how needle felting works. There are a few on aliexpess and amazon, I am sure elsewhere on the web, that are a bit suspicious, which I avoid. However, the majority of needles are properly made, lightly coated in oil, and wrapped in waxed paper to reduce rusting and are ready for us to use. There are many excellent resellers of needles who are knowledgeable about what they are selling, know who they are dealing with when buying their needles and will sell you good quality needles.   If you are in a higher humidity area, even if the needles are perfect when you buy them, it is important to take added precautions to keep your needles dry and protected from rust. To reduce both the appearance of rust and the weakening of the needles, causing brakeage.  (Do not store your needles in a cellulose sponge; it attracts water and will defiantly rust your needle if you leave them in it)

cellulose spunge attracts water and will rust needles if left there for storage.7) Cellulose sponges attract moisture and will rust needles if they are stored in the sponge.

Next post, we will look at how the industry uses these needles.

Post script health update: still quite tender but starting to sleep through the 2 am meds! I am also finding I am extremely tired again and keep noticing how nice and comfortable the bed looks, which is where I am heading next.

Repurposing and Card Making

Repurposing and Card Making

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Around mid-November I was rummaging in a chest of drawers trying to create space for visitors to store their clothes, while also thinking about  making some felt Christmas cards to sell at various events.  I came across a scarf I’d felted more than 10 years ago and never done anything with.

Scarf I made more than 10 years ago
View of scarf from the other end

‘Hmmm…..’ I thought. ‘This is taking up space and I’ll never wear it.’  

Why not?  Firstly, I can’t wear wool next to my skin.  I find it way too prickly/itchy. And secondly, I didn’t like how it had felted. You could almost see the little thought bubble appear above my head: “I wonder if I could make some Christmas cards out of this?”

The scarf didn’t fit the bill for a traditional Christmassy look, but that’s one of the things that appealed to me about it. 

Let’s first go back to the scarf-making, in April / March 2014.  No, I’m not an exceptional record-keeper, I just have a lot of photos on my phone and happily they’re all automatically dated.   

I started off with a bright orange silk scarf I’d found in a charity shop. It was what I think of as raw silk: soft and loosely woven. I wasn’t even sure it would felt well but, foolish as I was in those days, it didn’t occur to me to make a sample, I just ploughed on optimistically.

I decided to add shapes in bright rainbow colours so made a big sheet of multi-coloured merino wool light prefelt, broadly following the colours of the rainbow. 

Light ‘rainbow’ prefelt

I cut circular shapes out of it and laid them along the scarf, still following the rainbow sequence. I laid orange merino round the edges and set about felting it.

Original scarf layout

When it was finished, I wasn’t very pleased with it.  The silk was unstructured and flimsy and it seemed to hang wrongly. I don’t think that type of raw silk works well as a base for felting, certainly not on its own. I didn’t take a photo of it.

I left it for a while and came back to it about a year later.  I thought maybe felting a solid wool layer on the reverse might improve the hang and structure.  I felted 2 layers of white merino onto the back.  Now it was firmer but a bit too stiff and still didn’t hang well, but in a different way. I just wasn’t happy with it.

That’s the point at which I gave up on it and popped it into a drawer. Since then it’s been shunted around but I’ve never decided what to do with it…..until now.

On to the card making. I decided simple triangular tree shapes might be nice for festive cards so I made myself a little tree template and set about the scarf with my rotary cutter. 

Cutting up the scarf to make triangle tree shapes

For the first few cards I refelted all the cut edges of each triangle.  This was nice, but took quite a long time both to do and to dry, so I decided to go with raw edges: it didn’t make a lot of difference to the appearance and it certainly speeded up the making. I cut out some different card and paper backgrounds, glued them onto cards, stuck the trees to the backgrounds and drew a stem and decorative dot on top of each tree. Mostly I used acrylic pens but where I didn’t have a suitable colour I used other permanent markers. Here’s the first batch.

Some of the triangles were a little plain and, as I had my acrylic pens out, I decided to do a bit of doodling. I admit, I was rather enjoying myself by this stage.  Perhaps I got a bit carried away (some of the trees started to look like pizza slices)!

I grouped the trees into threes, choosing ones that had three different colours on them wherever possible. I found some bright pre-cut papers and chose the nearest colours to the trees in each group. Then I swapped them around so that each tree was on a background that matched one of the others in its group.  I finished off by swapping the colours again for the dots and stems.  

Here’s a close up. The trees have green, purple and turquoise on them. I picked out the matching papers, put the lime green tree on the purple paper, the turquoise tree on the green paper and purple tree on the turquoise paper. Then I finished off with the dot and stem in the third colour that wasn’t on the tree or background paper.

It’s hard to describe just how much I was enjoying myself, though some of that may be because I was almost certainly supposed to be doing something boring like cleaning or tidying up.

I did sell some of the cards and sent a few too.  They’re not the best cards I’ve ever made but I did enjoy making them and was happy to have repurposed a scarf that didn’t really work.  I still have plenty of felt scarf left so I may do something else with it in the future.

A little later, I made some other cards that I liked better and that sold really well. 

In my charity shop moochings I recently found a really beautiful, large hand-marbled silk scarf.  It was way more expensive than anything I normally buy.  I’m normally in the £2 – £4 range for a silk scarf and this was £8.50.  However, it really was big and interesting and I was intrigued as to how well it would felt. So, I splashed the cash. The marbled dyes sit on the surface of the fabric so I wondered how well the wool fibres would penetrate the silk. Age and experience do have their advantages: this time I made a small sample to make sure it felted well, which it did.  

I cut out a long rectangle of merino and silk prefelt and laid a section of the scarf full length along it, flush with the edge of one long side and covering half of the width.  Sorry, I forgot to take a photo so I here’s a quick sketch, literally on the back of an envelope.

Once it was felted and dry, I cut it into thin strips ready for printing. I’d found a royalty-free image of a plain green fir tree and, using photoshop elements, dotted it with robins to look like baubles. I printed the images on heat transfer paper, then, using my heat press, printed a tree on some of the strips. I stuck the strips to long cards and this was the result.  Not as much fun to make as the other cards but I do like the result better.

8 ‘Robins’ cards above and a close up of one of them, below

On the remaining strips, I printed an image of a friend’s cat, to which I’d added (in photoshop) a Santa hat.  I had six felt strips for the cat but one didn’t print properly which left me with five.  I thought I’d better save one to send to the cat owner and was going to offer the other four for sale but my cat-owning friend decided he’d like to send the cards, so bought all four.  There are lots of cat and dog lovers around so maybe I’ll make some of those next year.  What do you think?

Four ‘Layla’ cards above and a close up below

While I was on a roll, I repeated the process using an animal print scarf and a blue patterned scarf to make some cards that are not season-specific. People do seem to like this type of design and quite a few say they or the recipients will cut them out to make a bookmark or just put the card in a frame. The horse chestnut is from a painting my Mum did, the honesty was composed from some photos I’d taken, the ferns were from a royalty-free image I found online and the birds are all from photos of my previous large felt pictures.

I know I’ve said it more than once before but I do love a bit of fabric re-purposing, whether second-hand or from a failed project.

Christmas bells, beeswax and wonky masking tape!

Christmas bells, beeswax and wonky masking tape!

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Happy Christmas everyone!  At the moment you are probably up to your eyes getting ready for the days of festivities which lie ahead.  So, I will give you a few options here.  Here is a slideshow of my blog which you can go through in a few minutes if you are stuck for time.  Alternatively you can read my narrative or if you have a while to spare why not grab a cuppa, pull up a chair, watch the slideshow and read the narrative!

  • I covered the resist with orange viscose and two layers of red merino
  • Then I added silk paper I made. I didn’t like it so I pulled it off when it was at prefelt stage
  • This is the lid of the furniture polish I used to shape my bells
  • Here they are after drying. I cut them to size as they were rather long
  • Here is a view of the inside of one of the bells
  • I rolled the bottom edge to show the orange viscose
  • I pinned the soluble paper to the bell and drew my pattern
  • I cut back the excess paper ones I had stitched the pattern
  • Then I added the beads
  • Here they are ready for dunking
  • The paper dissolved once the water hit it!
  • Then I crocheted the ‘rope’ I painted the silver bells with some bronze nail varnish
  • Here they are, ready to go!
  • A detail of the free motion machine embroidery and beading on the tree
  • Disaster struck using masking tape on the inside of the card. Back to the drawing board
  • I stippled the card using a stencil brush and red then gold paint
  • Inside the card (no masking tape this time!)
  • A selection of handmade Nepalese paper for Karen to play with
  • All packed in the box
  • Here’s the finished card which I glued to the lid of the box
  • All ready for posting
  • And finally, here they are, on Karen’s beautiful Christmas tree

 

I was so delighted when I drew Karen in the Christmas card exchange this year.  I was also a bit daunted as I have been going through a bit of a dry patch creatively over the past number of months.  I knew I wanted to do something that ‘stood out’ (in other words 3D) but this can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to postal systems.

While searching through one of my fibre presses I came across a deep small box that I had used to transfer a porcelain bowl home from my holiday in NZ earlier in the year.  We won’t even talk about how my weird creative mind works but seeing the box instantly brought to mind bells so, decision made, I got to work on them.

First I made my resist.  I intended making two bells.  I covered the resist in an orange viscose fibre and then laid two layers of red merino on top. I added a hanging loop to each bell and some silk paper to each bell which I later pulled off as I didn’t like it.   Once prefelted I cut through the resist to make two shapes and then started working on shrinking and shaping.  Next, I searched for a suitable bell shape which I could use for the next stage.  That’s where the beeswax came in! The lid is shaped like an old fashioned beehive which is an ideal shape to work with.  Lots of rubbing and shaping ensued (and I will admit a bit of cutting as the shapes were too long), until I ended up with bell shapes I was happy with.  Then I rolled the bases so that the orange showed on the outside.

I decided I wanted a simple embroidered design on each bell.  I drew my tiny design on water soluble paper and added my stitches and a few beads to each bell.  Then I dissolved the paper and reshaped the bell on the top of my little beehive!  Once dry, I got to work on the ‘rope’ and the bell.  My little jingle bells were silver and I had been searching, to no avail for gold ones which I thought would look better.  Then I thought of using some nail varnish on the outside of the bells.  Worked a treat!  I then took some cotton embroidery thread and made the ‘rope’ which I attached to the body of the bell and to the inside of the little ‘jingle’.  Then I threaded ribbon through the loop at the top of each bell so that Karen could hang them up.  They fitted nicely into the box but I felt there was something missing.  So I added a few little squares of Nepalese paper which I thought Karen might like to experiment with.  Some of these are quite a lot heavier than the usual ones which are used in felting but I have managed to felt them into pieces.  I thought she might have fun trying them out.

Next to the card.  My cards were the same size as the box so I thought it might be fun to attach it to the box when it was ready.  I opted for a monochrome effect to start with; I prefelted a tree which was made from black merino and margillan silk.  Then I laid the tree onto a white merino background and felted the lot together.  Once fulled, I cut it to size.  Then it was decorating time which I did on my sewing machine using free motion embroidery.  I added some beads too.

Time to address the card!  I stippled the outside of the card with a stencil brush using red and then gold paint.  Then I decided to do the same on the inside but got too creative and used masking tape so I could control the area where I was adding the colour.  Once happy, I went to remove the masking tape.  Disaster! It took away a goodly portion of the card too.  I was not a happy bunny!  On to the second attempt with the card (without masking tape this time), I was more successful.  All done and ready for the post.

Karen has received her card today and I got mine from her yesterday.  I love my card.  Karen has gone to such detail with it I am going to treasure it. Like Lindsay’s card from a previous swap, it will be putting in an annual appearance at Christmas time.

I love the concept of the card swap.  It keeps my felting friends close in my heart, especially at this time of year. Thank you to Ann who organised it and us.

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2025!

Helene

A leaded window decorated for Christmas taken from the outside
The Museum at Christmas

The Museum at Christmas

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I have been volunteering in the shop attached to our local Museum for several years now.  I have to keep an eye on the Museum, welcome any visitors, dispense information (if I can) and serve in the shop.  Visitors are infrequent unfortunately and, because I get bored easily and can’t stand doing so, I tend to bring in something crafty to keep me occupied between times.  As I am using the Museum’s electricity to light and heat my work space, I feel that I should use the time to make something that could be sold in the shop to help to raise funds for the Sturminster Newton Heritage Trust which runs the Museum and also the town’s Water Mill, renting the latter from the Pitt Rivers Estate.

I have told you about the Mill before here and thought you might like to hear a little about the Museum and the things I have made (or attempted to make) over the years to sell in the shop.  Though first I must show you a chap who, a few years ago, came to visit the Mill with his mates from one of the local biker groups.

A small dog sitting on the back of a motorbike dressed in a leather jacket and wearing goggles
Biker Dog – So cool! I’ve forgotten what his name was, though it might have been Jack, but he certainly attracted a lot of attention from others visiting the mill at the time, and he lapped it up!

This is the building which the Museum Society, as it was then called, purchased from the Town Council in 2007.

An old thatched building

The building started life in the 1500s as a cottage.  In the early 1800s it came into the ownership of the then Lord Rivers and was occupied by a farmer/baker and then a well known clock maker (we have one of his grandfather clocks in the Museum).  After being sold in the mid 1800s it was occupied by an insurance agent and then an auctioneer, before becoming a sweet shop and restaurant as well as a home.

Infamously, before the Second World War, the restaurant was visited for a meal by Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists.

After the war the property was bought by a solicitor and eventually sold to the Town Council in 1996.  The Town Council occupied the building until 2007 when it was purchased by the then named Museum and Mill Society.

The Town Council moved into purpose built Council Chamber and offices, which are part of The Exchange building. The Exchange was built and opened in that year on the site of what had been the largest Calf Market in the country but which had closed some 10 years previously.  The Town has had a market/fair since 1219, having been granted a Charter by King Henry III, and we continue to have a (much reduced) market each Monday with stalls around the town.

The first of my donations which the Museum sold (eventually) were these two small felt pictures of the Mill.  They were my versions of photographs which Graham, my husband, had taken.

Then I had a go at crocheting snowflakes, which did sell quite well in the run up to one Christmas.  I seem to remember that I have shown you these before but I can’t find the link so here are some of them again.

crocheted snowflakes displayed on a swag of green and white tinsel
A few Snowflakes

The Museum Shop has a number of items to sell which sport images of the Mill, Museum and, in the case of tea towels, our mediæval bridge over the River Stour.  I did use one of the tea towels to make a Memo Board for sale, with the intention of making a series of these if they sold.  Unfortunately that was not to be, the Memo board I made is still hanging on the shop wall.  Though to be honest I’m not sorry that there’s no call for more of them because it took a lot longer to make and was a lot more complicated than I had anticipated, and I had actually made it in my workshop rather than in the Museum shop, so it didn’t really meet any of my criteria.

A memo board constructed from a blue and white tea towel printed with images of a water mill, a stone bridge and an old thatched building; crossed with blue ribbons.
The “one off” Tea Towel Memo Board.

In fact over the months I have come up with lots of different ideas for items for sale which haven’t worked:  Making books in boxes using unsold cards sporting very old photographs of Stur (as the locals call Sturminster Newton). Making Etuis, but I couldn’t work out how to get Mill, museum or bridge  images onto them; I would have had the same problem with making chatelaines with fabric covered thread cutters, scissors and needle books.  I did think of making pincushions to sit inside glass or ceramic pots or ornaments bought from charity shops but I couldn’t find a way to make sure the pincushions stayed inside them without using lots of glue, which I hate doing. I did try fabric paper weights and door stops, but obviously couldn’t use my sewing machine in the shop and hand stitching would have taken ages and probably wouldn’t have been strong enough to keep inside the grains of rice, which I was to use for the weights.

I was fast giving up on ideas for things to sell in the shop when my stint at trying to sell my scarves and fabric covered note/sketch books in 1855, our Artisans “Superstore”  https://www.1855sturminsternewton.co.uk/ came to an end.  I had not been able to sell much during the 6 months I’d allowed myself so the Museum Shop ended up with most of the unsold stock!

The covered books and the silk scarves aren’t on display at the moment due do lack of space.

I have at last found some things which I can make in the shop and which are going on sale in the runup to Christmas – I have become addicted to making Norwegian Gnomes.  Some people these days call them Gonks, but they are nothing like the Gonks that used to be around in the 70s.  Here’s one I made back then – it still sits on my landing windowsill.  I can’t bring myself to get rid of it.  It is made out of a hat which was left over after one of our WI jumble sales.  I stuffed it, putting in a scrap fabric base, and added eyes, ears, hands, feet and a tail, and have loved it ever since!

A gonk made from an old fur fabric hat with added eyes, ears, hands, feet and tail
My vintage Gonk

For the gnomes I used scrap fibres, mainly scoured but unprocessed merino, to make the basic shape and stitched large buttons on the bases to help keep them upright.  I stitched on noses, in most cases these were wooden beads, though there were a couple of needle felted noses.

Part built Gnomes in various early stages
Gnome “cores”

I covered the bodies in various unused fibres, mainly prefelts or carded batts which had become compressed in storage, or failed UFOs.  I added “hair” – some of the large stock of locks that I found in my stash (I’d forgotten that I’d got so much!) and added beards and moustaches from the same source.  Then I covered the pointy hats with more of the fibres used for the bodies.  A few of the Gnomes were female – plaits from scrap yarn rather than curly hair and facial fuzz.

I started off making Autumn Gnomes but soon ended up making Christmas ones.  There were quite a collection in the end as I was making them at home and at various workshops as well as in the Museum – I told you I was addicted!

Here’s what the Museum Shop looks like at the moment in it’s Christmas finery and with all the goodies currently for sale.

The Museum proper has 6 rooms housing various alternating displays which at the moment include:

Our famous writers/poets Thomas Hardy (he wrote The Return of the Native while living here); William Barnes (his dialect poetry is famous – you might remember the song Linden Lea – if you’re old enough!); and Robert Young (he also wrote dialect poetry under the nom de plume Rabin Hill).

A fascinating display on the history of weights and measures (for instance a cricket pitch measures 22 yards long, or a “Chain”.  I always wondered why a chain?  Now I understand, there was an actual metal chain used as we have one on display.)

We have the earliest map available of the Sturminster Newton and surrounding area dated 1783.

Swanskin  (as mentioned in the link at the beginning of this post)

The Hinton St Mary Roman Mosaic – this was part of the floor of a Roman villa found in the next village up the road from us, which is also the base of the Pitt Rivers Estate previously mentioned.  The mosaic was discovered in 1963 and unfortunately was removed and is now in the possession of The British Museum.  It was hoped that it could be returned to Dorset when the Dorchester Museum was enlarged but they won’t let us have it back!

As part of the Roman display there are a number of photographs showing what flora and fauna was introduced to this country by the Romans.  You’d be surprised what plants and animals they introduced that we now consider to be “native”.

Upstairs we have a new working model of Sturminster Newton Railway Station showing how it used to look before being closed in 1966.  Very few of the original buildings are still here.  That will be a permanent exhibit (hopefully!) whilst most of the others will change from time to time.

Certainly the Museum is well worth a visit at any time of the year.

 

Some pre-felt on top of a hessian stabbing mat, with sewn lines made to resemble a postcard
A Christmas card swap, except Jan’s card is still with me

A Christmas card swap, except Jan’s card is still with me

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Firstly, if you’re Jan and don’t want a spoiler about your card, stop reading immediately!

I think I’m jinxed. There, I said it. For last year’s seasonal card swap, I was paired with the lovely Hélène and the card I sent her was returned to me by Irish Customs, who didn’t deign my wares good enough to cross its country’s borders. This year, I am unable to send my finished card to Jan because Royal Mail says no (well, Canada post says no, they’re not accepting any mail until their strike is resolved).

If I take part in next year’s swap, you might want to avoid me as a partner…

This year I decided to take the notion of a postcard rather literally; I wanted something the size and look of one, and so decided to put my sewing machine to use.

Some pre-felt on top of a hessian stabbing mat, with sewn lines made to resemble a postcard

I cut some pre-felt almost to size and marked down the lines typical of a postcard using a heat-erasable pen. See the twisted red wool on the top left corner of the photo? At first I had the idea of felting the lines with it, until I realised it would take me forever and not look half as good as using the sewing machine. I changed tactics.

After sewing those lines I wrote down my seasons greetings. I was ambitious in what I wanted to say, as you’re about to see.

The beginnings of the writing on my wool Christmas card, where I wrote "Dear Jan, Happy..."

Using yarn, I worked with a felting needle and carefully started following the outlines of the words. I immediately realised my “handwriting” wasn’t going to be as small as I intended. Oops. If you look carefully at the picture above, you’ll see the next word I was meant to write was “holidays,” which is larger than the already felted “Happy.”

More words needle felted onto the wool, saying "Dear Jan, Happy Xmas! L xx"

Where did the word “holidays” go? Well, sometimes you have to pick your battles. Let’s pretend this was the plan all along, shall we?

And then, off to the decorating and making it a more seasonal card.

The almost-finished card with a 3D Christmas tree needle felted on the right

There was something missing in the background… so I did the foolish thing of working that part after having the foreground finished. However, I think it was worth it, but you can judge by yourselves.

The same felted card as before but the needle felted Christmas tree has a blue background also in wool felt

Much better, I hope you agree! I particularly like the detail of the present with the bow made from yarn.

Now it was time to cut the card to size and glue it to a real postcard (a blank one made from watercolour paper). I sadly don’t have a good enough photo of the card’s front, so you’ll just have to imagine the above image in the correct size and without the markers that I removed with a steam iron.

Here’s the back of the card:

The back of my card, made of paper. It has some drawn birds, a doodle of a cat in lieu of a stamp and some greetings to Jan

“I hope this card reaches you in time” was written before I knew Canada postal services were not only delaying deliveries but had altogether halted them. Sorry, Jan!

I will have this on its way to you as soon as possible.

(By the way, see the smudge under the flying bird? That wasn’t me being clumsy at all, no siree, that was completely on purpose and represents the movement and plight of the avian creature as it strives to reach its maximum potential. Cough cough…)

Seasons greetings, everyone! Thanks for reading.

 

Some Past Holiday Exchange Cards

Some Past Holiday Exchange Cards

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Hi All It seems I forgot I had to post today so I am late. I am reposting a post showing some of the past Holiday Exchange Cards that we have done. I did remove the links to sign up for this exchange.

Hi all,  for those who may not know we also run an interactive forum for felting and fiber folks. It’s a great place to share your work, ask questions and help each other out. http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/

Each year we have a holiday exchange. You make a small felted postcard or similar size card with some felt on it.

Here’s the timeline:

October 4-Nov 9: people sign up

November 10 partners are announced.

November: Make your card, contact your partner for an address

December 1: Mail your card

Here are some of the cards from our past exchange, there has been lots of variety.

 

   

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Shepherdess and sheep coming along.

Shepherdess and sheep coming along.

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The deadline is getting close and I need to get done. As Jan will tell you soon it was Fiberfest weekend in Almonte. a small town close to where we live. I was on the demo team for Sunday. So I planned to work on the shepherdess and sheep as my demo project. First I had to get the shepherdess some clothes. Not too hard you think or at least I thought.

 

I forgot to take starting pictures but here is the shirt and skirt ready for final fulling.

felt shirt and skirt ready for fulling

 

 

And this is the shrinkage after fullingfelt shirt on resist showing shrinkage felt skirt on resist showing shrinkage

The skirt was fine but the shirt was way too stiff. so I made another using a lot less wool and felted it along with the cloak.

For the cloak, I decided to use some prefelt I had. I cut the first side a little bigger than the resist then folded it around and basted it into place. This seemed like the best idea to keep everything in place.

grey prefelt stitched together at the seam

And here it is shrunk

cloak on resist showing shrinkage.

I liked it and it fit well except for the hood. I didn’t like it at all.  I thought for the hood I wanted, it would be best to do it separately. do more cutting and sewing. and shirt number 4. I don’t remember what was wrong with shirt 2 but shirt 3 would have been good if I hadn’t cut the neck too big.

And finally, all the parts of the clothing are dry and ready to move on to the next steps.

For the next post, I hope to have the shepherdess all done and a colourful flock of sheep for her to tend.