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Wrapping Up 2017 Projects

Wrapping Up 2017 Projects

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Right now its cold in the Chicago area and as Christmas quickly approaches, I thought of my daughter in law Mari’s parents who live in Japan.  Their weather is very much like ours here.  While we will spend the holidays in California, I thought I would make and send some warm scarves for them since they are staying in Japan for the winter.

Lately, I’ve been doing  smaller projects,  so these scarves took me a while to complete in stages.

I had some merino/silk roving in a couple of colors I thought would be neutral enough.The one on the left I used to make myself a cobweb scarf a while back. Then I made a my husband a scarf using prefelt in the center.  This time I was going to do something different.

 

The roving was quite twisted, so I made batts for each scarf. I laid them next to each other, wetted them down then let my EZ Felter machine do the hard work.

I finished and fulled them by hand using my bead boards and solar pool covering.  I  believe this roving had more silk in it and is a bit softer.

This roving was multicolored with a bit of brown, green, blue, gold and white in it.

While it looks beige in the pic above, the closeup is more the actual color scheme.

I hope no matter if you are in the heat or cold, you all have a wonderful, happy holiday!

It’s that Time of Year

It’s that Time of Year

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Congratulations to Jolanta, winner of the Third Birthday Giveaway #4!  Please  send me your snail mail address and I’ll put the batts in the mail to you.  I look forward to seeing how you use them. I hope you have fun!

Here in the Midwest USA, the weather has turned cold and the snow has started to fly.  With the holidays and New Year around the corner, my thoughts have turned to warmth and gifts.

I’ve wanted to experiment with cobweb felt so I made a cobweb scarf with one layer of  a merino/silk mix.  I didn’t intentionally make holes, but let the process dictate the outcome.

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Here are some closeups:

2014-10-17 13.39a 2014-10-17 13.39 2014-10-17 13.38

It is very lightweight but has enough fiber to keep the neck warm.

2014-10-17 13.38b 2014-10-17 13.45

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using the same type of merino/silk mix,  I made two additional scarves.  But this time I didn’t want holes, so I used two layers of fiber and carefully inspected each before felting for weak spots filling in where necessary, then checked frequently during the process.

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Of course, with the process of rolling and fulling each ended up with some holes.  The brown more than the lilac.  I like the look of them, but disappointed in the outcome.

Last year I made my husband a scarf with the merino/silk mix, but used a prefelt between layers and it made it much heavier.  Perhaps, next time I will use an additional layer of merino  instead of prefelt for a thinner scarf.

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I’ve also been pod happy again and have made two more  as gifts.  I made batts using merino/silk, and merino for outside layers and Cheviot as an inner layer to give the bowl strength, but of course, it migrates through and had to be shaved.

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What projects have you been working on for the season?

 

 

Wensleydale Cobweb Felt

Wensleydale Cobweb Felt

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I found two of these lampshade kits at the local thrift store about a year ago (or maybe longer). I thought it would work well with cobweb felt so since they were only $7.00 each I bought them. Then they sat around for a year. I had them on my list of things to do but never seemed to get anything done with them.

Thrift Store Find

Finally, last week I decided I would make the felt to cover the lampshade. The pattern assumes that you use commercial fabric and has you cut pieces from yardage. I decided I would make each side of the lampshade as a separate piece of felt. I have wanted to make a piece of cobweb felt with Wensleydale wool for a while now so I thought this project would be perfect for it.

Pattern

This is a very bad photo of the original pattern. I just doubled the size of the original middle section of the pattern as I thought that the cobweb felt would shrink at least 50% or more.

Enlarged Pattern

I marked the enlarged pattern on a piece of plastic and then laid out the Wensleydale wool. I got this wool when I first started felting so I think I’ve had it for about 10 years now. I have used some of it over the years but I still have quite a bit left.

Beginning Layout

I laid the Wensleydale out in a random manner starting with the edges. I used only one thin layer.

Layout Complete

Here’s the wool after I finished laying it out. I did have to patch a few places so next time I will make it slightly thicker.

Wet Down of Wool Complete

I then wet it out and started felting. I rolled a little but then mainly just finished by rubbing.

Completed Felt on Original Pattern

After fulling and shrinkage, you can see that it did shrink 50%. The lampshade needs a total of four of these. One down…

Wensleydale Cobweb Felt

I really like the texture that the Wensleydale gives.

Texture of Cobweb Felt

You can see it better with the light behind it.

Cobweb Texture

I think this will be really pretty on the lamp with the light shining through. I may use a lining fabric in a darker color but I haven’t decided yet. Of course, I still have three more of these to make. I hope it won’t take another year to complete 🙂

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