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Unknown Botany Lap Waste Update

Unknown Botany Lap Waste Update

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I finally got around to felting a sample of the turquoise Botany Lap waste I used on a piece I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. It was the lighter blue stripes on the back of the piece, and in patches in a couple of places. Noy surprisingly, it didn’t felt in exactly the same way as the purple sample I tried and mentioned last time:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt even separated at one end like the purple piece did:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is how it looked at the window:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI bought some ‘slik n soft’  50/50 Superfine Merino and Tussah Silk in the same order, so just out of curiosity, I made a small sample of that. I’d started to worry I’d lost my felting skills, but it was pretty obvious as soon as I’d wet the 50/50 down that it was already starting to felt:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI don’t think I’ve ever used a really blended blend before (if that makes sense?!), I liked how it turned out. I’m still none the wiser about what those tops are, but at least I know it’s not something I did, or didn’t do!  Before I tried felting any of the Botany Lap waste tops, I’d tried spinning some. It was only the 2nd time I’d used my wheel, so thought the trouble I was having was beginner’s issues and also because I was trying tops. My first attempt had been from blended batts I’d drum carded and was much easier. I’d always planned on using the spun yarn for weaving anyway, so used some on one piece:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI made a fibre sampler at the Well Being Centre the other day, using staple fibres in 3 different ways. From top to bottom: Nylon, Plastic, Soy Staple, Bamboo, Cotton. I forgot to use Viscose. The first column is ‘as it comes’; the second column is the fibre ‘fluffed up’ and the third column is some fibre and some wool fluffed up/loosely blended together:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the Plastic fibre all fluffed up:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd this is how the fluffed up Soy looked after felting:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

More Cup Cozies

More Cup Cozies

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This week I made more cup cozies. I made 2 sets of flat ones that will have buttons. I started out with a rectangle. I decorated them in a random way. I then cut them into 4 at the prefelt stage. The purple has some orange blobs of orange throwers waist. It should show up again when they are dry. The green has some of my hand spun single yarn. It is quite stable until you wet it then it get its twist back and goes all crazy.

purple cup cozies green cup cozies

I finish them on a glass wash board. It is very fast.

roling on washboard

These are the rest of the ones I made. They will get buttons. Some will fit a coffee mug and some will fit travel mugs or water bottles.

fan of cup cozies

Here are some of my buttons I will be picking through for these. I have many more if I need them. I will use a thin round black elastic loop to close them. That way I think people may be able to adjust them by looping them once or twice as needed.

buttons

I also made some that are like the cardboard sleeves you get at take out places.

tube cup cozie black with white silk white with black silk

The multicoloured one was made using a batt and prefelt triangles I cut out of some scraps. The black one is regular merino top with a white silk hanky stretched over it. The white one is made with prefelt and a black silk hanky stretched around it.  The white one shrank much more top to bottom then the other two. I didn’t look carefully at the piece I had before using it. Prefelt is directional. If I had looked I would have used it in the other direction.

rolling tube cup cozieI use the washboard to finish them as well.

This is the group drying. I really like the way the back and white ones look like marble.

finished tube cozies.

If you made it this far here are two unrelated pictures. One is my grandson helping me with my ice cream cone at the farmers market on Sunday.

icecream

And the turkeys I showed you  a few weeks ago. The first one is when they are 1 week old. They are now 4 .5 weeks old. They grow very fast. They will be moving to new quarters this week.

turkeysturkeys

 

Lincoln, Soy, Bamboo and Knitting

Lincoln, Soy, Bamboo and Knitting

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This is the back of a piece of felt I made from Lincoln wool tops:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love the way the characteristics of the different breeds reappear with felting, when they’re not very evident from the wool tops. And you get such gorgeous edges with the curly breeds. On the front, I used a blend of Soy top and black bamboo tops. I just blended the tops by hand and laid them on the top:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe shape, texture and colours reminded me of finding oyster shells on the beach. This is the bottom left corner:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is a close up of the texture:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd a close up of the back:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI still haven’t had chance to even look at the wool I ordered from Wollknoll because I’ve had builders in … for fibre addicts in the UK who don’t already know, the Euro is really low against the Pound at the moment (about 73p to €1) so have a look at their site, 100g of wool is starting around 72p… don’t be alarmed at their prices though, they’re usually given per kilo! I did manage to sneak a ball of rainbow Merino out of the box though and do a little bit of spinning, I also used the tufts I’d used for my colour wheel a while ago. I left it on the spindle for a couple of days then knitted a square from it:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHere’s a close up

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd because I love them, a supermacro:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m not convinced I’m casting off properly though, all my squares look like they’re one stitch too short!

Second Quarter Challenge Finally Done.

Second Quarter Challenge Finally Done.

Comments 16 comments

That’s right I have it done and with days to spare. 12 whole days at that! Here are the details of the challenge if you missed them.  Challenge

I have know what I was going to do for ages I just hadn’t done it. I like Stephenson’s mirror pieces but I also liked the flower pieces so I decided to combine them.

stevenson 1  stevenson 2

I used a thin piece of black prefelt I had and doubled it up for the back ground. I then used my own handspun for the stems. I added silk throwers waste for the flowers and then more hand spun for the spirals. I wasn’t sure how everything would stick. There was not a lot of fuzzy about any of it. It worked out fine though.

I forgot to take a picture of it before felting but here it is finished. I like it a lot more than I thought I was going to.

stepnenson picture

I found this frame on my front porch ( have no idea why it was there) and laid it over the picture and I like it even more.

stepnenson picture frame

If you haven’t done a piece, go ahead and give it a try, you still have time.

Don’t for get to visit the Forum to see how others have interpreted the theme.  Challenge

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