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Finishing Hats and Scarves.

Finishing Hats and Scarves.

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Did you think I had forgotten it was my time to post again? I didn’t I have been running around like crazy getting things ready for the Guilds Sale and Exhibition that starts Saturday. But as I am co-chair of the committee running it I have lots to do and set up is Friday at 4:00. And of course, as per my usual operations, I am not ready to be in the show yet either. Not to worry its only Tuesday, Lots of time… Right?

So, yesterday I was working on hats. I had pinned them to dry 2 days before. This one is black, with a blue silk cap stretch over ti. I am really happy with how the silk looks. I will try to get a picture of it off the block but no time right now.

This is the redo of  the one that was shapped oddly at the midway point.

I shaped and pinned and after it was dry tried fiddling with the curls. I didn’t like them. I decided they needed to be curling the other way and be tighter.

I wet them down and rolled them up again in the other direction and on smaller little crat tubes. They need to dry again.

Lastly was the purple one. I cut the elongated edge into strips and wove it together again and pinned it in place to dry.

Yesterday while waiting in the car I trimmed it and sewed it into place. Not the best background for a picture but it was better than my messy computer desk.

All in all I am quite happy with them. Next time I hope to have pictures with no pins for you to see. I will probably have to take them at the show. Where did the time go?

 

Finished Scarves

Finished Scarves

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I managed to finish the 2 scarves I was working on,  They are now dry and ironed.

This is the white one. It is nuno felt down the middle. I had wanted to put black locks on the ruffles but what I thought were black locks are purple and they bled when I tested one.  So not going on a white scarf.

Here’s a close up of the end with the white locks. They are Bluefaced Leicester locks.

Here is the red one. No close-up, it just bounced a red blur into the camera.

They are a bit of a nuisance to iron. you have to do the edges one at a time, separately from the center. It looks like this when you are ironing.

This is what they look like rolled up, like fancy dumb bells. It does keep the ruffle snice though.

I did mange to get 3 more done this week. I finished them today. They are hanging in the bathroom drying so no pictures yet.  I did start a new one and forgot to take a picture of it until I was wetting it down.

and a close up of the lace and the end. This fabric came from an odd-looking little poncho. I can’t remember where I got it but it must have been part of an outfit. You can see the silk fibres I added to the edge in the first picture. The second picture is when it was flipped over so I could neaten up the edges. the finished edge of the fabric will look really nice sticking over the end I think.

More pictures next week and I hope, at least one finished hat. Hats are tomorrow’s job.

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I Finally Finished These Hats.

I Finally Finished These Hats.

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People in class and on line often ask if they can leave a piece of felt over night or a day and then finish it. The answer is yes most defiantly. I have left pieces over night many times but these 2 hats just did not seem to want to be made. I started one 4 weeks ago and the other 3 weeks ago I think. Every time I went to work on them I ended up with about 15 min. So they just got rerolled and tossed back in the dryer for a 10 min roll/tumble and then they would be ignored for another few days.

The first is sort of a fairy hat. This is the resist shape

When I folded over the wool of the first side I added in two rolled flowers at the top.

Then some leaves and throwsters waste when I added the second side of the hat.

This is what the throwsters waste looks like.

It finished up pretty well. Mostly I am just happy it is done.

And I forgot to take pictures of the other one in prosses but it was the same as the other one this shape. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/03/19/the-finished-hat-2/

I used some of the mesh yarn. It is like lattice but in a tube.  I got several colours form them second had store. They seemed to have received a large quantity of it. It seemed to be new rather than someone stash. This is not a good hat. It will not be for sale.

The mesh yarn did not stay strate. Probably me being to enthusiastic with the rubbing or not being careful enough laying it out in the first place.  I  put it to high on the outside which would have been fine it is was even. I also put it to low on the inside so I had to make the hat taller or have an uneven line of white wool and yarn along the bottom edge, when I folded it up. Then to top it all off or the first time ever the marker I used to draw the resist pattern blead into the wool and stayed after all the soapy water and rinsing. I will toss this into the cut up bin. I think I may save the yarn for a different style hat.

Happy Felt Hat Makers

Happy Felt Hat Makers

Comments 21 comments

Just after I took my Moy MacKay class I taught a felt hat class to 6 enthusiastic students. they wanted different styles but they all wanted folds in the top.

and decorating, I am sure I took more pictures at this point but something went wrong because they are not on my phone.

Then there was rubbing and rolling to do.

Here they are after some shrinking but not there yet.

The did shrink much to everyone’s amazement. I don’t think they really believed they would ever fit.

These brims on these 2 wide brimmed hats are to heavy to hold themselves up while wet. They will be fine once they are dry.

I didn’t get a picture of the last one but it turned out well too. It was a really fun day for everyone.

 

 

More on Mittens

More on Mittens

Comments 19 comments

I posted a while back about making my grandson some mittens.  mittens post He loved them but they wouldn’t stay on even when his coat sleeves were over them.  I had thought that might be the case . Mittens are usually narrower at the wrist. You can’t do that with felt mittens, no stretch.  To fix them I sewed on some bound ribbon. Threaded some elastic through and added a locking toggle. We tried them on and he tried to make them fall off but they stayed put. Success!

 

The Hardest part was finding the toggles. When I wasn’t looking for them, they were everywhere. I went to 2 craft stores, a sewing store, a Walmart and the big dollar chain store, in the end found them at the smaller chain Dollar World.

I made a pair of adult sized this week so I would have an adult size to show and do a different way of tightening the wrist.  That part isn’t done yet. I need to find my sew on Velcro for that. Here my daughter is modeling them for me.

and a simple over lapping to close them.

The hardest part about writing the instructions is doing the measuring to get the resist the right size. I had to redo the drawing several time because I made mistakes and I wanted it to be neat.

The instructions are mostly doing the same thing over and over in all the different spots, but as you read it, it gets confusing. I need to figure out a different way of writing it. I may make it several diagrams, pull out the thumb and the angle from the thumb to another picture so there are not so many lines. Then write the instruction once and say repeat for all the lines. I will be there to explain so it will be easier. I would like to get them clear enough to make a kit. I am going to see if I can get my son to draw the mitten using his fancy drawing program so I can easily manipulate it electronically using layers. I will have to find that free “photoshop” drawing program, I can’t remember the name of it at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latest Nuno and Bookcover

Latest Nuno and Bookcover

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I made the last of my nuno strip pieces into panels for a bag. It was this yellow piece:

I used various types of fabric–cotton, viscose, silk, suspected silk, so got various textures:

I liked these two strips next to each other, they showed the very different way felting/shrinkage affected them:

I used some of the spare offcuts from the orange piece to make up the panels:

I made the Green felt which I piled with BFL locks into a notebook/diary cover. The pictures look a bit weird because I had a small patch of desk out of the sunlight when I was taking photos, but it must have been shadier at one end so, to me, they look upside down!

Here’s the other side:

This is the inside without the book:

And this is the outside without the book:

I’ve finally got the buttons and buttonholes on nearly all the purses from a few weeks ago, so hopefully, I’ll have those to show next time 🙂

Second Quarter Challenge Finally Started

Second Quarter Challenge Finally Started

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Today is July 3 and finally, yesterday, 2 days late, I got started on the challenge I set: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/03/31/second-quarter-challenge-3/ I haven’t finished but I did start two pieces.

The first is a vessel. I haven’t made one in ages and thought it would be fun. I really like  a cat motif that came up when looking at the time period I had picked.

I used grey Finnish wool. I had two balls bought at different times and they were slightly different colours and textures. I used the courser wool inside and the softer silkier wool on the outside.

For the vessel I just started with a big circle resist. then added some think wool for the cat shapes.

I used a different colour for the ears and then added some wisps of Fin to help secure it.

I have rubbed and rolled it and I am now in the middle of fulling it.

The second one is the same cat design but in a relief picture. I tried some Mauri wool I had. It feels like a medium wool. I came in small, sort of batts. I don’t know why it wasn’t either roving or a proper batt but I pulled it apart and layered bits until it seemed even. I decided to leave the edges rough so it looked more like a piece of broken pottery or mosaic.

I used some really thick rug yarn thrums that I was given years ago to make the cat. I then covered it in more mauri wool and made sure it was pressed down around the yarn. It is at the rolling stage.

That is as far as I got with both of them. You will have to wait until next time to see how they finish up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landscape and Nuno

Landscape and Nuno

Comments 21 comments

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I hadn’t had time to felt my demo piece when we did landscapes at the well-being centre. As well as the general layout, I was showing ways of using some different fibres, like cotton, nylon, plastic and even mohair for effects in the sky, and how to tease apart and fluff up texturey wools or dyed nylon for adding depth and texture. I didn’t really give much thought to how it would look, just showed them all and then piled them on. All I can say is, the locks look nice 🙂  The patch of wool and nylon to the right looks like some green bodied, red headed creature looking over its own shoulder!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI took some fabric strips with me to the wet felting classes the week after for some experimenting. This is the piece I made:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI thought I’d make a bigger sample trying out more of the fabrics. Before I go back to the other well being centre, I want to get a better idea of which fabrics attach securely and will hold up to being handled a lot, which might need some stitching to secure and which will be better for more decorative pieces. This is the whole piece:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd here are some angled photos to show better how they attached and their texture (or not in some cases), left side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMiddle pieces:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERARight hand side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI still have a few more strips I want to try, hopefully I’ll get a chance later this week.

Felting, Weaving and Teaching

Felting, Weaving and Teaching

Comments 14 comments

I had a fairly productive week I made 4 cup cozies.  They need their buttons and elastic loops but I should get that done this week. I need to sort out if they are narrow enough to go through the handle on a coffee mug. If they don’t fit I will make them for travel mugs without handles.

cup cozies

Here are some close up pictures. The top two have throwsters silk waste. The bottom left is a silk scarf and the right is cotton cheesecloth.

cozies close up

I also got the inklette loom warped to make a strap.

incle loom

The weaving is not great but it is getting better as I go.

ingle weaving

Lastly I had t very nice ladies to may studio to learn to make nuno felt scarves. As usual I was busy with the students and forgot to take pictures until the end.

nuno finished scarves nuno scarves close up

 

Making Mini Birdhouses.

Making Mini Birdhouses.

Comments 15 comments

I got an order for some mine birdhouses for decorations.

I laid out 3 at a time, I get both sides ready then put the resist in.

mini birdhouse layout

Once they are wet I add the decorations

pink mini birdhouse redy to felt pink and green ready to felt

The green dots were cut out of a piece of homemade prefelt. The pink stripe is just a long strip of top.

Here I used a piece of felt that was cut off something else before I started the shrinking. I have I bin of off cuts. This one was quite thick so I spit it then cut it up for the decoration.

docorating minibird house blue decorations

Here is a shot after felting. It shows the size and the shrinkage. The picture on the right  is  with a balloon in so it will dry in the right shape.

mini birdhouse size min birdhouse with balloon

They are getting there strings right now. If I can get them done and get a pictures of them I will edit it in. Otherwise you will have to wait for my next blog post.

 

 

 

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