Experimental projects

Hope you all had a lovely Valentines weekend ;o)

My kids are off school for half term this week, so probably not much felting going on...I really enjoy getting to spend extra time together in the holidays - always have; Im really lucky too cos I dont work during school holidays...GREAT. I have quite a few sessions at work the following week and probably wont start any new felting projects until the week after that. I miss my felting time but on the positive side at least I shall be finishing off a few UFOs... I certainly have enough of them!

I HAVE dyed the yarn that I mentioned last week :o) I used Pure Tinctoria natural dyes, they were really easy to use & gave off a lovely liquorishy smell as they were simmering away. I actually tried to rainbow dye them using 3 shades on each...it didnt really work. I`ve rainbow dyed using chemical dyes in the microwave successfully, but I had less luck with the stove top method (my fault, not the dyes) they pretty much all blended together. Must of been a happy accident though cos I love the result, there are subtle variations in the colours they are absolutely beautifull. They dont really show up too well on the photos; the reds are very rich & though the other skein looks greyish in the photo it is really a wonderfull varigated mossy green.

Looking lighter than in the flesh; they are varigated rich reds & mossy green

I shall certainly be using the Tictoria dyes again... Im thinking of felting a jacket in undyed fibres, merino, silks, locks etc and then dyeing in with the red mix. The only thing that made it a slower process was the need to mordant the yarn before I dyed it (I used alum & cream of tartar) but I think its worth it when I look at the results. Alison at Pure Tinctoria is very knowledgable & helpful, she says that they can be painted onto felt too...I shall be trying that out later in the year.

I finished of my experimental Tudor style flat-cap & Im pretty pleased with it. This was an experiment & my resists were cut from bubblewrap & a bin liner bag, which are not my ideal. Im planning to cut better resists this week, tweeking the size & shape a little and shall be making #2 soon, though I will have to buy more fibre first. I shall probably dye the next cap with my Tinctoria dyes. I`ll wear the original for work... Tudor women wore white woolen caps, men wore coloured ones. You never know, maybe the boss will want to custom order some for the museum :o) to go with the new costumes that Clare is making (save her poor hands from hours n hours of knitting)

Why am I posting so many BAD phtos of myself? :o)

I`m being real strict with myself trying to get my stock listed on my shops... I have quite a bit unlisted at the moment & listing is so time consuming that I kept putting it off. I managed to list about 5 items in each of my shops last week :o) which made me ridiculously happy. AND its payed off already - I made my first sale on Folksy :o). A lady in the UK brought one of my Feelin Sheepish purses (below) Its my customers first purchase on Folksy too, so I feel quite honoured that she liked one of my items enough to buy there for the first time - Im a happy bunny!

Got lots of my homespun yarns in this one

I really like Folksy, its quicker to list on than Etsy...and I think because its smaller items are more visible. Its nice to be working in £s too...

xoxo