Icelandic hat

Happy Saturday!

My new hat is dry now, so I thought I`d share a photo with you :o) Im kinda proud of it!

I used the cerise and pink Icelandic wool - 6 layers. I added a layer from the pink/purple/blue silk hankie that I dyed a couple of weeks ago too. I should really of taken photos as I was making it...but didnt think of it till I was half way through lol.

Kelly has asked comments if Id post where I brought my lovely Icelandic wool from...sorry Kelly I usually do do this, it had slipped my mind tbh. I brought the wool from Alafoss in Iceland, the lady I dealt with is named Jona; she is lovely & very helpfull. They dont take Paypal unfortunately so I had to phone the shop (in Iceland) to pay - luckily they speak very good English...cos I dont speak any Icelandic :o) I was very impressed with the postal service too, it was pricey (cost a bit more than the wool itself did) but it was trackable, and even over a Bank Holiday weekend it arrived 3 working days after posting, although that was probably very lucky at the moment with the volcano. The wool is in batts, and my batts are odd shapes and sizes... just unfold them & start peelin` layers off :o) great. Think Im going to order some black & white too...

Im also wearing the waistcoat I made a couple of months ago (the one that started out as a tunic... but ended up waaay too small :o). Not too bad considering I had no guidance for how to make it at the time... it was pretty much all guesswork... I have since brought Lizzie Houghtons Felting Fashion book - which is really good, Id highly recomend it if you want to felt clothes & hats.

Anyway, Im off to look for more hatblocks in different shapes n sizes :o)

Have fun folks x

Friday already...where did the week go?

WOW I cant believe that its Friday! My week is all mixed up cos I worked BH Sunday & Monday... pretty long hours, so those days just consisted of getting up - working - dragging meself home and just crashing out... Tuesday was a blur - seriously; I was totally spaced out, Wednesday work again, Thursday kids were off school & now wham its Friday!

I have had a really fun morning today though :o) I have felted my Icelandic wool for the first time! And I LOVE it - it felts very well. The batts make the laying out quicker, just peel a sheet off and lay it down. My only difficulty was that I kept forgeting which direction the fibres on the last layer had run in (you cant see it as easily as when you lay tops) so I had to keep stopping and checking which way the current layer needed to go lol. I have felted a nice little hat :o) using my hat block for the first time too. Its drying out at the moment so no pics yet.

I did make a couple of teacosies last week that I havent posted pics of yet...

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to felt 2 together...dont think I`ll do that again, it was pretty huge and unweildy. I felted them over an oval shaped resist that when cut across the middle would give me 2 teacosies. Unfortunately I used the yellow & orange merino that doesnt like felting! I think its something to do with the dyeing process...maybe it was over done? Its been ages since I used it and had totally forgotten that it was stubborn; it seemed to take forever - I actually ended up with a rub rash on both of myt forearms from all of the rolling! Ive edged them with witch-stitch (herringbone).

Im struggling to get the photos that I wanted to put up from the medieval event... The only one I can show you at the moment is a group shot of all the staff, we are standing in front of the gatehouse.

yes thats me, in costume on the left looking very UNglamerous :o)

Its a lovely building! The first building was around 1270 and its sort of evolved over the years...very interesting. A couple of hundred years ago they faced it with brick to make it look `more modern` and everyone forgot what was under the bricks. It had ended up as tenements until the 1950s and lots of the people who came to visit had lived there, or even been born there. It fell into disrepair and was actually going to be demolished; but when they started knocking walls down they rediscovered the timber framed house & fortunately stopped demolition. Over recent years its been a pub & resteraunt, unfortunately it ended up in a bit of a mess again. Its just come into the Museum Services care though & over the next few years its going to be restored back to its former glory - cant wait!

We had over 4000 people at the event over the 2 days, most of them on Monday. It was a really nice event to work at and Im glad I did both days, I think we all had a great time even though we were nackered. The highlight of MY day on Monday was when I took a 5 minute break (only had 10 minutes all day) and got to hold a European Eagle Owl! AWESOME! I have LOVED these birds for years and to actually be able to hold one ... its hard to describe how I felt. The owl that I held was 21 years old & weighed just under 8lb and had been hand reared, she had the most magnificent huge amber eyes Ive ever seen. One of the girls I was working with took a photo & Im really hoping that she sends it to me...if she does I will definately post it :o)

Anyway, enough waffle from me - have a great weekend, will post pics of my Icelandic hat soon

x

Explosion of colour

Im really excited today... My first package of Icelandic felting wool arrived this morning! Ive brought 4kg in 8 colours...

This is how it looked when I ripped off the brown paper... all squished into a plastic bag. Even though it really is half vacuumed into the bag you can still tell its a BIG parcel. Look what happened when I unpacked it :o)

What a lovely lot of wool! I LOVE the colours, and it feels so soft & snuggly... Im desperate to play & experiment with it; but to be honest my feet are just not up to it today. I worked at a medieval Museum event Sunday & yesterday... an am still recovering. Planning to post about it when I get a couple of photos to add :o) Gonna keep you in suspense till then.

Im at Oak House tomorow & the kids are off school Thursday because their schools are being used as polling stations... so we are going to visit family. So my lovely icelandic wool shall have to wait till Friday. Im chuffed at how quickly it arrived... I expected it to be slowed down by the Icelandic volcano - but luckily the wind was blowing the other way & planes were able to take off as normal on the day that I brought this. Brought it Thursday last week, and it was here today - would of been yesterday except for the Bank Holiday...Fantastic!

x

The week so far...

My lovely hubby & son knocked a big hole in the living room wall at the weekend! Im quite happy about it though cos they put in our new french doors :o) and now we have got lots of lovely sunlight coming in through them, and can enjoy the view. We didn`t have this view from anywhere in the house before... it was just brick walls & bathroom windows with obscured glass `till now.

Accross the fields & hills, the woods start with the tree on the right hand side. Looks so dark `cos I was looking toward the sun & it was bright

Looking back towards the town
(thats the corner of my daughters Primary school on the left)

It feels weird to be sitting on the sofa and able to see the hills! I want to set up a nice little seating area out there now & it`ll be just right :o) Breakfast on the balcony, listening to the birds sounds good to me.

Monday I was playing with my dyes again! This time with silk caps, mawata square, carrier rods & wool nepps...

The rods & nepps are still drying, but I shall take pics of the whole batch soon - they look pretty. Working with the silk caps & mawtata silk made me realise how rough my fingers are, the silk fibres were constantly sticking to me! Ive been creaming my hands like crazy ever since lol. Guess Ive got felters hands :o)

Yesterday I was working at Oak House with Clare again, we were Lizzie (me) and Mary; Tudor serving wenches working with a school group, year 3s so 7 & 8 years old.... the hardest part when the group is so young is getting them all into their costumes (buttons, ties, things inside out/upside down... you get the picture lol) but it was a good session. We had an external assessor observing too - the service is going for an award in Heritage Education - wonder how we fared? He was very unassuming, just standing at the back - constantly writing notes. The pencil scratching reminded me of failed driving tests unfortunately :o) of which I had a few!

Ive just ordered some Icelanding felting wool, actually from Iceland... not sure how long it`ll take to get here with the volcano eruption and all the disruption.

Well , Im off to work of some bag design mock-ups...see if they work or not :o)

OK I can hear a cow mooo-ing very close by... off to investigate...

xx

Playing catchup

Wow, that week kindof went by in a blur! It was a good one, busy... but good!

We had a really good night out for my sister-in-laws 40th and boy were we glad that we didnt go with the birthday cake fireball idea! My sister-in-laws IN-laws suprised her with an extreemly posh & lovely, proper birthday cake... We couldnt help laughing at our close call... can you imagine; the in-laws present you with a sophisticated cake & your own family offer a fun iced cake with 40 candles stuck in willy-nilly thats promising to turn into a raging inferno at any moment :o) Too funny! (Im kindof warped, personally Id like the fireball for the giggle factor).

I can post a photo of the gorgeous necklace that we gave her now. It was 'specially handmade by keiara - it is one of Keiaras Desert Tree focals (which I love, they are so atmospheric) with a handsewn ribbon & beaten sterling silver ring both crafted by friends of Keiaras.

For once I wasnt the designated driver - I rarely drink alcohol so dont mind staying tea-total & driving. Im such a lightweight these days - I didnt drink at all while having the children & breastfeeding... that was a fair few years ago, now I have a glass of wine very occasionally with a meal. We had a very nice bottle of merlo on the tablet... a glass & a bit later (it really WAS very nice) I was feeling distinctly mellow.

The children were back to school on the Monday - little rascals tried very hard to convince me that it was infact a teacher training day & they didnt have to go to school. Unfortunately for them - I can vividly remember being young & at school myself, so Im not the easiest person to get one over on :o)

This meant I had Monday to play with my felt. I experimented with texture & colours, and felting a cape seamlessly. The cape experiment was less than successfull, but it was a good learning curve. Plus the felt itself is lovely & shall be used elsewhere. By the way, Im definately obsessing over purple & green... the colour/texture experiment was inspired by a photograph of lavender, grass & poppies in France... rather predictably its mostly purple & green - but I LIKE it! :o)

Merino, tussah silk, BFL locks (I love the bubbly texture) & eyelash yarn (which you cant see in the photo)

Tue, Wed & Thu were given over to work & waiting in a garage while my car was tested - passed easily thank goodness.

Friday my lovely husband suprised me with a day off, we mooched around Ikea - I got some very cool hangers that I think will be great for displaying scarves at craft fayres (will take pics soon), had lunch & big messy cream cakes - it was nice.

This week is pretty much open for me to do as I wish (I think) apart from Friday, when my son has his first appointment to see an Orthodontist. So Im hopeing to do lots of fun felt/fibre stuff. I cant get onto my bigger projects for a while yet though - I must order more fibre... I hate waiting.

ooo yes, I was awarded a Sunshine Blog award by www.woollylakes.blogspot.com . Thank you so much for that! I enjoyed looking at the other blogs that she gave the award to & have started following a couple of them myself. I started making a list of my 12 favourite blogs this morning... my problem is that most of them have already received one of these awards & I dont want to send something theyve already done - it may not be welcome. Anyway, well worth having a peek at the Woollylakes blog (sorry, I dont know her name) & also checking out the other blogs she listed (especially the felt blogs)... think the post was on the 26/2 if you are checking back

Ah well, my tummy is telling me its lunch time so I shall love & leave you - have a wonderfull week whatever you are doing :o) xxx