Goddess and Greenman

Its hard to believe that we are already more than half way through the month of May!  I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago..

My Beltain / May Day celebration was to felt a Goddess and Greenman to grace our garden.. They are made from some of the big bundle of green fibre Heather left with me :)  I used resists to felt them seamlessly, adding hair to the Goddess after removing the resist - I sewed it through, laying it sticking up off her head and carried on felting, it's pretty well rooted in now :)

In situ

 I turned them into wind dancers..

Hard felt inlays between the fibre layers form
raised boobs and a tummy spiral

Lots of curly locks used on the Greenman -
there are even more on his other side

I made a beaten wire triskelion and spirals..
and used bead wire and crimps to join all the elements together

The Goddess has soft silk ribbons hanging down to dance in the breeze, while the Greenman has brass i-ching coins and jade beads tied into the yarn dangles so he chimes softly.

xx

Play Days :)

I'm later than I'd planned with this post.. where does the time go?!  I wanted to share a few photos from Heather's visit.. I was embarrassingly forgetful of my camera, but I have a feeling Heather snapped some good ones which I'm really looking forward to seeing :)

I can't quite believe after 5 years of being blog friends we finally got together! We had 3 play days.. which absolutely flew by!  The days where a whirlwind of felting and chatting, eating cakes and lunching (mostly on leftovers from the night before :)  The evenings were great with lots of fun and laughter for the whole family. 

Now nearly 2 weeks later it seems surreal that Heather was actually HERE.

Felting tiny little amulet bags

I didn't take any more felting action shots at all I'm afraid..  Heather showed me how to do a tiny bag and 2 funky scarves made with prefelt..

Heathers is the lovely colourful bottom one :)

Mine has holes

We worked on this crazy boa together on the last morning..
it's really effective - I love it

This was my tiny bag..
the blue bits were a shoal of blue prefelt fish but they went blurry as I felted

And we both made a pair of 'my-style' boots.. Though mine weren't finished we did manage to finish and dry Heather's so they could go home with her. I'm not saying anything else about them except that they are fabulous and very 'Heather-ish' :)

 All the makes I was left with when Heather went home..

I love the way the 2 top scarves wind across the table :)
I've a couple of ideas for other things to do using this technique..

The end of a lovely visit..

So photogenic..

Having a quiet lunch together.. fresh home made carrot and coriander soup (my favourite).. before heading to the airport.  Now I'm looking forward to the next time :)

Wonderwool Wales

Last weekend I visited Wonderwool Wales with my daughter Rachael.. meeting lovely friends (more later) while we were there :)  I've only been to Wonderwool once before about 4 years ago, I was amazed to see how much it has grown!  It was at least twice the size..  I actually had a bit of a panic at one point wondering how on earth we were going to manage to see everything in one day - thank goodness we were there early!  

I did take photos.. but most of you will know how forgetful of my camera I can be, there was soooo much more that I should of taken photos of!

Let start with fur babies :)

Gorgeous bunnies :)

Alpacas - I think the one on the left must of liked rolling in the straw
he was covered in it all day :)

Love the dreads :)

Gotland

Shetland

There were many amazing and beautiful stalls..  I didn't take photo's of many :(  But here is what I've got..

Lovely life sized wool sheep :)

Paul and Mandy of ClassicCarder having a
quiet moment

Loved this giant drop spindle :)
It must of been 4 foot tall!

And the beautiful Zara of InnerSpiral
happily spinning :)

InnerSpiral hats.. gorgeously felted and crochet creations

I just love the display!  So clever using branches/sticks to display the hats

These events are such a great opportunity to meet folks you know via the internet, and also to catch up with old friends.  I had been waiting to meet Zara of InnerSpiral for ages.. we have chatted via email for quite some time, it was lovely to meet face to face.  I had a visit with Paul and Mandy at ClassicCarder :)  they are always good fun.

I also met the lady responsible for all of my woolly madness.. Debbie at MulberryDyer, and would you believe I forgot to take a photo!  It was about 11 or 12 years ago that I went to Debbie to learn to spin on a drop spindle.. this was part of my educational museum work.  I spent a wonderful day with Debbie and her partner John, up to my eyes in fleeces and fibres.. and completely fell in love with it.  Felting was of course mentioned and when I got home I started to research and dabble.. you know where it went from there! :)

One of the MAIN reasons for attending Wonderwool this year was to meet my wonderful darling friend HEATHER.. who was coming to stay for a few days!  I was SO excited to finally meet this lovely lady, we have been internet friends for years.  Heather was with Pearl.. a UK felter whom I did not know before.. who is quite lovely and instantly became a friend :)  

I had been worrying about finding Heather.. we'd both agreed to wear our brightly coloured felt coats so we stood out :)  Turned out I needn't of worried.  Driving to the show took almost 2.5 hours from our house, about half an hour before we arrived I noticed I had had a car driving behind me for a while.. it was raining hard, roads were twisty and driving conditions not at all pleasant, so I was going a little under the speed limit. Passing through a village we picked up a couple more cars behind so I decided to pull in and let everyone pass me by.  I was rather surprised when the car behind also pulled in, I thought this most odd and drove off as soon as the other cars had passed.  Well this car kept on going the same way we were.  There were 2 possibilities.. Heather was in the car behind, or it was an unmarked police car.. even though I knew I hadn't done anything other than travel at 50 rather than 60mph in heavy rain,  I was really hoping it was Heather. When we stopped at the turn in for the Royal Welsh Showground my mind was put at rest, looking in my rearview I saw big happy faces and waving hands ... Heather and Pearl :) we met before we'd even got there lol.  

I don't have a photo of the girls at the show, which is a real shame.. This was taken on Monday morning just as we were getting ready for our first play day

My lovely treasures brought back from Wonderwool.. including Heather :)

Fibre of the Month April - ALPACA Project

I'm rather late posting this.. my April project has sneaked into May!  Tell you why soon..

I decided to keep my alpaca projects reasonably simple.. since I'm using raw fleece that I have to sort and card I just didn't have the time for preparing enough for a bag or slippers or whatever.  I have felted a seamless hat in the past and will put a photo at the bottom of this post.. but I don't have shrinkage details. 

ANYway, I decided to make a couple of flat pieces that can be used as table runners.

Both have a design inspired by Nordic petroglyphs.  The first one is white leg and neck fibre, coarser than the saddle area.

Design 'drawn' in red merino fibre directly onto the bubble wrap
- using the back/non-bubble side up.  I  only added the main elements at this point.

Brushing tufts of fibre.. but end first then tips

Laying tufts out.. this will be the right side.  Placed tufts all around the outside
then filled in the centre

And I forgot to take a picture of the next bit :S  I laid 2 perpendicular, very fine layers of carded fibre over the tufts.  I peeled layers off the batts and placed them 'as is'.   From the couple of alpaca projects I have done in the past I found that it was very difficult to heal a cut edge, so decided to make make a feature of natural edges.  I left a border of tuffs extending past the batt layers to form a fringe. 

Part way through felting, when it was holding together really well, I needle felted the rest of the design on.

Fully felted.  I LOVE the ragged edges.

The top layer which was placed as tufts is really textural and interesting.. it looks like lots of wiggly locks felted together.  The longboats are quite wiggly too.. I straightening them up a little with a felting needle as I went along. 

The elements that I needlefelted on stayed in place fairly well.. wherever the wiggly locks tried to distort them I just used a felting needle to tidy them up.

Holding it up to the light shows the texture off well..
you could make amazing lanterns with this!  It glows!

************************************************

For comparison to sampling data:

Layout size:  63" x 18"

Finished size: 45.5" x 16"

Shrinkage: 27.5% x 11%

Weight: 200g

************************************************

I wanted the second piece to be closer to the thickness of the sample piece..  

I used saddle fibre in white and toffee brown, carded into batts.

I broke the batts along their length and pulled tufts as I would with tops/roving.
After laying down the first layer I added locks with their butt ends brushed all around the outside.. sandwiching the butts in between the first and second layers.. I used three layers.

After wetting down I 'drew' on the boats

It's worth mentioning that I find with alpaca it's best not to spend much time rubbing. Rubbing as much as I would with wool seams to make the finished alpaca felts surface hairy - which is a pain if there's a design on there.  I rub it just enough to make sure it is thoroughly wet, then roll it up, tie it, and start rolling.  

Again once the felt was holding together well I needle felted in the rest of the design.. then finished felting.

Finished.
The design didn't try to wander quite so much as with the first.
I like the wiggly boats :)

The smaller longboat and moon detail are a little indistinct against the brown.. if I was doing it again I'd put a layer of white over the top of the brown first so it showed up more, 

Held up to the light you can see the difference in texture..
this is much more even and thicker.

*************************************************

For comparison to sampling data:

Layout size: 29" x 20"

Finished size: 22" x 15"

Shrinkage: 24% x 25%

Weight: 130g

*************************************************

Last summers seamless alpaca hat!
Using creamy white and oatmeal tops/roving

I love old buttons :)

I find alpaca felts quickly and evenly, into a firm felt which is soft to touch. I'll definitely be using more of it in the future.  I just wish it didn't take me so long to prepare!  Maybe I'll get faster with practice.  Using tops/roving would be more fun.. no prep and no major clean-up operation afterwards (which I always do when using raw fibre).

Fibre of the Month for April - ALPACA

This month I am looking at Alpaca fibre.

Lovely alpacas :)

There are a couple of different types of alpaca; suri and huacaya, suri have long silky hair while huacaya is shorter and crimpier so more similar to wool than suri.  I have used huacaya from my sister-in-laws pet herd.

Alpacas are gentle, friendly animals and I know my sister-in-law says her 15 are very easy to care for.  I have heard stories of alpacas 'guarding' chickens from foxes too.. they have a strong herd instinct and other animals that live with them become part of the herd and therefore get looked after :)

Alpaca are camelids, closely related to camels and llamas.  They originate in The Andes, South America.  Their fleece was widely used by the ancient Incas.. archaeologists often find grave goods made from alpaca fibre.  There are 22 recognised fleece colours.  The fleeces don't have lanolin in so they don't feel greasy when raw.. they do tend to be very dusty though.

According to the British Alpaca Society an average alpaca will produce 2.4 kg of fibre per year, sometimes more.  The fibre can be very fine, as low as 15-16 microns.  The finest fibre an animal will produce is in it's first year, as they get older the coat gets coarser.  There are less scales on each individual fibre than wool has, this is what gives its' lustrous appearance.  The fibre is also filled with microscopic air pockets, which not only make it lighter weight but also increase its' thermal properties..  alpaca fibre is warmer, and apparently stronger, than wool!


Sampling:
For this sample I have used raw white alpaca fibre.. I didn't realise it at the time but it was the coarser fibre from the legs and neck.

Laid out to the same size as previous samples (20cm x 20cm) with 3 layers of fibre, and thoroughly felted to achieve maximum shrinkage.

Observations:
Amazingly, considering that there are less scales on the fibres, it felted really quickly!  The three densley packed layers produced a thick, strong felt.. which feels hard, but soft at the same time..  The density of the felt is hard, but the surface is soft to touch.

Findings:
Finished sample size: 15cm x 16cm
Weight: 16.2g
Shrinkage: 25% x 20%

Next time: ALPACA project
xx

More Spring Inspired..

I've been felting quite a few tea cosies again recently :)  Here's a few pics

My latest (and current favourite :)
There are so many beautiful blackbirds strutting their stuff at the moment.. I just had to make one

The wings were embroidered then sewn on..
the tail is also embroidered to keep it nice and flat

A chicken with a rather showy, longer tail :)

I made some embroidered wildflower meadow trivets to compliment my
critter cosies.. you can't beat having felt beneath the pot too, really helps keep the heat in.

A March Hare - good for taller, slimmer pots :)

His ears were felted separately and sewn on after..

Lambs..

More lambs and chickens :)
Both of these chooks are in Australia now

And an owl :)

This morning I'm finishing off yet another lamb cosy :)  This one will have wildflowers embroidered around the base and is destined to be an Easter gift..  

I didn't really realise how many cosies I was making until I looked back over the last couple months for this post..  

Have a wonderful weekend.. and for those of you with little ones breaking up for the Easter holidays today - hope you have fun :)  My not so little one (15) breaks up today for 2 weeks.

xx

Granny Squares Update

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was making myself a granny square tunic.. and promised to let you know how it went.

Well, I have to report a dismal failure.. after sewing it up I tried it on .. only to look like a little girl playing dress-up!  I think my mistake was using too big a hook.. the squares stretched way too much when I put it on.  I would probably of been ok if I’d used a 6mm hook, but I had used a 9mm L

So I took it apart and turned it into a throw / blanket instead.. I decided to have a rectangle of squares in the middle with a 3” crochet border all around, surrounded by more granny squares and another crochet border on the outside.  I needed to make extra squares to make it big enough to be useful.. and because of the inner border I had to crochet some rectangular pieces to fill in gaps.. but I actually love the contrast in between the pretty squares. 

Because it is quite big, about 5’ x 6’, it was quite hard to photograph..

I like the borders.. 

And the plain crochet rectangles that fill the gaps

Though it wasn't what I'd planned to make, I rather like my new blanket and with the weather warming up don't mind not having a big snuggly jumper - this will be nice wrapped round shoulders, sitting outside on summer evenings :)