Winner of my 1st Blog Give-Away

Very high tech method of determining the winner....  :)

Please email me at feltingsunsine at gmail.com with your snail mail address and I will get your goodies out to you!

Thanks for all who commented on my shop.  I think I like this giveaway stuff so keep an eye out for more in the near future! 

Finished 1/2

Well I filled and then plyed 2 bobbins of the alpaca.  I just cannot get over how soft the fiber is.....I did notice after plying that I probably should have spun the singles a little tighter because they loosened quite a bit when I plyed the two together.  But I am still very happy.  First because my singles were thin enough to be plyed and actually look like yarn and not rope, and second because I took this fiber through almost the entire process- except the shearing part.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the yarn once I finish the other half. I'm sure I will figure something out.

A month of 1st's!!!!----Giveaway!!!

My 1st's this month:

• My 1st Etsy Sale
• My 1st Blog Giveaway
• My 1st born graduating from H.S.

I wanted to have a giveaway and so here it is. Baby batts made with merino, falkland, silk, and firestar.  This baby batt can be spun, wet felted, and even used for needle felting.  I am giving two baby batts(1.5 ounces total) to the winner-plus some other goodies that are fiber related. :)

How can you win?

• Comment under this post about your favorite item in my new shop, or if you don't like anything, suggest a color combo- 1 entry
• Facebook "Like" Felting Sunshine- 1 entry
• Mention this giveaway on your own blog with a link back to this post.

Each person can earn up to three entries into the giveaway.  I will ship anywhere that mail can travel.
The winner will be announced next Monday on May 30th.



Dyeing and Spinning Alpaca

Today was another dye day, along with the dreaded grocery shopping, and a trip to my favorite store The Loft at the mall to pick up some really cute outfits for this awesome warm (read hot as heck) weather we have been having.  I'm really not complaining, we have been very lucky- knock on wood- to have really low humidity so far.  Once that starts, we will probably never get out of the pool.

But anywho, this is not a post to yak about the weather.  Today I FINALLY dyed up some of the alpaca that I have been processing.  After I cleaned it, I ran batts on my drum carder and then used a diz to pull off roving.  I ended up dyeing the batch using a super diluted red, pink and yellow.  I love how they merged together to create what I like to call a watercolor effect.  I pre drafted a small amount and spun it up.  OH MY GOODNESS- it spins like a DREAM!  Alpaca is awesome!!!  :) 

Well I am off to make a brownie chocolate sundae...YUM! See ya tomorrow for the details of the BATT GIVEAWAY!  :)

Oh how I missed you!

I'm still here, reading every single day.  I have been doing fiber related stuff, gearing up for my free time this summer.  I have been dyeing and making batts like a mad woman. I am contributing to the Phat Fiber box for June and July, so I have been trying to make my sample batts- June is done and the dyeing has been focused on my July batts.  I even made my 1st Etsy sale!  So in honor of that, I will be having a batt giveaway! I'm so stoked.....my very first giveaway! Can I hear a wooohooo??!! :) I will post about it on Monday, so stay tuned. 

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you are enjoying yours!

Flowers from my girls....  :)

Oh what could it be?????

Hmmmm...what could make me a happy gal?  I'll give you a hint....it has something to do with this orange container.

Let's just say it has something to do with the fact that I will have an entire summer to create.

And that I have the worlds most supportive husband.  Hands down- the best!  Not one complaint from him about my purchase.

It almost felt like Christmas did when I was a kid when I opened the box.

Oh heck..I'm terrible with building suspense...I will leave that to Heather-she is a pro she always leaves me hanging with her 2 part posts!

So.............here it is......

30 lbs, of the softest, fluffiest, wool......oh my goodness! 

I think I have enough to last me a lifetime...lol

I plan on starting this weekend....I am setting up the garage as soon as I am done posting and I am going to have myself a wool dyeing "fiesta"........  And the first color on my list is ORANGE!!!!

All finished!

I came home today and started sewing on the pin backs for the Mother's Day pins that my class made.  They turned out really cute.  I know they will be happy to pin them onto the handmade paper we made and wrap them up for their moms!  I am looking forward to doing this again with a future class.  Here is a picture of the completed pins.  Next time I will take the time to teach them to sew the backs on.......lol

My two loves merge...

Some of you may know that I am a teacher.  I have taught 2nd-5th grade.  This year I have been teaching 2nd grade, and I love it!  They are like little sponges that soak up learning. So,  I decided to teach my students how to make felt.

They decided that they wanted to make a felt bloom for their moms for Mother's Day.  So I made some mixed batts in pinks and yellows, gathered enough bubble wrap, tulle, and string, and lugged it into school.

I decided to work with small groups, I think it would have been chaos doing it with my entire class all at once...lol

They did a fabulous job and I was impressed with the nice fulled pieces they ended up with.....they loved all of the rolling.  As they worked, they would laugh at the bubbles that came out of the ends of their "felt burritos".  When they rolled they chatted with each other and it was nice as a teacher to be able to step back a bit from the academics and see my kiddos as learners in a different light! 

The pictures are pretty bad, all I had was my phone...Still, what a fun time we had!  Now I get to sew them to pin backs and we get to wrap them on Friday......I hope all the mommies are happy with their truly handmade gifts from their kiddos!

Batt to Yarn

In the spirit of using what I already have, I decided to try out some color combinations. Lot's of sparkle in this batt, I really need to figure out how to take pictures that show the sparkle. I pulled off about 1.5 oz. using my new diz. It made it really quick to spin up since it was almost completely pre drafted. I pulled the rest of the batt off whole. I will pull the predraft off in strips since I carded it pretty even in color across the carder. The darker blue merino really changed the look of this batt. The lighter pink is all alpaca. I am very happy with how soft this batt turned out, and am so far happy with the yarn (it's going to be added to my crazy scarf somewhere along the line).