Crochet 101 Class

When I was younger, I could crochet a never ending chain.  It really never evolved to much more than that.  Over the years, I would try to go back to crochet but would frustrate myself to no end trying to read written instructions with tiny pictures.  I then became the master of single crochet by trial and error. I even taught myself to knit, but I still had problems learning other crochet stitches.   So finally after all of these years, I took a class!  I actually "get it" now!  Seeing it and having someone there who I could turn to if I had a question was wonderful.  By no means will I be crocheting an afghan anytime soon, but I am happy to be able to check that off my bucket list! :)

The picture is of a soap pocket I made  during class using cotton yarn.

My results...

Hopefully when I come back from vacation, I will be able to work on the projects I have planned for all of this fiber!!!  I purposefully left it with a tie dye look.  I cannot wait to see how the silk hankies and caps work with my ideas-the colors are really soft and I was happy with how well the dye set when I was rinsing...the water was almost completely clear.

Summer in my yard.....and dyeing fibers

Starting in the Spring, I have been taking pictures of the flowers and trees blooming in my yard.  I am always amazed how the permanent structures like the pond/waterfall change each year.  I wanted to share this collage of my ever changing garden. 
On the felting front, I have spent my morning dyeing wool, silk caps, silk hankies, and firestar.  I wanted to complete dye sets with all of these materials so that some projects I have planned will have the same color tones.  I even completed a set of tea stained wool, silk gauze, linen, and tussah silk.  It's all drying now....pictures to come once it's all dry!

Felted Flower Tutorial

Choose your wool.

Layout the inside color of the flower.

Layout in circle pattern.

Continue until you feel the layers are even.  Don't go too thick or your flower will not be as flexible for shaping.

Choose a length of wool for your stem. Mine was about 14 inches long.

Place stem onto back of flower.

I use tulle to cover my wool before wetting it.  I kept the stem away from the flower, only the end was on the flower.

Wetting the wool.  I used hot water with a bit of hand soap.

Wrap stem separately from the flower before rolling.

Roll, roll, roll.....

Rinse soap, and roll in your hands.  Open the flower, close the flower and continue to roll.  Continue this until the flower fibers stiffen.  Also roll the stem during this time.

Sometimes I need to trim the top of my flower to help shape it.  After I cut, I will repeat the previous step.

Finally shape flower and let dry.
For the center, I needle felt a ball, that I then needle felt into the center of my flower when it is dry.








Another variation to this project is to wet felt floral wire inside the stem.  It works well to allow the flower to stand up in a vase.  Hope this tutorial helps! :)

Finished garland

Finally done.  What a fun project!  I can see making these for all kinds of occasions!

Crafting ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) :)

I admit it, I do have crafting ADD.  I find myself with tons of extra time to get myself into lots of crafting trouble.  I do love my summers! 

 I recently took a trip to Atlanta and went shopping in many of the fabulous vintage/antique stores.  I found the most adorable Yo-Yo quilt.  Of couse I bought it, and then thought to myself (dangerous territory here..I know) I could make these!  So off on my quest to become a Yo-Yo maker.  I am dreaming of Yo-Yo garlands, so I am now making myself one. 

I have also been working on embroidering the notebook cover that I mentioned in my previous post.  I am learning the stitching as I go along-I need lots of practice, but it is fun! 

On another note, my daughter who is learning how to needle felt made an adorable little pig- she is now making another for me because I fell in love with her first one!

So these are a few of the things I have been working on....crafting ADD....I love it!

My hubby is 40!

I wanted to share the yummy looking Pineapple Upsidedown Cake I made my hubby for his birthday.  It's cooling now, and I think I may have to persuade him to eat dessert first tonight!

On the felting front, I am trying to make a notebook cover.  This is my inspiration here. 

Off to roll, roll, roll ........  :)

Flowers Continued

Just got back from a long weekend in Georgia.  Had a wonderful time with a dear friend who flew in from Germany.  I gave her my felted flowers from my previous post.  I was nervous- I always worry when I give a gift....even more so when it is a homemade gift.  I adore homemade gifts because I can appreciate the time put into it-but not all people do.  Luckily the flowers were well received. :)  So when I came home, I spent the afternoon felting new flowers. With the intense sun, they are drying super fast.   I am having fun mixing colors and adding beads to the middle section. 

Flowers

Today I made my first set of wet felted flowers.  I had fun playing....

Shibori felting..

I have been wanting to try various wet felting techniques.  After some reading, I tried my hand at what I have read is called shibori felting.  I had a stash of wool that I was not too crazy about, so I figured if I messed it up, I would not be too heart broken ( strange I know to be heart broken about wool, but I seem to fall in deep like with some of my purchases..lol)  So here is my attempt. Interesting result....a mutated butterfly maybe. I have some new ideas floating around in my head now that I see how easy it was to manipulate the wool.  Off to play some more....

Some of my favorite things...

The past 5 days have been filled with shopping in my favorite antique/vintage stores.  I have added to my many collections.  I love finding that perfect item that has been used lovingly over the years to add to my home. I took some pictures and created a collage of some of my favorite collections.

Inspiration

I was inspired by Suzanne's post, at Hooked On Felt, about her pod hanging in her garden.  I could not make up my mind on the colors, so I used my bag of wool scraps.  It's a pretty large bag and I think I got a little carried away with the size of my pod.  Mind you, I had no idea how to make one of these, but I figured all I could do was try......I used a ton of old plastic shopping bags for the resist.  I balled them into the shape I wanted and then taped them into a solid using packing tape.  I love how it brings a colorful spot to an otherwise shady spot in the garden.  It felt good recycling pieces of wool that are bits and pieces from projects that I have made while learning about this thing called felting.......

Well I think I just may have worked out the need to make these wallet sized pockets.  I have one more drying and then I think I will need to try something else. :)  I do love all of them!  Every single one of them has taught me something about working with wool.  The cream one with the neps was the worst to make.  I really tried to get them to incorporate into the wool better than they did.  My daughter made me the button on it so I will always cherish it!  I have some more wool on the way, and am excited to get it and have new colors to play with!

Vacation time!

School is out!  Yipppeee!!  I think I am worse than a child....but oh how I love my summers.  I save all year so I can afford to have my summers off.  I love spending this time with my kiddos AND recharging my energy for the next school year.  I have a million and one projects planned :)  I'm sure I'll finish a few of them.  I am itching to get started.  Off to order more wool..ha, like I need it!

Busy time of year...

Wow, it's already June!  Six more days of school for me-it's such a crazy time of year.  I have been felting, just not posting much. I have been making wet felted pockets. These are made from romney, corridale,some silk, and  neps. I love the size because they are so versatile.  They fit I phones, IPODs, cell phones, and are the perfect size for many other items that end up at the bottom of my purse.  I still am deciding the color of button for the middle pocket....might pick a mother of pearl one......The other pictures are from my water lilies and one from a rain lily that resides next to my pond.  The warm water is allowing my water lilies to bloom like crazy!

Naughty dog...

I came home today to find various felt projects deposited around the house.  It seems that Morgan has her own ideas on what should be done with them.  This was a prefelt hollow ball that I was going to use for a project.  Needless to say, it probably won't make it..lol  :)  I guess I need to make sure I put everything away and out of reach of my newest felt lover!

May already!

Time is flying by!  I have about a month left of teaching before the summer break.  I'm gonna miss these kids a ton...they are wonderful!
I was busy working in the yard this past weekend but was able to finish up some projects and slip a new one in.  I am still having so much fun learning to felt.  Here are a few things I was working on:

Panel of spring flowers

Laying out the fibers.

Not sure what to do with this...playing with a variety of wool types to see how they felt.

So proud

My oldest daughter (17yo) is a very artistic gal!  She has an eye for scale.  She wanted to try needle felting after I checked out a book called Little Felted Animals, from the library.  I pointed to my wool stash, gave her some needles, and a foam block and told her to have fun.  She made me this adorable frog.  I love being able to share a hobby with her!

Break is at an end....

I bought some fabric, I felted panels, and I found some wonderful mother of pearl buttons while antique shopping this past week.  I wish I had another week!  But alas....back to work for me tomorrow.  I will look forward to next weekend to put together my next project.  Now I am off to plan lessons for my 5th graders!

More fun...

I have been enjoying my spring break.  I have had the freedom to create whenever the mood strikes me.  This process of learning how to felt has taught me small lessons along the way.  I have enjoyed the process!  Here is another bag.  This one I wet felted the handles onto the body of the felt.  I also tried building up higher layers to create ridged areas on the body of the bag and let the top edges take whatever shape they wanted..  I love the result!

This next project was creating a hollow ball.  I used saran wrap as a resist on the inside.  Hot pink on the outside and purple on the inside.

Peaches and Cream

Here is the other super light and soft scarf I made.  A few weeks ago I dyed Merino wool and Tussah silk.  This is some of the wool and silk from that day.  I made this scarf wider and fringed the ends with undyed Tussah silk.  I love the wavy texture that resulted!  I woke up this morning energized to create more, so I have dyed up some more wool and have it drying in the sun-soaking up the wonderful Florida sun!  I love Spring!