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).

Here a fiber there a fiber...everywhere a fiber, fiber.....

Oh my!  Today I started culling through my stash of fibers.  This is the part that is organized so far. We won't talk about the bins in the garage..... ;)  Let's just say, I should probably focus more on creating and less on buying.....
I'm not quite sure how to explain my new collection to Mr. Sunshine......:)

I'm sure there are others out there that have the same problem...right???......

Maybe a 12 step program is in order.....

Have a wonderful weekend!

I dipped my toe in....

Well I am going to try it.  Etsy that is....but only for batts.  Since I love making them, and well if they don't sell, I'm sure I will use them somehow.  I'm still not sure about the whole shipping deal so, I mirrored one of my favorite shops.  We will see how it works out.

Anywho...I have been on Spring Break this week.  Basically I have been hanging out with my hubby (who took some time off) and my girls.  We went to a wedding on the beach on Wednesday.  Sometimes I REALLY love living here in Florida...it was gorgeous.....both the wedding and the weather!  We are gearing up for a busy month. My oldest graduates from high school!!!  I am so proud of her and some days it just takes my breath away when I see her for the beautiful and smart woman she is becoming.  i love being a mom! :)  Have a great day!

I finally did it!

Woohoo, I figured out how to knit.  Okay, I can do a knit and purl stitch......but hey it's something!  I am doing "continental style" knitting vs. "english style".  I tried both styles but found that the continental was most comfortable for me.  For some reason it finally clicked for me. 
I know what I will spend my day practicing.

I also made a journal cover.  I included sari silk and silk caps into the cover, but it didn't show up as much as I had hoped it would-the texture is awesome.

Hi I'm Kelly and I spin rope......:)

I am not going to give up!  Yesterday I went to a guild meeting and picked all of the wonderful spinners heads.  These ladies are spinning beautiful yarn!  We had a demonstration on Navajo Plying, it was really neat watching it!  All I do know is that if I decided to Navajo ply any of the "yarn" that I have made so far, it would then become rope.........I did get some questions answered about the settings for my wheel and now understand that I have had the brake set incorrectly, which has caused me to continue to over spin.  I also learned that I need to pre draft even more than I had been.  So today I am going to sit down and try to put into practice what I learned yesterday.  I did promise to bring my wheel to the next meeting ( so that alone will force me to practice so I don't embarrass myself)!  I also met a wonderful spinner and knitter who lives about 15 minutes from me!  She has offered to help me!  So all in all, yesterday was an awesome day for meeting new friends, and learning new things.
Also, Kimberly, of Woodland Hills Alpacas, sent me home with the prettiest rose gray alpaca fleece.  It is amazing and I cannot wait to clean it up and make something!  The Alpacas looked so silly with their pom-pom heads after their shearing and the stories about how they didn't recognize each other were so funny!

Here is a new bag I made yesterday, using these curly cotswold locks!  I'm trying to use all of this blue that I dyed up.....

My week...

Every single day after work, no matter how worn out I was, I made myself work on something creative....it actually made me forget how tired I was!

I started another embroidery class with artist Susan Sorrell, called Dippity Do.  Each week we have a new part to work on for our Dippity Do characters.  This week has been sewing down the applique pieces.  Next week we will be moving into the decorative stitching.  I love her online classes! 

Another project I am working on includes using my hand spun yarn.  Since I am still in the beginning stages of learning, I have decided to take all of the practice skeins and create a project with them together......I am sure it will be very strange looking with all of the crazy color combinations, but I'm okay with that! ;)

The final project I worked on was a wet felted bird.  I saw a cartoon bird on a business card and remember seeing on a web site a similar bird, so I drew it out and put the drawing away.  As I was cleaning my junk table desk, I found the drawing again and decided to wet felt the body.  It is filled with dried beans.  My dog Morgan, who seems to REALLY love my felted pieces has relocated this poor bird a few times.  I ended up putting it up on a shelf that she cannot reach!  Crazy dog!!  Today I head off to my 2nd guild meeting.  I am excited to see the Alpaca that were sheared, they did it on Thursday, so I am sure they look quite different from my visit last month! 

I hope all of you have a fabulous weekend!!

My favorite kind of washing!

Today started early for me.  I'm an earlybird and love the quiet time I have in the morning while the rest of the family is sleeping- I seem to get tons done and don't feel too guilty for taking some me time.
 I decided to start washing some of the Alpaca fleece that I purchased when I went to the last Fiber Arts meeting.  I have sorted most of it and decided I want to try spinning some.....it still needed to be washed, so that's what I spent my morning doing.  When Alpaca is dry it has virtually no smell, but peeeewww, it had a VERY different smell when it was wet.  Now that it's dry, the smell has gone away, but it was kinda stinky! :)

I have about the same amount left to wash as I did wash today....but I think I have enough cleaned to get started.  Now to decide if I am going to mix it with some Merino or just spin it on its own.  Any suggestions out there?  I've decided not to dye this batch....maybe the next batch.

My what big ears you have.......

Ralph our Chinchilla.

My Heather Wanna Be Bag :)

I decided to take a stab at a larger bag.  Similar to the bag that Heather made me, but squared off. I now have a bag perfect for my weekly trips to the library-- since the bag Heather made me is already in use!  I dyed up this wool (BFL) on Saturday, and really wanted to try something with it.   Thanks Heather for the fabulous inspiration.

Blue Spin

Here is what I have started.

I think it's my most consistent yet........

My talented daughter!

I was so happy when my 18 year old daughter showed an interest in needle felting.  She is my go to gal anytime I need a creative drawing or painting done and has always had the "eye" for scale and proportion.  Lucky for me she has started needle felting me a "flock" of my own sheep.  :)  I was at the local plant nursery this weekend and found some moss that reminded me of grass.  I have it potted and sitting on my desk until I decide what in the world I want to do with it.  I had a little photo shoot with the needle felted sheep she has made me so far.....I think this is as close to owning a sheep I will ever come.

Start to finish.......

I only had a chance to play with the green.  I used a bit of everything I dyed on Friday in the batts.  I then made roving out of the batts and spun them up.  I plied the yarn onto itself.

Spring colors everywhere.....

I started dyeing wool (merino, BFL, and polwarth) tencel, firestar and some alpaca yesterday when I came home from work.  It has now finished drying in the awesome Florida sun.  The colors remind me of Easter egg dyeing.  I want to make some fluffy spring batts and now I have some pretty spring colors to add to them.  Also last weekend I ended up buying approx. 3 lbs. of Alpaca fleece at a wonderful local farm.  I am almost finished picking it, and am going to spin it up.  I bought gray, white, a deep chocolate brown, and a wonderful carmel brown color.  I REALLY like the softness of this new to me fiber.  I was given a few predrafts of it last weekend to try spinning, I loved working with it and need to get the rest done so I can finish filling the spool.  Thanks for reading!
Kelly

A wonderful Gift!

On Saturday I had the best mail day!  My special blog friend Heather, sent me a wonderful felted bag.  I am in love with this bag!  It is made with my favorite colors and is completely functional! 
It will always be known as the "Heather Bag!"  Thank you Heather!

Having fun

Yesterday was filled my my 3 favorite things!
1. Shopping- my youngest will be 15 at the end of the month, so we needed to do some shopping for her. ( I cannot believe my BABY is going to be 15!!!
2. Spinning- I have really been working on drafting consistently....it's getting there.....
3. Felting- I cannot show this because it's a surprise for a special blogging friend.....

All in all I had a FUN and productive day.  Later this afternoon I get to head off to the fiber guild meeting.  Have a fabulous Saturday!

Fiber fun coming soon.....

I have a 4 day weekend coming up and I have lot's of fiber fun planned! Saturday I am going to an Alpaca farm that is hosting a fiber group meeting. This is the first group I have heard about here in my area, so I am excited about meeting other folks who are as crazy about fiber as I am! The rest of the time is going to be spent felting some special projects. I had a chance to spin a bit after work in between running my kids from place to place. Thanks so much for all of the positive comments on my first spinning attempts. I am enjoying it and I am sure if I keep practicing, I will get better! :)

still practicing....

The blue and white one is all merino, and the orange one is a merino and silk blend.  I really liked spinning the wool/silk blend.  I am doing small batches until I get more consistent with my drafting.

Lazy Day....

Here's what I have been doing.....

What I have been up to....

About a month ago I was able to watch a lady spin on a spinning wheel.  It was almost hypnotic watching, and seemed to be such a calming activity that I was really wanting to learn how to do it myself.  I was too shy to ask her if I could try.  I finally decided that I wanted to learn how but was not sure about driving over an hour each way to take lessons.  So I did what I always do....I jumped in with two feet and decided I would teach myself.  Ha!  Needless to say I think I might finally have figured it out.....sortof.  I will say that once I got beyond trying to figure out tension settings and found a rhythm, it was very relaxing and I was so thrilled with my first spin and ply that I cannot wait to try again!
Now for those of you who have mastered this...please don't laugh...lol :)  oh heck who cares...laugh, I'm so stinkin' excited with it no matter how fluffy and over spun/underspun it is! :)  I feel like a little kid who made a picture that they are so proud of!!!

dot to dot

I finally had a chance to do something with some of the royal blue wool that I dyed a few weeks ago...you know...the one that made my hands look sort of "smurf like".....  I cut out circles of prefelt using a scrapbook diecut machine that I have from my stamping and scrapbook days-what an awesome time saver-the felt cut like butter, and I have tons of dies in tons of shapes to play with.

They sort of look like eggs after felting...but hey I'm going with it.  I do see that if I use such a dark bottom layer, that my prefelt pieces might need to be a bit thicker..the blue did seem to migrate more than I anticipated.  I now have approx. a 16 x 16 inch square that I can sew into something fun!

I'm here

It has been a few crazy weeks with work since I posted last.  I have started making batts with the wool that I dyed in the previous post.  The first batt I made was made from my leftover pieces of wool.  It's a hodge podge mix of different types of wool that I ended up tossing into the emerald green dye pot.  The colors that resulted are exactly what I envisioned!  This batt is approx. 3 oz.  I will be working on the rest of the green today, and then need to finish cutting some prefelts for a "spring" project I am working on.  More later...thanks for reading!

I feel like a Smurf!

I just finished dyeing a few pounds of wool.  While I was immersing the wool into the royal blue dye, I accidentally pushed the edge of my glove into the dye and yes, as you have probably guessed, I filled my glove up with blue dye!  But the results were worth it-the colors are yummy!  I also dyed some green tonight- about 1 lb.  I had a bag of scraps and bits of roving that I had been using for flowers and small objects.  I decided to throw the whole lot ( approx. 6 oz.) into the green dye too.  I love the result of the variegated greens I ended up with.  Even the hot pink over dyed into a pretty mossy green!  I needed a variety of greens for a panel I am working on and this gave me a huge variety of shades to work with......not too bad for scraps! Too late to dry tonight so I will post those pictures tomorrow.

T-Shirt Rug

I started cutting old t-shirts yesterday to make yarn for this project.  It was a fun and quick project but I don't recommend using t-shirts with any hint of lycra- they make it a little more difficult to keep the tension correct.  Now I am going to try to finish up some pre-felts I need for a special project I'm planning- have a wonderful afternoon!

Last one I promise! :)

Oh my goodness they are so cute.  Now we have 5, they are about the size of a ping pong ball.  The bounce around like ping pong balls too!  I love them when they are little babies.  Last night when there was only 1 my DD decided he looked lonely so she needle felted him a friend.  He actually slept huddled up with the "wool quail"!  Too adorable.

The babies are on their way....

This has nothing to do with felting...but does show what has gotten me off track from my good intentions to felt today.  Every year I incubate quails with my students.  Well one of the babies couldn't wait for tomorrow, so it decided to show up today. It does not matter how many times I see these little guys being hatched, I am mesmerized each and every time! This video shows the baby after I removed him from the incubator and put him in the brooder box. His peeping makes my DH's Blue Crowned Conure scream...you might hear him in the background.....

Slippers.....

I felted these around a flat resist.  I had a hard time trying to make the seams not too bulky.  The first pair I tried had thin areas at the seams.  I have some leather that I am going to add to the toe and heel sections on the bottom so they are not so slippy on the floor.  For a first "Officially Wearable" pair. I am so-so happy with the result.  Now to go work on some smaller felted projects that involve wood, embroidery, and felt......

doin' the happy dance..

So today I drove to my favorite twice a year antique fair in Mt. Dora, Florida.  I was as always finding treasure after treasure.  We were on our way to our car when I caught something out of the corner of my eye.  Sitting half hidden on an old bench was a HUGE rug...but not just any old rug....it looked like it had been wet felted and then embroidered.  I checked it over and saw only a few small areas where some of the embroidery on the border had come apart, but the rug as a whole was VERY clean and in great shape.  It didn't have a price and I almost walked away thinking it would probably be WAY out of my price range.  I patiently waited for the man who owned the rug to finish with another customer and I asked him what the price was.......and here comes the best part....the part that made me almost sing.......it was only $20.00!!!  Yeah me!!  I love a deal!

Be Mine?

I have been super busy since I have been back to work...not much time for felting, but I have been creating.  I joined a valentine swap and have been playing around trying to figure out how to make a postcard with fabric.  These are 3 that I have played around with...I only need 1 for the swap now to figure out which one to send....

This weekend I plan on rolling out some prefelts for a project that I want to try.  I also want to try another vase resist project.  I still have not mastered that, so that is on the agenda.  Tomorrow I get to go to my favorite antique town here in Florida and spend the day shopping...I am so looking forward to it!

Happy New Year

I enjoyed my New Year celebration with neighbors and then snuck back home with my kids and we made chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate mousse topping as the new year ticked in.  PERFECT way to start 2011! :)

My only resolutions this year will be focusing on what I can do instead of what I can't do....
1.  Learn something new everyday.
2.  Look for the positive in my daily life.
 That's it! :)

Day 1-
Learned: I learned how to make a wool sweater wreath!
Positive: A chocolate cupcake in the morning is a great thing! ;)

Have a wonderful day!!

Organizing and Brrrrrrrr.....

I have not been felting, but have been organizing ALL of my crafting supplies. Stamping, sewing, felting, knitting, crochet, embroidery, stained glass, lampworking, and general crafting....I used to seperate all of the items by what craft they went with....but now I have organized by like items and it is soooooo much easier to find things. We have had some chilly nights here in sunny Florida. It actually says 27 degrees F, on my thermometer right now! The kids would love to see snow, but the most I can give them is some frost.....Hope everyone is staying warm,,,,,,,

Merry Christmas!

I cannot believe how quickly this Christmas Eve has approached!
I wanted to say Merry Christmas to all of you and to thank you for all of the kind words that you have shared with me this year.

My husband, I and our 2 daughters exchanged our "homemade" gifts with each other today and it was wonderful!  My family showed me much love in the gifts they handmade for me and each other!  Both of the girls were so proud of themselves as we were of them also and declared they wanted to continue this new tradition.  I will post later with pictures.  We are off to celebrate with my sister, her husband, and my parents! 

I'm not good at being sick....

Well ...school ended on Friday and it looks like my 2nd graders left me with more than Christmas wishes....I think I have the flu...uuuggghhh!  Achy, stuffy, drippy, grumpy, yep those all are great descriptors of me right now.  Since I can't run around and get things done, I decided I would use my down time wisely....crochet in bed...lol  I am currently on my 3rd scarf in 2 days.  So whether they (my family) wanted a scarf or not, they are getting one.  My hubby has been taking great care of me :)  Off to drink another gallon of OJ and hope that the vitamin C does its thing.

Glittery scarf

Another present complete.  Here in Florida we don't get long cold spells.  But when it does get cold, it's nice to have one of these cobweb scarfs handy.  This one is for my mom.  I hope she likes it.....merino, silk caps dyed a peachy orange, and some peach dyed angelina fibers for some extra sparkle.  Outside the sparkle did not show up too well in the sun, but it's there...just very subtle.

More batts...no..not flying mice ;)

A few months back I washed and dyed a bunch of raw wool that I had purchased.  I had bags of the wool locks stored away waiting for the day I would be able to create batts.  Now that I am officially on vacation, I have been digging the wool out and making batts in between shopping, cooking, and just plain relaxing..although a what I hoped to be a quick trip to IKEA was NOT relaxing.
Anywho...here are a couple shots of the before/after of the two latest ones.  I am becoming quite good at cleaning the drum off between batts!

Also, a HUGE thank you to all of the wonderful comments.  My family members just shake their heads when I start blathering on about wool, so it's nice to know others are just as in love with the stuff as I am!

Inside out batt

Today is going to be devoted to experimenting with batt making.  I want to make a batt that I can felt into a variety of pouches from the same piece of felt.  The inside of this batt is a sunny yellow.  When you flip it over, you have a variety of greens with a hint of yellow.  Throughout both sides of the batt I included silk that was dyed the same color as the wool.  I will share more later...have a fabulous day!!! :)

Felt covered buttons and typical ramblings....

Today I finished up a birthday present for my sister that I started this weekend.  I started off with my very own self dyed merino.  I carded up a batt that used 4 different colors but I kept same colors together and let them migrate into each other just a tiny bit.  I felted it as a thin panel, and then machine sewed it together.  After I finished that, I did a simple blanket stitch on the outside to give it a little something. And then moved on to finding the perfect button....I could not in all of the 100's of buttons that I have find one that I felt worked well....so.....I covered a button blank with a piece of felt that was a remnant of the pouch and Viola, a matching button.

Now I am sitting here wondering what took me so long to figure out that I could have been making these buttons for my pouches all along!!  Sometimes I'm a little slow I guess....or maybe it's this freezing weather we are having here in Florida- my brain is slushy- I'm not used to wind chills anymore....

So anyway.....here it is...I hope she likes it!

Felt Ornaments

I made a felt panel with some very soft colored gray wool this morning.  I wanted to get an idea of how much it would shrink so that I could use the wool to make some slippers.  After it dried, I decided to use the test panel to make some heart ornaments for the tree.  I like how simple they turned out...the next batch I will fill with the leftover lanvender that I ordered this past summer.

My felted trees...

My inspiration was found here.  I used the same oatmeal color wool that I used for the stockings shown in a previous post.  As an added accent on the top layer, I used a fine merino/silk blend.  I love the effect!