Jobs for the week

Ok, last time I had a week off I wrote myself a list of things I wanted to get done ... and I found it an excellent way of not wasting the week browsing on ebay, which I could very easily do.

(this is in no particular order)

• make list! (I like a few quick things so I can tick them off to encourage myself)
• bathroom ceiling mould needs cleaning (nasty neck aching job ... we really need a dehumidifier)
• defrost and clean fridge freezer (two days after doing this last time someone left the door ajar and re-frosted the freezer)
• try and finish rug for Lewis (not likely, only about 1/3 done) and probably pop to yarn shop in Shipston as I am not sure I have enough wool to finish it anyway.
• wash sofa covers (but need a nice dry day so I can hang them out)
• do some more duvet covers (depending on stash of fabric)
• go to pet shop for food for the reptiles
• clean house (but probably not till Thursday, the cat has stopped molting but is tracking vegetation in from the garden attached to her incredibly long fluff.) (did clean very thoroughly last week, even M and Jacob's rooms got done, so will be a quick hoover round.) (apparently that is "moulting" as was my first instinct, damn that google american dictionary.)
• kitchen floor (may persuade Tish to do this:-)
• mow back lawn
• more felt
• return knitting book to library
• maybe (big maybe) get some of the stuff listed on ebay that is sitting in a bag in the corner of our bedroom (but only so I can claim all the mess belongs to Dunk)
• write to landlord about rotten garage roof
• wash car (or maybe take to carwash)
• pay car tax ... very important!
• more felt:-)

My son Lewis and his girlfriend Rachel are coming to visit on Thursday for the weekend; it is his 21st birthday on Friday and we are all going out to dinner. They are bringing Ozzy (or 'Trogdor' as Jacob insists on calling him) the Water Dragon. And then everyone is going out to the Open Day at Hartpury on Saturday.

So, a busy week.

More bank holiday felt

I am just on a bit of a roll here so, having made the porridge quite early and done a bit of blog browsing first thing I got up with the intention of making good use of the day. I did have to do last night's washing up before I could make any more mess, and contend with intermittent texts from M throughout the day (still feeling bored but less ill).

Last thing yesterday I risked another experiment and did layers of pink and yellow around a tennis ball (Dunk did venture into the nettles to retrieve the basket ball but I decided it was a bit large for a first try.) So this morning I cut it open with a craft knife. The inner layer had not felted very well (I had been worried about working it too hard as it might not bond to the next layer if it was too well felted ... but then this is experimentation) so I just played around with the shape as I tried to get it to felt together a bit more. Basically I just flattened the bottoms of each half to make them into little bowls. I trimmed the top edges so that the coloured layers shows up a bit more, and strung the little beads on a bit of silk thread.

Next I did another pouch, this time it is a little larger and I remembered to round the bottom of the pattern piece. I used a variety of green shades, layered and criss-crossed with each other and it has come out with a slightly 'marbled' kind of effect. It is lined in yellow (though you can't see that of course) and I am thinking of doing a long strap to match and probably a fastening with a felt bead again.
Then Dunk and I went to the shop, during which outing I noticed how worn my purse was getting (it is a really lovely tye-dyed velvet thing that I have had for ages), so I thought maybe a little wallet to hold my cards would be the thing to do. Now I have to admit it is a bit of a fluke that it came out exactly the right size, though I did just make it a bit smaller than the one I did yesterday. It has stripes on one side and spots on the other in matching colours. I am going to probably put a little button and loop at the top just to stop them falling out. And I was smart-arsed and created a little divider inside so it has two compartments, you can see it in the photo, it is yellow one side and orange the other, and the whole thing has pink lining the inside. The top edge is a little uneven but then I am still struggling with making things come out the right size.

Then these dreds are Tish's. I made a thin cord out of the very last bit of my home-dyed and wrapped it with some silk waste, then I was messing around making tiny felted rings (which shrank too much to get on my finger) and Tish came in and liked the idea of making dreds (she has some shop bought that she used to tie in her hair) and proceeded to punctuate her college work with coming down to raid my stash.

Slideshow

So here it is; first attempt at making a slideshow to show what I did making the waistcoat. Didn't seem to want to let me add comments to the photos, but never mind, I'm sure you get the gist of it.

And this is me in my new waistcoat, it was so lovely and warm today it dried in the sun in no time:

Then I had a bit of inspiration for the pouch. I made a couple of little beads from the left over roving, sewed them on as buttons, and added little loops made from the home-spun yarn that I had dyed with the same colours. M is feeling bored and lonely at her dad's house for half term so I thought I would send it to her to cheer her up. I enjoyed making the beads, it was very quick and simple for such a nice effect, so I then proceeded to make some more little beads out of the remaining roving ... maybe a little bracelet is coming next.

Bank Holiday Felting

I think the skin on my hands has shrunk nearly as much as the roving this morning. I dyed the last of my undyed roving last week, in the same peachy pinks and oranges that I used on a recent batch of home-spun yarn. It did spread quite a bit while it sat overnight so the patches of yellow were mainly turned to orange but on the whole it came out lovely. So it was sat there just begging to be used for something nice (and I have some shop bought purple blend on the spindle at the moment that has been neglected for the last fortnight) so more felting was definitely in order today.

First attempt was a small pouch done around a piece of bubble-wrap that I cut out of a padded envelope. Just playing around really, having watched a video on Youtube of someone doing this project. I embellished it with bits of dyed silk waste. I forgot to round off the corners of the pattern piece so the corners had come out a bit 'pointy' so I had to work them quite hard to shrink down and look a bit more curved. Am not sure how to fasten it shut as I think the flap is a little too small.
Second one started out as a bowl made on a semi-circular pattern, I rolled the edge down as it was rather taller than I had initially intended:
but when you turn it over it becomes the cutest baby hat ever:-) (again embellished inside and out with some lovely lilac silk waste.)
But then I got on to the thing I had really been thinking about. I got out the pattern piece I had made for the previous waistcoat and, taking a bit of the thick plastic I use to cover the kitchen table, I cut another one about 2/3 inches bigger all round. It took quite a long time, and a great deal of rolling and re-rolling as I was nervous about it being thick enough (I only had a small fistful of the dyed roving left in the end). There are a couple of patches where it is a bit thin as it was very hard to tell the thickness when you have two layers with plastic in between. I did not add any decoration as I just love the variation in the colours that run through the felt and did not want to detract from that. It is lovely to have the sunshine today so I can start taking my photos outside so you get a much better impression of the colours. Am going to learn how to make a slideshow so I can put up the 'process' pictures without taking up too many column inches of blog.

Red felt scarf

After the relatively successful felted waistcoat I have been preoccupied with plans for different felting projects. When I made a small piece a couple of weeks ago when we had some friends visiting I used some home-spun yarn as the decoration and I had been wondering about using yarn within the felt to act partly as decoration and partly to add structure. I laid out a thin layer of some red roving and then added a random layer of quite thick home-spun yarn, in a slightly darker shade of red. It started out 60" long (done on the kitchen floor because the table is not big enough.)

This second photo shows how it looked in close up. I damped it down between the layers with hot soapy water, then added a very fine layer of roving over the yarn in the darker shade and damped it again.
It was very fragile so I did not try rubbing it at all, just tucked the edges in very gently, then pressed some bubble wrap on the top to spread the moisture and rolled it up around the rolling pin. I read the 'rolling pin' suggestion somewhere on a felting blog and it works very well, keeps the roll in shape and makes the whole process easier.
After about 20 minutes I risked opening it out and just worked at rubbing it with very soapy hands until it was holding shape. Next stage I tend to screw it up in a ball and rub vigourously on the bubble-wrap, then rinse thoroughly (the final length is about 42"). It has little patches that are a bit thin but on the whole I managed to achieve the soft flexibility that I was after (click on photo to see it larger). I think my next experiment is going to have to be some nuno felt.

Tish home!

So Tish is home. I can tell because I have had no computer for three days:-)

And there is this huge pile of nice clean clothes (it was dry Wednesday so I made the most of it and emptied her bag straight into the machine). We did take a lovely 'Welcome Home' photo under the 'Welcome Home' banner that M and I made, but of course it is mixed in with the 400+ photographs that she took while she was in Borneo so I was unable to get at it. I will leave it to her to tell you all about it, I think it is going to take several weeks of blog posts to do justice to all her animal and cultural encounters, so do go over and visit her blog and find out.

Felted Waistcoat

I have only tried flat pieces of felt so far in my experiments and wanted to have a go at something a little more adventurous (what with Tish riding elephants and all that) so I had in my head an idea to make a waistcoat, all in one piece with no seams. I used a piece of bubble-wrap and simply cut some armhole shapes at the side. The back was laid out first and left with a bit of overlap at the places where you want it to join i.e. the sides and shoulders. Then it is wetted all over and very careful turned over (with the bubble-wrap attached) and more dry roving is added on the other side. You have to smooth the stuff from the other side round to join at the sides and shoulders and tuck in the bits round the arm holes and at the neck and lower edges where you do not want it to join. First picture shows it all wetted and still rather fragile. I rolled it up with more bubble-wrap both on top and underneath. It was quite a fat bundle in the end.
After it has been rolled for a while, re-wrapped and rolled in the other direction, and then just generally rubbed all over with very soapy hands for quite a bit it should be holding together. One of the shoulders threatened to come apart when I turned it so I folded it back together and worked hard rubbing the damaged bit. Once you feel it is more secure and has begun to shrink you can open it out, remove the bubble-wrap pattern and just rub vigourously on both sides.
I then rinsed it out in hot then cold water and whacked it off the table a few times and then tugged it back into shape. It has shrunk quite a bit, probably 30%, so will not fit me but am sure I can find someone willing to try it out. I think I am going to have to buy some larger sheets of bubble wrap for larger projects.
M kept pointing out that the design is off-centre and does not believe me when I said it was meant to be. I am quite pleased with the overall effect, it has felted quite evenly and kept it's basic shape well. The edging probably needed more attention but I may add some embroidery or something to tidy it up a bit.