I took a needle felting class! So cool, and much easier than I imagined. The instructor, Joyce Hazlerig, is phenomenal, and I came away with pockets overflowing with tips and tricks. In class we made cute little bearded gnomes.
The neatest thing about needle felting is that it combines with all my other fiber crafts. I can add needle felted embellishments to anything felt-able. (Insert maniacal mad inventor laugh here. Do picture both hands raised in triumph as well.)
I recently created a PDF pattern for a local yarn shop. It is the owner’s pattern, but they needed it taken from written shorthand to a sharable PDF. It is a cute little peachy amigurumi, and in testing the pattern, I made up 6 little peaches.
The pattern is by Anniewhere at NerdCraft. I’m very excited about the wool yarn I used for the body of the peach, because it was locally spun and dyed by Texas Prairie Fiber Co. I love using locally produced supplies! The leaves I made from my own handspun yarn, that I spun from Blue Faced Leicester and silk blended roving dyed by Frabjous Fibers. This turned out to be quite the collaborative project.
I did make each one into a keychain by sewing on some chain and attaching a split ring. I used hand-spun alpaca scraps from a naturally brown alpaca (Aimee) to sew on the chain. So each peach has a little brown stem.
The Texas summer is ramping up, and I don’t like walking when it is hot outside. Luckily, I have a large kitchen counter with room to walk circuits in the house. To keep the kitten occupied, I tied a ribbon to a small clip and clipped it on the back of my shirt.
The drier air is also better for my spinning, since heat, moisture, and pressure are the factors that felt wool. Missy the dog also thinks spinning time is kick the ball time, and it is amusing to watch her figure out the timing to drop the ball in my path so I can kick it before walking past. So yes, I walk the house spinning with a drop spindle, kicking the ball for the dog, trailing a ribbon for the cats. I am walking entertainment, but I’m getting in those steps!
My youngest gave me a box of yellow to orange dyed merino wool and I decided to spin it up separately rather than blend it (so many choices with these bundles of colors!)
I like the small bundles of wool because they transport easily; I can walk with the roving loosely around my fiber hand, or I can pop the fiber into a container in my purse so I can spin while waiting.
I put together a 60s themed outfit with a nod to the fiber arts. I crocheted a duster vest and flower garland, wove a band and added bell sleeves to a tie-dyed t-shirt (I did not dye the shirt, dye and I are still not on speaking terms), and assembled some felted wool ball earrings! (My mom made and gave me the felted beads.)
When I do bell sleeves next, I will make them longer and without the off-set center hole. These look great on the hanger, but were awkward when worn, except when doing jazz hands, then they worked. Since I can’t do jazz hands all the time (although that would be quite the arm workout), I picked out the seams for the added sleeves after the debut. I can see peasant blouses with woven trim and bell sleeves on my crafting horizon.
Critters and Craft 