Felting fabric for a chair

I love Festive fibers chairs and other pieces that she makes and thought I would try to make fabric for this little victorian style chair that I bought for a few dollars at a garage sale. It still had the horsehair stuffing in it but the fabric had been clawed by the owner's cat and was awful. So, I took it all off down to the springs which I restrung, gave it a nice paint treatment, and then created this fabric for the back and the seat. The hard part was getting it on the chair since I haven't done a lot of upholstery before but I bought a book and just followed the directions. Fortunately for me the book had lots of illustrations of how to make nice corners, etc. Such a cheerful chair!

New Yarn

My friend really loves turquoise and red together. So I created this yarn ... hand dyed merino roving. Then I spun one single from the multi colored roving and one single from the turquoise and plied them together to create the yarn. This was done on a drop spindle. I think it looks a little like "baker's twine" but it is so soft. When I get it all done my plan is to make a beautiful pair of fingerless gloves. I hope I have enough leftover to make a cowl to go with the gloves.

Washing the fleece and felting "in the grease"

 This is the fleece I purchased a while ago and have been too timid to process.

I finally took it outside on a big table and spread it out. Its just beautiful with all different colors, brown, rust, gray and white.

 I separated it into small mesh bags and filled a couple of 5 gallon buckets with hot/warm water and dishwashing liquid and, after taking a big breath, immersed it into the water.

After soaking it I pulled the bags out and spun them dry in the washing machine and just repeated the process.

Wow, was there a lot of dirt!

Then I begain rinsing the bags and spinning them in the washing machine. The wool here is clean and drying on a unused window screen. The wool is soft and I got most of the grease out.

More stories ... bought a new tool and began working on felted wool scarves etc. ...again.

 So, I saw this tool being used by another felted wool artist in her blog so I ordered one just to try. I was kinda dreading another season of really sore arms and my husband's too busy to help me roll.

I tried it on a silk piece that I dyed a little while ago. I added this great silvery grey and white tussah silk yarn with a bit of green in it here and there from River's Edge Fiber Arts http://riversedgefiberarts.com/.

So here is the silk and wool being felted using my new tool from Heartfelt Silks http://www.heartfeltsilks.com/.  Instead of using the mesh that comes with the tool I used plastic with a bit of water and soap. The mesh tended to get felted to my wool very quickly.

I use a washboard for fulling my silk scarves. Its a nice large one that has a well for water on one end. I find this old tool is the easiest and quickest way to get the results I want.

Here is the finished product.  Its very thin wool on the silk scarf and has just the right amount of details on the edges with its little wisps of wool.

The ends have a bit more wool with tassles.

So light one can wear it with a t-shirt. No need to wait for cooler weather.

First Yarn

This yarn is the finished product from my previous post.  I call it "carnival" because it reminds me of some of the costumes I have seen at carnival time in places like Rio or New Orleans.

The process of spinning on a drop spindle vs. a spinning wheel is more time consuming and takes a little practice.  I've been spinning regularly for about 6 or 7 months. First I spun a lot of singles and now I am plying two strands together to create what we normally think of as "yarn." It took me a little bit to remember that plying the two strands together requires one to spin in the opposite direction as when spinning the single.  Its all a work in progress as I continue to experiment and learn.

The wool itself is soft and fluffy. The hand carded batt is from Pumpkinhaus fiber arts and weighs 3 ounces. I plyed it with another roving in orange wool with silk and have enough out of the batt to create a nice scarf and perhaps some mitts.  I haven't yet found a pattern to showcase all my hard work but I will make certain to take pictures when I do. 

Spinning yarn with my drop spindle and loving it.

 A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Grayslake, IL and shopped for wool at Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Festival at the Lake County Fairgrounds.  I purchased two bundles of wool that were bright and cheerful and made me smile.  This is the first one. Since I began spinning with a drop spindle about 6 months ago I have been practicing and practicing. At first I made singles and have knitted a couple of things out of the first singles I made. Now I am spinning singles and have learned how to ply them and create yarn that actually looks like the real thing.

The singles to the left here and the close up photo below are made from the roving above. I am plying these with some orange wool with silk roving that I had begun spinning about a month ago.  So far I have plyed 3 skeins and am working my way through 4 more. When they are all done I will post a picture.

This is the wool batt that I purchase and have not yet spun.  Will let you know how it turns out.

 Happy, happy wool!

I've been struggling lately with the sad closing of my local yarn shop due to the struggling economy. Its a beautiful place where I've spent many happy hours getting to know fellow yarn addicts and knitting. I've shared with them some of my world and they have shared with me. Today is the last day and then where will I go when I want to escape the house and work and all the hustle and bustle and just sit and knit to my hearts content? We will see ....

I love KnitSpot patterns and I found this one today. They are challenging and NOT boring patterns. I have a couple of skeins of beautiful lace weight yarn and I think this will be a perfect challenging project. Just perfect for spring.

Cute Stuff for Valentine's Day

I love red -- and February is the month for it. Since I cannot get to my studio I thought I would share some of the red hearts I've discovered.

Cute Hat

A Look Back ...

With my schedule right now I cannot get to the felting table -- even during my "time off". So I am content to looking back at some cuties that I made a while ago. I love working in red wool and made a couple of table runners that had heart themes. Then my little foray into needle felted nisseman are so cute.

More Pics from the Past

More great purses from past projects.

More inspiring publications

This is also a beautiful magazine which is new to me. It is not specifically about felting but contains some interesting info about emerging artists and what they are doing.

Inspiration from the street

I snapped this photo of broken asphalt after a rain when the cracks in the asphalt were still damp. I love the randomness of the broken pieces and the fact that some lines are clear and crisp and some are more fuzzy and are a different color due to the dampness.

I think this would translate nicely to a scarf or a table runner. The trick would be to keep the crisp clean lines during the felting process.

New Year Inspiration

Happy New Year to all! I have been looking for some inspiration these days to keep on creating despite my busy study schedule. I found a new magazine that offers some new insight into creating. Check it out!

Family Fun

The family was at my house for Thanksgiving this year. Well, some of them anyway. We had a lot of fun and one of things we did was try out felting. They were interested in making vessels. For first time projects these turned out pretty good. I think they have an appreciation for the process of creating useful items out of wool fibers and now they know why I am sore and tired after a day of felting.

... And Now

For one thing, I've learned to take better pictures. I have a space set up in my studio for taking pictures and I have specific props.

This is my latest creation, 3 years later. I have learned a lot in those years. This purse uses silk on the outside which is laminated onto the wool which is inside. I still use a resist so that the purse is made in one piece and I have complicated it a bit to include a double resist so that I have a pocket inside. My handles are more complex for each purse and instead of being sewn on the outside these are sewn inside. Usually I would felt them into the purse but these had to be measured to a particular person so they were added last.

Right now I think a lot about the details of each purse; the inside, the outside, the closure, the flap, the handles, whether the bottom will be flat or rounded. And I use a felt stiffener so that the purse is more durable.

I think it is useful to go back and really document progress. I still like the earlier models and think they are beautiful and unusual. These later models are really not better in the sense that the early ones failed to meet a standard. The later models are merely an increased awareness of the properties of wool and how one can create a complex piece of fabric from the wool.

Then .....

These are 3 of the first purses I created back then in September, 2007. Today, after 3 years of learning and becoming more experienced at manipulating wool, I still think these are pretty good. They have unusual shapes and are a creative use of wool. I like their organic qualities and the flowers that adorn them are pretty and different. I still love using curly locks to add texture and I still like uneven edges that have a lacy quality about them. They utilize wool from Rainbow Fleece Farms in Wisconsin which I still use and they are created using a resist.

Experimenting with Found Objects

I found this teardrop drawer handle one day in my stash of objects. I keep them in my vintage sewing cabinet drawers that I've been collecting for years. The handle is made of metal and looks so beautiful. But to me it looks just like a tassle. So, I added it to this bag. Interesting?

Autumn Table Rug

I've been really working on my process for table rugs - any rugs for that matter. When I first began felting wool I discovered that layering shapes onto dry wool and then trying to wet everything down often just created a mess. The shapes didn't stay where they were supposed to stay was the first big problem. The second really big problem was that I would end up with holes in the wool because I couldn't tell where I needed additional wool.

So, then I began needle felting my shapes so that they stayed together during the wet felting process. I still couldn't tell where my wool was too thin and ended up with thick and thin spots in my rug. Now I needle the whole thing. I can pick it up and hold it toward the light and tell immediately where I need to add wool. I can also "paint" the canvas that is created when one needles the base wool. That is what I discovered when creating this particular table rug. I was having so much fun "painting" with my needle that I got carried away into another world.

The wet felting process goes so much smoother when the whole rug is needled. All the shapes remained clear. The colors of wet felted wool tend to soften as the base wool is worked through. Its really a beautiful thing.

More Felting Table Projects

This beautiful rope scarf is created from merino wool. It is three strands - one blue and two orange. The ceramic bead was created especially by ALDDesigns on Etsy. I have added three felted wool "beads" and enhanced them with glass beads in a deep orange.

Have a little Kahlua with my Jacob fleece

This is "Kahlua" a Jacob sheep from Hillspring Eco-Farm in Wisconsin. I purchase the fleece from this beautiful sheep in September. This morning I received this picture from Linda - the owner - and I am inspired to process the fleece this weekend and move on to create something from the wool.

I've been busy since September. I was getting ready for Cider & Cinnamon (all those wonderful pumpkins had to be needled for that show). So, the fleece has been hanging in my garage since then. I must admit to being a bit intimidated at the prospect of cleaning all the wool. It is my first time at processing a fleece. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained! So, I've got my 5 gallon buckets and my soap and I will give it a go.