River Felting

Before the summer I was investigating traditional felting techniques and thought I'd see what happens if I felted in a river.

As it so happened we went camping next to a river.

I did a bit of pre-felting so the fleece didn't just float off down the river and tried it with some bright yarn to a handy branch.

I then just left it for a few hours. I had to go back every once in a while to check it was still there.


The river flow created a really interesting shape to the end pieces.

This one is my favourite, you can see the little seed pods it picked up in the water

Wheelie Bin Wars

I am an enthusiastic recycler so was distraught when our wheelie bin went missing!

One that looked a lot like ours found it's way into a neighbours front garden....... but anyway we ordered a new one and it took ages to arrive and when it did, the first time it was emptied it went missing again!

This time I found it in the drive way of some flats 5 houses down.


So, now I've stencilled it and every Wednesday I go looking for it!

Exercise some needle power

For every mum, the day her child is born should be the happiest of her life. Yet, in the world's poorest countries, many mums don't survive to look after their babies.

In the next minute, lack of access to health care will claim the life of another mum. In a year, half a million mums die because of poorly equipped hospitals, or because they can't afford to pay health care fees.

World leaders have promised to end this travesty by providing enough aid to deliver the medical services needed, but as things stand they're falling well short.

Patches to fight poverty

We cannot allow this to continue. Broken promises add up to lives lost.

Oxfam are calling on all knitters everywhere to help spell out in no uncertain terms that enough is enough, that we won't sit silently while this injustice continues.

You can take part, and turn your knitting needles into poverty fighting needles by creating a patch for a giant baby blanket – a 'visual petition' we'll hand in to world leaders in September 2008.

Oxfam are aiming for 250,000 patches - one for every mum who should have survived pregnancy in the last six months.

Play your part in a giant, knitted petition

Washing Wool

Wow, I've just spent the last 2 hours washing fleece, dying muslin and fleece and cooking dinner.
Luckily I didn't get any of it mixed up!!

I washed the fleece both by hand and in the washing machine. There are some great hand washing instructions are here.

the top left and right were washed in the machine and the
yellowy cream fleece at the bottom was washed by hand

There are lot's of instructions for top loading washing machines and not much for front loaders, I did read something yesterday saying that it is possible in a front loader with a wool cycle, so I thought I'd give it a go. (sorry can't find the site where I read it)

My wool cycle is for 'machine washable wool' at 40, so I decided to try the silk cycle and it came out really clean. I did put it in a mesh bag but the bag came open and the wool came out and a couple of little bits feel a bit felted but I don't want to fiddle to much until it's dry.

I was dying some muslin olive green, when it was done I thought I'd try and dye a piece of the washed fleece, this is it just after it came out and was cooling. I'm hoping it will stay the same colour once it's been rinsed.

Now I'm hoping the new carders I brought at the weekend on ebay come soon, then I can prepare this lot ready for a bit of felting!

Felted Bowls

Hi all, sorry I haven't posted for ages and ages but I've been felting!


These are my first attempts to felt round a ball. They are two halves and I have felted the left handside one a bit more. The one on the right is my favorite as you can see all the fibres around the rim, it's just as it was when I cut the felted ball in half.


I have taken step by step photos for a tutorial but I'll explain quickly how I did it.

You have to make lot's of what are called in the trade - Pre-felts, which a small pieces lightly felted, you dry them, then.....................


your pin and stitch them all around the ball until you have lot's of layers built up, then you felt it. I will explain the whole process properly soon.



Then I made these bowls with good old fashioned kitchen appliances. I started felting them by hand and got bored and put them in the dishwasher. The dishwasher didn't felt them much but it made an interesting shape to the edges.


This pink and brown one is my favourite, you can't see from this photo but in the middle is a brown dot. When I had felted the two colours together a bit I cut a circle out of the middle and turned it over.





For the last few years my Mum and Dad have gone to Amsterdam to see the tulips and each year they buy an Amaryllis bulb for my nan, sister, me and one for them. We all get given them in paper bags with the colour of them written on it and every year the colours are completely different!! There follows lot's of up-date phone calls between my Mum and all the recipients letting us know what colour they really are, can't remember what colour mine was meant to be but it wasn't dusty pink.

Weaving

I went into my 6 year old sons class today to do some weaving with them.


One of their topics is Plants and Animals so I took in some fleece, a drop spindle, knitting, felt and a woven piece of cloth and we talked about fabrics and what they are made from.


Their teacher and I had already prepared the paper plates with the warp thread and then the children choose different fabrics to weave with.


I was surprised at how conservative their choices were at first. I expected them to go straight for the cut up t-shirts and plastic bags but most of them went for the thinnest wool and it took a while for them to try weaving with the more unusual fabrics.


The result are fantastic, some aren't finished but the children are all keen to take them home and finish them off over the weekend.

A pdf of instructions of how to thread up the paper plate and finish the project off are here.

and the winner is...................

Pants!

email me 'Pants' and I'll get a little package sent out to you.
cooperjo@talk21.com



Thank you everyone who entered and posted such nice encouraging messages. x