Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the land where it all began. Here is a fantastic link on the History of Halloween and how it got to the US.

Hope you all have a frightfully good evening. My little ghouls were up at the crack of dawn, buckets in hand and ready to eat mass amounts of sugar for breakfast. "No, no" I say, wait until after breakfast!!

Blue Faced Leicester

The last 2 days have been dyeing days.














Fibre of choice was Blue Face Leicester. This was pre-spun and fantastic to dye. Used food colouring, Kool-Aid and chemical dyes.


The fibre is also Blue Face Leicester and spins up beautifully.
Mostly chemical acid dyes on these. Tried to use up the bits left over from the first dyeing session.


Random dye pattern. Stripey, splashey, squirty and then some. DD helped out with the colour choices, so we have lots of brights and red/pink/purple combos.




I really like the dark one. It's dark brown, burgundy and gold nugget. I'd like to see how that spins up. It's always amazing how the twist effect the colours.


These are for the Knitting and Stitching Show that starts on Thursday. A mere 8.00 euro for 100 grms.
What a bargain!!

Pressie

I love birthdays and tomorrow is a great friends special day! So I decided to lay down a little felt project. Hopefully the internet is still down at the house so she won't read this before I give it to her. Bit of a risk!

She's a fan of warm drinks and has just moved into a new house. Coasters!! You can never have enough coasters. Well may you can, but not really cool looking ones. They turned out really good.

I like the hand spun intertwined with the store bought yarn. Photos aren't great to show the colours, but the oranges, greens and browns are yummy.

I used a Norwegian wool as the base that really felts up to a good thickness for a heat barrier. Started out with one large sheet and then cut it into 4 x 4 1/2 inch slabs. Felted them a bit more to soften up the cut edges and stretched them back into shape.



Hope she likes them.
Happy Birthday!!

All That Glitters

It all has to start somewhere. "All That Glitters" is the theme of the Feltmakers Ireland booth this year at the Knitting and Stitching Show. It takes a little nudge sometime to get out of our comfort zone. I would not be overly glittery. A bit of sparkle here and there, but not over the top.

In terms of yarn, I like something interesting if it's a novelty. This is to be used with a felt bag project that has been in the back 40 of my brain for a year or more. So, when looking for inspiration, just start digging. Without beading and adding lots of sparkly fibre, I was wondering how to get a project by the screening process. Time is in short supply for me.

I'd tried to do some stamping and embossing last month, really like the effect but, I blew up my heat gun. Wattage change from US to Ireland. Ouch! Smelled awful after I put it under the temperamental broiler for just a second or two. Maybe metalic paint and stencil, how about Gold Leaf. May just work. Now the challenge of finding it! Craft shops are few and far between on the island, similar to yarn shops. To bad, cause I've already started formulating ideas.

Found it and it was minutes from my house!! Great, zip over (relatively speaking) buy it and start the samples. This is the result.







Did a bit of playing with Fimo clay for the buttons and glitzy bits. Hadn't worked with it before. DD was enthralled, I was too! Fun stuff and quick results!







This is the begining layout. Silk chiffon with resist in the middle. Wisps of fibre over the top. Yarn arrange sporadically. More very fine wisps to secure the yarn.

The silk will create the Nuno effect I want and give the bag strength on the the inside. Fragile, yet durable. Is that possible. Yes!









Final Project!

Socks

I'm knitting another pair of socks. I got the yarn in the US this summer and loved the colours. Seems everything in my life right now goes with the socks in progress. The orangish shoes I got this summer, the plaid dress that is exactly this, only a tad heavier on the burgandy. I was sitting on the bus the other morning and realized that it went with the burnt orange dress I was wearing. It's hard to escape it. I was telling DH this morning about the weirdness of it when my smoothie comes to the table. Yes, it also matches the socks. Not the green bit, the orange/peachy. I also got these really cool silicone muffin liners. Notice the colour? I guess it's just that time of year. I'd better hurry before the Christmas theme comes in.


I'm doing the magic loop with both socks at the same time. That way if I make a mistake, it will be the same on both feet. The yarn is Merino and Bamboo. Should be good! I'm trying to overcome the "Thing" I have with hand knit socks. I love them. I've only knit one other pair. They sit in the drawer and look lovely. They go well with many things in my closet. The "Thing" is, I don't want to wear them out! I've worn them maybe 3 times now. So I'll knit another pair to have on hand. Then I'll knit another and so on until I have no choice but to wear them more often. Crazy, I know!

Aaahhh, I Think

Well, it's been utter mayhem since returning from the US in late August. Can't even fathom the load of events and planning that has taken place since our return. Several Birthday cakes, spinning demos and workshops, reorganizing, reading which takes the place of crafting for me, Feltmaking Exhibition, new school, new after school activities and trying to catch up with friends. Whew!!

First cake is the wheat free, egg free, at home birthday party. DD turned 8 and is insane over the Littlest Pet Shop stuff. You have to have a girl 5-9 to understand. Little plastic Bobble Heads with the gigantic Precious Moments type eyes. They're cute, harmless, innocents and that's fine by me. Also to big to be sucked up by the vacuum sweeper!


The next cake was the regular wheat, egg variety that all the girls could eat and would eat at the party the following week. She wanted a quilt type cake, so that all of the pets could have their own land. This is the result. She got to pick the colours and sprinkles. Squeals of little girls as the cake comes out makes it worth it. The wrestling over who took what animal home was altogether amusing!

Done with cakes for the next 6 months. Knitting to follow.