Yours 'til Niagara Falls

We Made a Village

These darling cottage tea cozies were made with thrift store sweaters.  The sweaters were washed and dried to felt them.  Fair isle patters end up being very subtle and lovely.  The windows and doors are applied with a straight stitch.  We tried using a wide zig-zag, but the fabric had enough stretch left in it to get very distorted.  Small matter as the fulled wool isn't inclined to unravel. We used a variation of the pattern I made mid-January (which I couldn't link onto to save my soul).  We also had time, much to my aunt's delight, to make some flower fairies.  Cottages were sewn, fairies were made, lasagna was consumed.  With rhubarb crumble for dessert. A really fine day.

Another Flower Fairy

I love making these flower fairies based on the Salley Mayvor book.  My copy of it has gone missing in the house of squalor.  Along with the book, my red Pigma pen has also taken a powder, which explains this little lady's lack of a mouth.  I enjoy doing the tiny little embroidery on the fairy's smock.  Frugal crafter that I am, her skirt is made from the bits and pieces of silk flowers I glean from the floor of my local Joanne's Fabric store.  The clerks are always slightly amused when I show up at the counter with a fist full of bedraggled blossom bits.  I really should bring in a finished doll so they don't think I've gone 'round the bend.

Cute Stuff Needlebook

I used an applique pattern from Let's Make Cute Stuff by Aronzi Aronzo to make this little (3" x 5") needlebook.  The book has loads of patterns.  What I really love about the book is the stilted translation from Japanese.  For a book cover pattern the caption is: "People are always curious to know what other people are reading.  You might feel relieved to see someone reading a comic book, or freak out when you see someone reading a difficult-looking book.  Why is that anyway?  Let's cover our books to keep what we're reading a secret."  I enjoyed doing an embroidery pattern, but I'm kind of falling into the bad habit of wanting to always do make-and-take type projects.  I have to make something a little more ambitious, I think.

Knotty Baby

This is a little (less than 6") softie doll.  It's made with soft cotton knit and stuffed with wool.  The only fiddly bit was to tie the knots.  Pulling the knots nice and tight caused the seams to pop. Many, many times. Hope You-Know-Who likes it.

Slow and Steady

I made this projects with some students today, and they really liked the process and the finished product.

You will need: green wool fleece, felt (a wool-blend is nicest), a bowl with warm water with 2-3 drops of liquid soap, scissors, tacky glue and a needle and dark thread.

1.  Take the wool fleece and wind it into a 1 1/2 inch ball as though you were winding a ball of yarn.

2.  Dip the ball into the soapy water.  Toss the ball very gently from hand to hand for a minute.  if you are too vigorous with it at this point, it will turn into a lumpy felted brain.  After the minute, you can begin to roll the ball between your palms in the manner of rolling cookie dough.  After two minutes or so, take the ball to the sink and rinse it alternating hot and cold water.  you will notice that the ball firms up as you do this. 3.  Snip the ball in half .  

4.  On a piece of scrap paper, trace around one of the halves.  Add the head, legs and tail to the pattern.  Use the paper pattern to cut the body shape ftom the felt.  5.  Use tacky glue to put the body and the shell together.  6.  Embroider french knots for eyes, or alternately, use a pen to make eyes.

My First Effort at Pysanky

A very sweet girl who teaches at my school offered to teach the entire faculty how to decorate Easter eggs.  She's from the Ukraine and has used the wax-resist method called pysanky to make the most beautiful eggs you can imagine.  She taught us to use a kiska or stylus to apply beeswax to chicken eggs which have had the contents removed.  The class also got an overview of the symbolism in the art, both the motifs and colors.  This is a craft I'd like to get good at!

Living Crafts Spring Issue

I picked up the current copy of Living Crafts the other day.  This is A nice magazine which features a lot of Waldorf School-type crafts.  There are at least four projects I plan to make in this issue. There is one unusual thing about this magazine in that it features a large photo of a charming felt bunny craft which requires the reader to purchase another book which was published eight years ago.  I happen to own the book The Nature Corner by M.V. Leeuwen and J. Moeskops. It's a nice addition to any crafter's library.  I can imagine the frustration of someone who glances through the magazine at the news stand and buys it only to find out that the purchase of a somewhat obscure book is needed to get the pattern and directions for the bunny project.  The photo in the magazine, did, however, inspire me to dig out my book and whip one up this morning.  It took far more time to make than I had estimated (over an hour) but it is as cute as can be.  Easter is my all-time favorite holiday, but I have to admit that being so very early this year has thrown off my typical preparation for it. 

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

I finished the school bus scarf tonight.  The kit and pattern appealed to me for a few different reasons.  Very nice quality merino wool, well-written directions with a very interesting technique to make the window openings.  It needs to be blocked to achieve the 60'' length but I was in the mood to show it off.

Play Ball!

It seems like overnight, my grandson went from only being interested in things to look at to needing things to actually play with.  I have a modest collection of felted sweaters from thrift stores, so I decided to make a squishy wool ball.  I cut six wedges of the felted fabric and sewed them together.  I had an itty-bitty epiphany just as I was about to pitch the scraps and decided to chop them up to add to the stuffing material.  I sewed the wedges together leaving a side seam open to stuff.  I wanted to use wool fleece for stuffing because it warms up so nicely in your hands when you hold it.  I rolled the fleece into a soft sphere, tucking the wool scraps in as I went.  My concern here was to have a smooth surface.   I cut out two cardboard circles and cut the fabric a little larger and covered it in the manner of a quilter's yoyo and appliqued the circles over the openings at each end. The finished ball is about six inches tall.

Blue Merino

I've been in a spinning kind of mood lately.  This is very fine merino in shades of blue.  A real treat to spin.  One of my goals is to become a more technically adept spinner.  Although I've been spinning for a while, the fiber is still the boss of me and usually decides for itself how it wants to be spun.  Anyhoo... I'm happy with my yarn.  Pictured here (clockwise from the top) prepared top, singles on the bobbin, a twisted skein and a skein still on the niddy noddy.