Cute little gnomes

I taught another needle-felted gnome class at the Lander Art Center.  The gals did such a great job.  I thought you might enjoy seeing a couple of them.

The gal (Vicki) who made this little "lady in blue" had already made a make gnome and wanted to try something a bit different.  As she progressed through the early stages of forming the core, she decided this one wanted to be a female.  She had fun learning more about adding detail work to  the face, the hair, the dress.  And we all loved the results.

And then I think this little guy will make you smile.  He was made by Denise, and she added some extra definition to the face and hands, which worked out great. 

It was a fun evening!!

Wool in a Tea Cup

I continued "tweaking" my little fairy gardens on Sunday since I had all the wool out anyway. 

I need to take more time getting some pictures. A better background is in order; I got in a hurry.  And...I will probably do a little more tweaking on the gardens.  I need to look away...and then look with a fresh eye.

As someone mentioned in a comment, these would make good pin cushions, and indeed they would.  I can say that they certainly hold needle-felting needles quite well.

Needle-felting Gnomes

Our local fiber guild held a retreat on Saturday...and what a perfect day it was to be inside.  Yes, another rainy day.  When it's dreary outside, tend to your wool and needles!  My duties for the day were to teach a morning and an afternoon needle-felting class.

The morning class made needle-felted sheep.  We failed to line up all the sheep for a photo shoot, but you can see a couple of them here.  Rachel's Gnome started transforming into a lady as she began putting on the facial features, so she just went for it, adding long hair and a basket of yarn.  So creative!  And cute as can be!

Above you can see the rest of the afternoon class's needle-felted Knitting Gnomes.  The gals did a fantastic job!  They all made knitting needles out of toothpicks and beads, and they will finish "the look" by rolling up a ball of yarn from their stash for the Gnome to hold.

Felting in a cup

Felting this little English cottage in a cup has been a fun challenge.  It's still a work in progress, but I haven't decided what else to add...yet.  I'm thinking...

Open and Closed

A gal in Laramie who has the Cowgirl Yarn Shop asked me to consider making an open/closed door sign for her; the request came last fall at our Yarn Fest.  It has taken me some time to come up with just the right concept for the design.  I finally felt like I had the right idea and started the project. 

I chatted with my woodworking neighbor, and he suggested we work up a piece of distressed wood to which we could attach the felted pieces.  The wood was cut, burned with a blow-torch, brushed with a wire brush to remove the charcoal and further distress the wood.  Then, I gave it about 5 coats of polyurethane, and it's nearly ready to go.  I finished the "Open" felt first.  And then I got the idea for the "Closed" felt.  The Cowgirl and sheep are the images from the logo for Cowgirl Yarn. 

I'm hoping to have it all finished and put together in the next couple days.  I've got turquoise and brown suede leather laces to braid a length for hanging the sign.  I plan to deliver it this weekend, so the pressure is on to finish it.

Making good on a promise

I got a text about a month ago from a fiber friend; she was wondering if I had forgotten that I was going to make a needle-felted Santa for her - in turquoise.  Oh wow...yes, I had forgotten.  Darn it.  Since I had been doing some other needle-felting projects and had all the wool out, I knew I needed to get that Santa finished.  Seems odd to be working on Santa when I'm relishing the return of Spring...  On the other hand,  I probably spent a little extra time on the details, as I wasn't in a  "holiday hurry."  So, he's now ready to go. I'm not particularly thrilled with this picture, but you get the idea.

Adding to the flock

On Saturday I traveled to a yarn shop in Casper to give a needle-felting class: felted sheep.  Some of them look a little long in the nose.  I tried to fix that problem, but perhaps should have had the gals make another head, a shorter barrel.  I thought we could make enough adjustments when attaching it to the body...hmmm....lesson learned.  Nevertheless, we had fun and got a quick picture of the growing flock of colorful fleeces.

Baaaa.....

I'm baaaack to needle-felting.  These woolie sheep are going to be sporting very spring colors.

 The knitting needles, which are holding the slow-moving lacy scarf, are laying motionless, waiting for me to return.  Maybe soon I'll return...

Knitting Gnome

I am in the process of needle-felting a couple of Knitting Gnomes for our May 2015 Fiber Art Retreat.  Since I'll be teaching this class, I plan to make up a couple different gnomes as examples.    A pair of knitting needles will get put in this little gnome's ball of yarn eventually; I will get out the materials for that later. 

On this gnome, I used up some roving that was not so great to work with...but would be good for experimenting.  So, on the next one, I'm going to use nicer roving, and the gnome will be shaped a little differently as well.  Stay tuned...

Adding some needle-felting...

Once the wet-felted piece was dry, and I had some time to look at it and think through the next steps, I picked up the felting needle.  And the picture is coming to life.  I have one more thing (really 2 images) to add...

It's snowing ... again ...

May as well get into the groove of some good "indoor" projects, because it's snowing again!  Those few days of "spring is on it's way weather" were nasty little teasers, because yesterday we got a good reminder that we're still in winter for another month or so.

So, I've got a good start on an Open and Closed sign (needle-felted) for a gal in Laramie who own Cowgirl Yarn.  I have a pretty neat plan for hanging these, but I'll have to see how it works out.  First, I have to finished the "closed" sign.  I have two ideas...so I'm pondering which one to start. 

Then, this morning I decided to get started on wet-felting another experimental piece.  I laid out the wool on top of a piece of 11"X14" store-bought felt, soaked it down with hot water with just a bit of soap, massaged it gently, then sandwiched it between layers of plastic and rolled it around a washcloth.  Finally, I stuffed the roll into an old nylon sock and put it in the dryer with some towels to finish off the felting process.   One thing about wet-felting is that the fibers and spread and move around more than you wish they would.  I'm sure I could remedy this by needle-felting the fibers in place a bit more, or using solid felted pieces on top.  But... I'm experimenting.

After it dries, I will go back over it with needle-felted details...and then you might be able to guess what it's going to be.  Or do you already think you have it figured out?

Being patient...being experimental...

I'm plugging along on this shawl.  Admittedly, I can't knit this project and watch engaging TV at the same time.  So, I'm finding I only get 4 rows or so completed in a day, and on size 4 needles, that doesn't look like much. 

The thing I like the least about the pattern is that to read the chart for the wrong side row, I have to do the opposite of what's on the chart.  (For instance, knit all the stitches marked purl, and purl all the stitches marked knit.)  It's easy to make a mistake if I'm not focused. 

So, I have to have other projects at hand that can be worked on while I'm watching TV; that translates into these "other projects" getting finished, while the shawl waits for me...

Just for jokes, I tried wet felting a "painting" based on the painting class project.  Although I was careful, the hot soap and water spread out some of the branches much more than I wanted.  Lesson learned.  I needle-felted in the details after the background was dry.  It's OK, but I'm not thrilled with it.

 It's a sunny day...yahoo...but with a snow storm coming in tonight...boo-hoo.  Oh well, it's early February...and we're still in winter mode.

My Santas

It took the task of teaching a class for me to make a couple new needle-felted Santas. 

Felted Santa Class

We agreed his little guy looked more like a wizard.

Here are a few pictures from the needle-felted Santa class I taught last Thursday.  It took us a good 3 hours to complete the figure, but the gals really did a nice job.  They had several choices of colors to choose from, and of course, the faces on each one turns out a bit different. It's a fun process.

Finishing a project...

This is a line from Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening."

The needle-felted, winter poetry wall hanging is nearing the finish mark.  I think I can put the needle down  As I was felting the bottom lines of lettering, Nancy S. asked if I was going to embellish the snowflakes with beads.  I said, "No," without really thinking.  Once she planted that thought, though, I couldn't shake it.  I immediately started "re-thinking" that decision.  "Well, it probably would add a nice touch of glitter if I did."  Hmmm....

So, at that point I wasn't as close to the finish mark as I had hoped.  Last night I decided it was time to finish felting three words...and then tackle sewing on the beads.  They are silver, and just add a touch of sparkle, thanks to Nancy.  I'm pleased.

My neighbor has an idea for a way to frame it...and he's the one who will make it.  That will be fun.  It may be a while before the project is completely finished... but it's getting closer.

Another Poem Pillow...

I wanted to needle-felt another pillow with a totally different look.  I used 3 small felts, pieced together in an irregular shape.  (I wanted to use up stuff from my stash.) Although you can't see them, I sewed on a lot of beads and pearls for some sparkly details. The intent was to make the overlapping pieces look like overlapping waves on the shore. 

Another favorite poem is "maggy and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings.  I've taken the last line for the pillow.

maggy and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and        

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

its always ourselves we find in the sea 

Minor felting adjustments

I think some minor adjustments made a difference for the better.  On the word "little," I changed the form of the first "l" to match the second one.  Then, I added two tiny paw prints.  So, now, it's finished.  I'm ready to move on to the next one.

I'm felting...it must be nearing Fall...

I've got a felting project I'm getting ready for a class.  I came up with the idea of needle felting a Poetry Pillow.  I took a line from a famous poem, in this case, "Fog," by Carl Sandburg.  I used one of Billie's dusty purple felted mats to needle felt the top of the pillow, and I used a portion of Colleen's gray felted pieces to create the back. 

I haven't sewn it together yet...and I'm still looking at it, wondering if I should move the word "little" over to the right a bit.  It's good for me to get away from a project like this, and then when I look at it again, I see it with a fresh perspective.  The flat piece I was working on looks a little different now that it's puffed out by the pillow insert.

2 FO's

The Raised Diamond mat is off the needles.  It has a nice garter stitch border around the edges, so I'm not sure I need a crocheted edge.  However, I still have just enough yarn left that I could put an edge on if I change my mind.

This Juniper needle-felted wool mat was started sometime in December for a class I taught, but I didn't finish it.  So, yesterday seemed like a good day to get the project off my to-do list. 

Yesterday was simply too cold and dreary to be outside!  I even started a fire in the wood stove to take off the chill in the house.  Oh Spring, thou art fickle!