Long felt want!

Yesterday, before the snow returned, I got a picture of one of the spreading groups of daffodils in the woods out there, which our family planted in 2001 as a 9.11 memorial. So I thought I'd show you.

Snow and rain are here today, so the focus has to change a bit. Since Maggie, blogista here and in her own very famous right, mentioned the ColorWorks book in her blog, which turned me on to ordering it, amazing for me to actually buy something, but it wasn't in the library, I also picked up a couple of books from the libe on repurposing (!) sweaters from the thrift store. Aside from unraveling and reknitting them, that is.

And got turned on to felting, which I've thought about idly now and then, but haven't tried to do on purpose. It started with a friend at the library giving me a beautiful Pendleton wool vest which had accidentally got into a hot wash, and she figured I could do something with it, then I thought, hm. but what? so the current crop of books is part of the solution. ColorWorks is a lovely adventure in color and texture with samples in various needlearts, and is set up as a workbook for people just embarking on the study of color, very useful teach-yourself book, I'd say, by Deb Menz. It's really well produced.

And one unexpected bonus: HP is no longer able to focus long enough mentally to read his favorite history and archaeology books, but when the Menz book arrived yesterday he wanted to know what it was about, and was entranced with the color layouts, spent quite a while browsing happily in it. The workbook format, with the spiral bindings, is especially good for a person who has trouble turning pages and keeping them open.




Crispina ffrench's Sweater Chop Shop appeals to me a lot partly because she's so intrepid and no-rules, and has a ton of interesting ideas, and Sweater Renewal by Sharon Franco Rothschild, is another bunch of great thoughts. Both books are good for browsing purposes, even if you end up, as I usually do, making something completely different.

And I felted a bunch of thrift store sweaters this morning.



It's really fun to just put them in HOT water, then cold, then a HOT dryer, and see that you get usable material out of it. And get to clean a lot of lint out of the washer and dryer.

So whenever I decide what to do with them, I have materials ready to work with. I like that this is hand sewing time, since felt and machines are not always a happy combo, and felt doesn't fray, if you've done it right, that is.

So this is the latest art adventure. The tapestry is coming along fine, and I painted the warp this morning, so that has to wait till the warp is dry. And I just finished another little thing, not fiber related, which will be a present so I will say no more on that right now.