Winter warmers

This week I have managed to find some creative time.  I have taken pics of some of the felting process.  I hope they are clear enough.  The first shows the wool fibres laid on bubble wrap and damped with soapy water.

 The colour here looks pink because I use red net over the fibres when I am damping it down.  I use this particular piece of net from the stash because it is firm and open enough to work with.
Once the piece is damp enough I turn it over and add some more water on the other side.  Then remove the net.  The next part requires a bit of an effort, covering the piece with a sheet of plastic and rub it hard all over and then turning it over and repeating the hard work.  

I folded the bubble wrap in to tidy up the edges a bit and then rolled it up tightly squeezing out excess water.
 Rolling it back and forth a bit to continue the felting.

I then carefully unroll this parcel and roll it longways and twisting as I go as the parcel is very skinny. Again I squeeze out any excess water.
After that I put it into hot water and rinse it and then rinse it again until the water runs clear, then into the clothes dryer to finish it off.

This is the felt so far.  Some of the fibres and yarns I used were not wool and didn't "take" but so far so good.  I will add some embellishment to this with my machine.

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In the meantime I have made a scarf using the embellishing machine today.  This is the first serious effort I have made with the new machine and I did enjoy it.

I used several balls of yarn, feeding them into the machine simultaneously.  The threads meshed  together quite well and when I was happy with the effect I added the piece of pink poly/silk to the back and used the machine to fuse the layers together.  This gave a bit more stability to the whole thing and looks really good.

The weather here is so cold another scarf is welcome.  I will wear it when we go out to visit friends tomorrow.

Yarns

This week I have spent quite a lot of time out and about running errands and going to work: this presented me with a chance to check out some different op shops.  I have managed to collect quite a lot of yarn to make some scarves.

I will do some wet felting first so I have been referring to this gorgeous book Creative Felting by Lizzie Houghton.  It has so many luscious images to inspire.

This book is very informative with clear illustrated instructions and some beautiful examples to encourage experimentation.

I doubt if I will find time in the next day or so but it is something to dream about.  

Once the felting is done I think I shall use my embellishing machine to add some extra interest.