Five fabulous friday finds from my faves - blogtoberfest day 4

It's nearly summer! yay!

So must be time for a new dress -

fruit prints dress by tsyndyma

Or maybe a new skirt -

the organis skirt by stephanec

And then a new hat of course -

big summer hat by frecklescalifornia

Then I would need some new shoes -

handmade shoes by thoseshoes

And then sit down and have a drink!

margarita time by sandralynns

Cheers!

Getting to the pointy end! - my creative space

There hasn't been much jewellery designing going on here lately! It's a quiet time of year.

So I've got the knitting out again, turned the dvds on and settled down for the winter.

This is something I started last year with some hand-dyed locally grown alpaca/merino mix bought from the alpaca wrangler herself (she also spins her own, but I think this was commercially spun)

In case you couldn't guess - it's a hat....for me...another one!

What's in your creative space this week?

Would you like to join in or look at other creative spaces? You can over here - My Creative Spaces at Village Voices on Kidspot.

Adventures in knitting and felting

I've been knitting little mitts for a while now and one day whenI was browsing the wool department of a chain store, I found some very prettily irresistable wool.
Unfortunately I didnt have my glasses on so it wasnt until I got home that I saw I had bought some unusual wool - lovely but not what I really wanted.

The label said "felt me"!

OH!

Not suitable for mitts then???

Not to be deterred I found a pattern for a beanie to felt.
But you had to knit it in the round on a set of needles - something I have been too intimidated to try!

Circular needle to the rescue!!!



The crown of the beanie where you have to decrease for the shaping I managed to complete with a set of four needles without poking myself in the eye once!




So far so good!

Now to the felting part.
I decided to do this by hand as the laundry was still out of bounds (due to broken ankle not being compatible with stairs navigation)

To felt you need to treat wool in the absolute opposite way to how you normally treat it!

You use HOT water and lots of rubbing!
I used a bar of Sunlight soap and an icecream container (empty), to dip and rub-a-dub-dub!
Then rinsed in cold water.
I did this several times until the stitches became indistinct and the knitting felt felty.


It made a wonderful warm sturdy beanie.

Observations about this process.

1. The wool I used was a non-plied (or single ply, I'm not sure what the technical term for this is, it isnt twisty) 70% wool / 30 % soybean fibre.
I am guessing that it would be harder to use the new super-wash yarns, because they are designed to be machine washed, and specifically to NOT felt.

2. Using a circular needle is fun because you get to knit every row, non of that pesky pearling.

3. Sets of needles are not scarey.

4. You can also felt in your washing machine (if you dont have a broken ankle and a downstairs laundry)

5. I made 5 beanies and they all turned out different sizes.

6. Knitting beanies take a lot more wool and time than mitts.

7. Maybe I'll stick to mitts.

If you are a knitting and/or felting expert please feel free to comment!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my favorite fibre people, so come back then!

monday treasury

Lots of people have been having fun with treasury east on etsy.

Strawberrycouture included my city nights bracelet in this collection of sellers from Sydney.


Strawberrycouture is from Texas and I didnt ask what the connection with Sydney was.
Anyway I was totally blown away when I visited her shop!
There is the most amazing collection of crotcheted hats!

Like this one -

black cloche hat by strawberrycouture

You simply must go and have a look!
They are sculptured headwear.

Carley from vanillapixie had fun with greens.
and what a lovely subtle selection.

Thanks Carley for choosing my spring morning necklace.

Carley makes the ever popular little hair clippies for little ones.
Her shop is in vacation mode at the moment but when she gets back you can have a look at all her pretties.



Then I also noticed that BoosTees had been picked in this clever treasury from aylla.
Thanks aylla for including my men's tshirt 'on the road'



I discovered a little gem in aylla's shop.
Gorgeous cute purses and pouches.

Could be a pencil case, but is really too nice to be just a pencil case.


Great gifts - you could put some of vanillapixie's clippies in them!