Felted Cobweb Shawl - Silk, Alpaca & Fine Merino Blend

Whipped up another cobweb shawl during the wet weather.  The wet continues and I am surrounded with balls of yarn and yummy coloured tops. How cosy it is inside.....lost in the creative zone.

 

Last Days - Give Away Cobweb Scarf.

  A Reminder..............

International Felt United Day is this weekend and also the day to see where this little scarf will find a new home.  How far will it travel? 



Last chance.  Leave a comment or follow on either blog to be in the draw.

As the new garden studio is an extension of my main blog most visitors come here first and find their way via my link. So it is only fair that visitors commenting and following over there should also be included in the draw.  It is still a very new blog corner and I'm still waiting for fine weather to be able to continue the journey.

More about the give away can be found at Original Wearable Art Give Away post.  I will post the Winner on Monday.  If your name is drawn and you don't have an email link open you will need to email  me by the end of the week ...  Friday 8 Oct...or it will go back into the draw.

Today, I am also celebrating over 1000 visitors since the 1 August 2010.  An unexpected celebration, but a very delightful one.  Thank you to all who have taken the time to visit. I hope you have found something to interest or inspire you.

Good Luck!
Cheers
Joan

Damson Felt Hat Changes Personality

My friends came over and asked what do I mean the hat can change personality......... so I let them try on a few angles for fun. They were a little shy in posing for the blog so the hat had to go back on the stand.

Option 1 with the band doubling as a scarf is shown in the previous post.

Here are three more options for that unique personality or changing mood.
I see option 1. and 2. as the best for my long face, but I liked the other options on my friends.  Which option is your favourite?

Option 2 (below):
Here the Crazy Felt band is wrapped around twice and the ends tied to form a stylised flower.

Option 3 (below):  The curled brim is worn at the front for an open face look.



 

  

Option 4 (below):

This is option 2 with the front brim turned up for a totally different look.

 

Homeless Scarves

I tend to hoard a lot of my felted creations in dark cupboards, rarely seeing the light of day, so I have decided to have a market day here, every now and then, to make space for my new creations.

I've pulled out some scarves that need a new home.

Above: Nuno felted rainbow cotton with a woven metallic thread.

Hand painted silk - nuno felted scarf

Above: Hand painted silk nuno felted with matching shades of merino wool

Local pick up in Toowoomba, Qld is welcome.
Contact me via email  kirtonkreations(at)westnet.com.au if you would like to buy any of these.  Replace the antispam (at) with @.


Cheers Joan

Shades of Lavender - Silk and Merino Felted Cobweb Scarf.

  

Yet another cobweb scarf.  This time with blended merino and silk in lovely pastel shades of lavender, blue, pink ....and the shine of natural silk.   I made this one  a little smaller than the previous scarf......they just take sooooo long to make I decided to take a short cut and make a regular length.  This one measures 104 cms x 19cms  (7 1/2 inches x 41 inches) and weighs a tiny 13 grams. 

This one may end up going down to the Pittsworth Craft and fine Food Festival as well.

This time I didn't use the sander. In the first stages I covered the tops with an old lace curtain and partially felted with lots of soapy water checking the progress by lifting the curtain often.  I found that the very soapy water allowed me to float the fibres into a lacy position as I went.  I then covered the scarf with a clear plastic sheet and felted by hand.  I could see what was happening easily through the plastic and every now and then lifted the plastic and gently stretched the the scarf back into shape....helping the web to open.
  

Fully stretched - I repeated this felt
 and stretch process until the scarf was fully
 felted.
Notice how wide the scarf was stretched.



  

Right side is in the process of being  gently stretched to open up the web



Silk and Merino Felted Cobweb Scarf

I had a small amount of Silk and Merino blended tops left over from another project and decided make a cobweb scarf for the Pittsworth Craft and Fine Foods Festival being held the second weekend in Oct.

It took a lot longer to make than other scarves as I needed to check constantly to make the sure holes were forming ........and to scratch at the edges to stop them thickening.

I just love the result.  It is just as fine and soft as the previous scarf..weighing only 22 grams....and can be held in one hand like a handkerchief.

The weather is quite overcast and appears to be settling in for the rest of the week.  I didn't have the patience to wait for a clear day....... so the photos are not as bright as I would like.  They do show how the scarf will look in the evening though ...picking up the lovely shine of the silk.

Happy Felting
Cheers Joan

Felted Novelty Yarn Scarves

I decided to dust off some more felts.  These scarves were made some months ago and I had forgotten about them until they came out of moth balls for the Festival. This one.....Merlot.... is my favourite.   

 Deep Blue....felted mixed wool, acrylic and novelty yarn scarf. 

Don't forget to contact me here ...somewhere in the blog...if you want to be in the draw for the Original Experimental Cobweb Scarf.  You'll find the info under the "Giveaways" label on the right and how it was made under the label "Felted Scarves and Shawls"

Happy felting.   Joan

Down at the Woolshed - Helping Hands

Six little hands and two large hands rubbed and rubbed to create this blue nuno felted scarf.  I was hoping to receive a  photo showing the little Glennie Students' hands working hard on this creation at the Jondaryan Festival......... perhaps the photographer did not have a cropping tool on their computer that would hide the small faces appropriately.

The scarf was laid out in swirls for a change to see what effect it would have when it was felted.  The wool needed a little encouragement with a needle felting tooljust to get it started as the nylon weave was tighter than I had thought.

During the slow very wet days some of the volunteer children made this little basket of felted squares and felted soaps. The squares will be added to over time to create a childrens rug or mat, and the felted soaps will be passed on to my friend Yvette O'Brien in Toowoomba who ...with her group ...fill little bags they have made with toothbrushes, soap, shampoo etc. for the homeless and disadvantaged.

The squares were made using a resist to help keep the squares roughly the same size.  Two layers of coarse merino - 29 microns, were laid on each side.  Scraps of felt were cut into patterns and laid on the tops before wetting down.  Some of the scraps were already embellished and added to the effect.  A little glitz was sprinkled on the leaves in the square below.

When the resist started to buckle it was cut out and the two sides of the square were felted together to from a firm mat.

A gourd was also made during the Festival using the same coarse natural merino and a resist.  The cord was attached after the two layers on each side were wetted down and partially felted. The a third layer was added to each side and felted till the resist buckled and needed to be cut out.  It was then rolled, worked in hot water and thrown to shock the felt into shrinking further.

It was later dyed with food colouring...the kind one uses for cake icing.  Dyeing is a  new area for me.. so I experimented with a dye bath of water vinegar and a cap of green colouring.  Placed in an icecreanm container and microwaved for 6 minutes ...and then another 6 minutes after it had cooled a little.   The gourd was left hanging outside for some days. It did lose some of it's colour during the rain, but not much.

Many thanks to all the visitors and volunteers who helped make these felted pieces and the babies booties ...that I haven't shown here.  I hope they inspire to you to give felting ago.

Original Wearable Art Give Away

Well the Jondaryan Woolshed Heritage Festival is over for another year and I am back to experimenting once again with my felt.  One of the most popular items I had on display was my cobweb scarf and there were many offers to buy.  Sadly I had to decline...... as the scarf was an experimental piece and I wanted to be sure it would survive normal wearing.  So I need a tester....someone to wear the scarf and put it through it's paces.

If you would like to have this original scarf for your very own ......and you are happy provide some feedback on it's wearability before the end of the year just leave a comment ANYWHERE on my blog...... your user name will go into the hat to be drawn on Felt United Day.  I am happy to post overseas.....but please check out any custom issues in your country before accepting.

Lots of catching up to do........I hope to have more on the Festival and new projects soon.

Cheers
Joan

Cobweb Scarf

The rain last week was a wonderful opportunity to try another scarf using the cobweb method I used in the last posting.  This time I used thinner strips of super fine merino (19.5 mic grms) and set them further apart.  I needed to stretch the  mohair cobwebs across a much wider gap.  I was absolutely delighted when they held together. 

The scarf was so light  (only 21grms) I could hold it in the palm of the hand like a hankerchief.

Well here it is....   I took several shots....white was hard to photograph and the light was not the best in the late afternoon.

Super Fine Felted Scarf

Experimenting once again.  This time with super fine merino and mohair to create a cobweb effect.  This scarf is just divine to touch and incredibly light.  I can see myself making lots more.

A large piece of bubble wrap was spread across a long moulded table...bubbles facing up... to serve as the fulling surface as I worked.  I then placed a thin plastic sheet.....(the kind used by painters as a drop sheet)...on top with the overhang toward me.  The overhang would be folded up over the top when I'm ready to felt and also serve to stop excess water dripping down my jeans.......which is really uncomfortable in cold weather.

To start the scarf.... I split the tops length wise until I could not split any further without losing it's shape and placed the strips next to each other along the full length of the table.  The whole length of the table is needed as the very fine merino shrinks quite a bit.

Cob web strands of natural Mohair were sprinkled across the joins. When felted in these would hold the scarf together.  Rose coloured tops were split length wise and used to create and simple pattern at each end of the the scarf.  The pattern was highlighted with curls of rose and white Mohair.

After wetting down,  the whole area was covered with the overhanging plastic and then sanded directly onto the plastic.  The sander was put straight down onto the surface of the plastic, then lifted and then put down....again and again over the whole area.

Sander and ear muffs

In the finished scarf above one can see the cob web strands of Mohair between the lengths of Merino.  This is my first try and it will be a challenge to see how fine I can make a scarf using this process.  This is an original art piece and process, so if you do give it ago, please be kind and acknowledge the source.

I have just  bought Christine White's book Uniquely Felt.  It shows exquisite cob web scarves made from the curly fibres of long wool breeds.  I bought some lovely silky Romney (below) at the Jondaryan Woolshed Felters retreat last March and can't wait to try it out.  I also have a some extra long coloured wool from a Romney Lincoln cross (above).  Neither have been washed so I will use them as they are letting the felting process do the washing for me.

Romney with long curly staples

The Romney Lincoln cross wool is several years old so I will need to rejuvenate it first.  I'll do this by placing the fleece on an old sheet in full sun. Cover it with another sheet and sprinkle with water.  I'll  re wet the sheet now and then to keep the gentle steaming process going.  Eventually the fleece will be fluffy and easy to separate ready for felting.