New Studio

Good Morning,

It's getting chilly here in Northern AZ. My new studio is nearly ready and soon my wool will be coming in on the truck. It's been stored away far too long. I'm so ready to make some felt.

We live very near the Navajo Nation. Although I'm tempted to buy some sheep of my own, wool is plentiful, in all forms. It's not too expensive and I will be shopping for it in the spring.

With the loss of my beloved dog, Winslow, I'm not ready to take care of any animals right now. The earthship is a lot of work and it seems better to support the local economy.

I hope to begin felting again by the end of the month. I hope you will stay tuned.
Thanks,
Glynis

We Moved!

We are now living in Northern Arizona! Sheep country! Above is a photo of my new studio. We will be living off the grid in an earthship. The studio is strawbale construction.

I can't wait to get back to the wool, but for now, I'm working on the house.

I'll keep in touch.

G.

MOVING!

Good Morning!

Since my last post, we have packed our bags and are moving west. During the last year, I have spent a lot of time on the Navajo Nation with friends who own sheep and weave beautiful rugs.

Although I don't plan on weaving, we are moving to a place that I can have a couple of sheep for wool. I'm so excited! This means I can raise sheep and do everything myself. It's a lot to learn, and I wo'nt get them until next year, but I'll be doing research about it until then.

Meanwhile, our move should be complete in a couple of weeks and it won't be long after that until I'm playing with the wool again.

Bear with me and please check in. I haven't abandoned you.
Thanks,
G.

Finding instructions and wool.

Yep, Dyed it myself!

Let the games begin!

The book I have about wet felting had nice pictures, but it was USELESS!

I went online looking for information about making felt. I found out about wet felting and needle felting. The wet felting looked like a lot of creative, random fun. The needle felting looked very tedious but with total control of everything. I also found that you can needle felt anything, but wet felting is limited to animal hair. No cotton, no synthetics. Looks like being skilled at BOTH would make the mistakes fixable and still have fun, and let it all flow.

Here I'm going to discuss the wet felting, just because it's so much fun!

I need supplies! Back to the internet. I found fleece rovings.. I bought some. The colors were dull and ugly. It was also expensive. I found a natural color fleece, soft, and clean sort of a cream color. Really pretty, sold by the pound and the price was better. Then I hit Youtube! Oh the videos! People making felt! Ok I watched a couple over and over.

But my wool needed to be dyed! So, I set the videos aside and figured that since I'm trying to keep things more organic, I should dye the wool with Kool Aid and vinegar. A pot of hot, not boiling water, a cup of vinegar and a packet of Kool Aid. PERFECT. I'm sure glad that Kool Aid didn't market their product as dye.. The price would have been a lot higher.. WAIT! Didn't I drink this as a child? Didn't you? Hmmm. Ok, food for thought. Onward! See the photo above of my Kool Aid dyed fleece rovings.

Now, back to the videos. I like the one where the woman uses bubble wrap to cause the necessary friction which causes to wool to felt. Ok get the supplies. Towels, long, long pieces of bubble wrap. A piece of netting, soap, a plastic mailing tube, the legs of a pair of panty hose and a place to lay it all out. Here's a brief description, but if you want instructions, go to YouTube. There's a lot of videos.

First, a layer of towels, then I layed out chunks of the fleece on a long piece of bubble wrap. I made a good layer, all going the same directions. I put a little design in it. Then I layed out another layer, going the other direction and finally a top layer going the direction of the first.I put a couple of pieces of wool yarn on top just for fun. I put my stiff netting over the top and poured hot soapy water on the whole thing. I started gently rubbing it to start the felting. When it started to attach to the netting, I took the net off and replaced it with bubble wrap. I rubbed that for awhile and then put the plastic tube at the end. I rolled it all around the tube, towels and all. Tied it with the panty hose and rolled it back and forth for a long time. Then I opened it and found a big piece of half felted fabric! I put more hot soapy water on it and rubbed again. When it was nearly finished, I twisted the water out and started throwing it on the counter. A big soapy ball, but the throwing caused the felt to tighten. Then I rinsed it, and hung it to dry.

This could be a scarf, or a wall hanging, or a table runner, or anything you want it to be. Oh yea, I have to do this again! BTW- I got that fine soft creamy wool roving from www.zwool.com .

Next time, needle felting!

Glynis

Discovering Felt

Recently, I learned how to knit and crochet. Being the "hands on" type, I have been teaching myself. I find that I prefer crochet because it can be more "random". Knitting is too structured. I like to leave some things to chance. That translates to "big hole" in knitting. With crochet, I seem to just roll with it and I am forgiven for my errors. I started with cotton, made the little bag above. OK, time to try a HAT! I went with some very nice WOOL. I crocheted a hat that somehow took on a life of it's own. It grew and grew, but didn't see to get the right shape. I finally threw it in the washer, hoping to shrink it and reshape it. Shrink, yes. Reshape? nope.

Nobody has a head shaped like that. But it made a nice FELT. Hmmm. Felt. I have a book about that somewhere. The wheels begin to spin and the adventure begins.