On a hat splurge!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to join some friends for another great retreat filled with fun and fiber.  My friend Marti sums it up well here on her blog, with a beautiful video of our escapades.  The photos taken around our weekend "home" at Shakertown really convey the serenity of the setting!  We stayed in the beautiful Brick Tanyard house, and despite rumors of it being haunted the only spirit presence felt there was one of a friendly cat jumping on someone's bed!

I haven't been in much of a knitting mood lately, which is fine as I've enjoyed concentrating on my feltmaking.  It was a little awkward at first to do wet felting in a room of people who were mostly sitting and spinning or knitting, but I soon got in a groove.  I started making hats and then couldn't stop!  Sadly, the first one and the one for which I spent the most time (above) by far didn't meet my standards....  I was playing with using cotton for some nuno instead of silk and I love the effect (around the band of the pillbox), but I kept making the crown part too flimsy despite 3 attempts! Oh, well....

These hats and a few more are now in my Etsy store.  I'm trying, really trying to get things up in there, and have added some other new items as well!  Have a great weekend, everyone :)

Sunny Sunday

Wow, can you believe it?  Two posts in 3 days (and I still have lots of felting to post about)!!!?  It's a bright Sunday morning and I'm just back from a refreshing walk with Hoss.  It was so lovely on the river trail that I stopped in to get my camera and we walked it a second time.  Not a cloud in the sky, and the ground is slightly frozen, so nice not to be slogging in mud...

On mornings like this I have my religion.... I'm filled with gratitude for my entire family both two and four-legged (and for teens safely slumbering in the house), for our health and my ability to walk our lovely trails, and for the opportunity to live in such a wonderful place.

January Retreat

Handspun art yarn that I made on the retreat, I'm loving felting with this!

Oh, what a great time I had at my friend's fiber retreat in Northeast Ohio!  As always, we learned so much from each other, ate lots of great food, drank good wine, felted, spun, carded, laughed, and just had a lot of fun.  

We came with varying skills and experience, and each of us had something to teach.  One of the best things about working together like this is that you always learn so much from other's teaching, and felting styles.  Felting can be accomplished in so many different ways, each person has their own bag of tricks!  That's one of the things I love about it, there is no ONE way to make felt.  (Here are flowers that we made from mostly alpaca fiber).

Madeline, whom I had never met before, is just learning fibery stuff, but she plunged right in and did beautifully with her projects.  She's also a hilarious storyteller and amazing Italian cook, and we enjoyed her famous meatballs and sauce.

 Both Madeline and Mary taught us how to do Japanese braided cords using a KumiLoom.  It was great fun, and offers many possibilities!  I always advice newer alpaca people to take any opportunity they can to learn from Mary, she's a wonderful and thorough teacher.

Here, Donna is working on a wine cozy. Mary taught us some great techniques for making really firm, hard felt and I look forward to using these methods in the future.

Here is my finished wine cozy.  I seem to be a bit stuck on these colors!

Cheryl is a great host, and as always it was wonderful staying in her beautiful home.  It was also refreshing to look out and see the snow-covered landscape, since we've barely had any winter weather here in Kentucky.

Cheryl and I devised a method to drink wine and felt at the same time.  From the response this photo got on Facebook, we need to patent the technique since this photo was extremely popular among felters and was shared around the world!

Donna showed us some fun techniques for embellishing with craters/appendages, and I was happy with how my new iPad sleeve turned out.  

Unfortunately, Donna didn't realize that she was using superwash merino for her cover (superwash means that the scales, necessary for felting/shrinking, have been removed through a chemical process).  It was apparently mislabeled, and there is no way to tell by looking at wool if it is superwash.  That was a tough lesson, as she had worked hard on the layout and it had seemed to be felting!  Live and learn :)

There was no salvaging this, it just wouldn't felt...

We proudly gathered our samples and projects for photos before I left, not bad for 3-4 days!

There were many other things taught and learned, as well as sources and ideas shared, and I've been especially productive since returning.  I have lots of new things to post, (a hat, fingerless gloves, mittens, a wall piece and a scarf) so check back soon!  Thanks to all of my NE Ohio friends for such a fun time :)

Percolating

I took a few weeks off from felting to "percolate" (letting the ideas simmer and swirl) as a friend calls it... it was a bit hard to get started again, but I think I'm back in the groove now! I really want to take some time this next month to do more experimenting and to just ENJOY the process, with no heed for schedules, art fairs and such.

I made a few hats yesterday and enjoyed working with some of my favorite colors. I really love the way the colors turned out in this part, felting always presents surprises!  I'd gotten away from using these colors, but I've been sucked right back in!  (I have a baby blanket to work on, these will definitely be included!)

This piece is still in progress, I'm just enjoying the heck out of the embroidery, and for some reason I just wanted to make lots of "craters" last weekend.  I have no idea what I'll do with the other piece quite yet.

This one has a ways to go.

Stay tuned for a lot more felting experiments in 2012, it's going to be a great year!

P.S.  This photo is in the running for a Cute Cria photo contest on Facebook- if you like it, please click on  this facebook link and Like it to vote- we could win free shearing for our entire herd!!!!

Girl's Trip to the Biltmore and Beyond!

I have been in holiday mode ever since Art on the Farm, and doing very little felting or anything creative except to finish up some commissions right before Christmas.  We had a great family Christmas, it seemed less stressful and as if there was just more TIME this year, which I really enjoyed.  Our kids have had a pretty long break, and our son went to Florida with a friend's family so our daughter and I decided to go on a girl's trip to Asheville, North Carolina and the famous Biltmore Estate, which is decorated for Christmas.

We did two of the "special tours" including a Candlelight Evening Tour which was breathtaking, as many of the mansion's fireplaces were lit, there was live music, and there were hundreds of poinsettas and dozens of beautifully-adorned trees.  (Photos aren't allowed inside, so you'll have to go and see it for yourself!)  It is fascinating to hear about the lifestyles of both the ultra-wealthy first residents as well as those that were in their employ (which we learned more about on the Butler's Tour).

Despite the winter season, we enjoyed walking around the grounds and gardens, and it was wonderful to explore the Conservatory and it's many blooming plants.

We managed to find some time to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, wish we'd had more time for that, it's so gorgeous and relaxing, as there are NO commercial signs or development anywhere along the entire drive!  

We stayed at two great B and B's on our trip, and enjoyed lots of time shopping and browsing Asheville's many art galleries.

One of the galleries even had paintings featuring Peru (our daughter's birthplace), so that was pretty neat!

I have to say that being exposed to so much amazing artwork has me feeling very inspired and I'm itching to get back in my studio next week and to do some completely new things with my felting!

We capped the trip off with a hike on the way back home on the Appalachian Trail (with which I hold a lot of fascination, having read several books about people that have hiked the entire 2,100 miles).  It was a lovely way to finish out what was a wonderful mom/daughter journey!