Dawns Woolly Wednesday for December 2011

Hello December. No spinning! Forgive me spinning wheel(s) for I have neglected you this month (again!), but I promise that you and I will be reacquainted after the festive period, if not before.

In light of there being no spinning this month, I will share what I have been doing with wool this month. I have been doing a lot of felting - items for ourselves, gifts for others and a few additions to my etsy shop. I made this Father Christmas for our home, I think his hat is a little over-sized but we like him, I made another for the shop but with a better sized hat. I have another of these in the making with legs this time but he has no beard or hat yet!

Needle Felted Father Christmas

 

in need of a hat and beard!

In other felting I have made an item for a gift swap amongst a few friends, I'm pretty sure the recipient doesn't browse this blog so I will share a couple of pictures here. It's a felt journal using a lovely art sketchbook as the book being covered. I had lots of fun with this and plan to make more soon.

 Felt journal cover

Moving onto knitting, there are (as always) more than one project on the go. Some started long ago and really left for too long, now I need to get on with them as they are gifts for Christmas. (note to self: stop getting distracted by other projects!).

I have this little project on the go and coming together now in making up the items for my daughter for Christmas ... maybe I'll reveal the finished result at Christmas! Any guesses? Answers on a postcard please ...

mystery project 1

Another project for another member of the family, although no doubt my daughter will acquire these one day, and yes you've guessed I'm not saying what this is either! Please no guesses as the recipient may read the blog and comments ;-).

mystery project 2

There is still the handspun handknit socks for the husband (he knows about these!), it really is time to turn those heels. Hoping these will be finished soon.

And another one, although not a Christmas gift, but a winter hat/scarf combo for my daughter and as it is getting colder now I really should get on and finish this ... nearly there.

 Hat/Scarf combo for Imogen

There are other things I've so nearly started recently, only to shout STOP at myself, not until the other things are finished. I've still to finish some felting gifts too and there isn't long left until Christmas. Am I the only one who can't stick to one thing at a time? Are you disciplined at finishing items? If so, how do you do it?

Merry Christmas to all, or seasons blessings if you celebrate the season or Yule rather than Christmas. I've enjoyed this space this year and look forward to sharing it with you all in 2012!

See you in the New Year!

Dawns adventures for Woolly Wednesday October!

Spinning on the wheel

 

Another month already, how did that happen? I wan to do some serious spinning next month, or at least over the Autumn and Winter months as I'm feeling it is getting neglected at the moment.

September was a busy month for me with my daughter Imogen returning to school and it being her 6th birthday later in the month so my hands were busy on other projects, at least some of them were woolly so I will share those those month.

I love bunting and have various bits of bunting to hang for celebrations. These include knitted bunting for Imogen for her birthday so I recently knitted a new bunting triangle for her age.

I also have a tradition of making her a felt crown and badge so have used some bought wool felt mix, and used a combination of wet felting and needle felting and sewing to create these for her this year which she loved and showed them to her teachers and friends at school.

 felting a rainbow for a badge - bit of wet then needle felting

 

Birthday crown and badge ready for the birthday girl

I've also started doing some other felting and planning some gifts for Christmas, but maybe I'll share those next month. Imogen is also desperate to do some felting so we are hoping to do that soon too - she's had her eye on the fibre I was spinning in this post - the bright rainbow mix. So watch this space.

Spinning at the show

So onto spinning. I have done a little spinning when I attended the Romsey Show - an agricultural show locally which the Guild has had a presence at for some time. That's me above in the photo, struggling at that time as we had just been for a walk and I still had my walking shoes on and I cannot treadle well with them! I was soon barefoot again, my preferred footwear when spinning. I took the Louet wheel and some Icelandic grey roving so I didn't need to do too much preparation before spinning.

 Icelandic - long staple as shown above

 Icelandic single - so lovely and easy to spin

 2 ply bobbins of Portland (more socks?) and the Icelandic

It's a lovely long staple fibre and a lovely colour. I have some other colours of Icelandic too as they range from white to brown to greys. No idea what I shall be doing with this wool although it's not next to skin softness so maybe something like a bag which I may felt too.

Other projects still on the go are the socks and the weaving squares that I blogged about last month, the weaving squares cushion should be finished by next month so I can share more pictures of that then. Actually maybe that's what I can use the Icelandic wool for - using it in weaving as a single.

So what has everyone else been up to with their wool and fibres this month?