Yarn Advent Calendar

I can't believe it's just one more day until December, this year has gone so fast and I feel slightly guilty that I just haven't had the time to update my blog. We have had some good weather in Cumbria through the Summer and I have spent most of the time in the allotment and on the days when we have had some horrid weather I've been needle felting and crocheting.

Today, however, I have spent all morning in the attic sorting through the Christmas decorations ready to decorate the house at the weekend. I also have a few new decorations I bought at the weekend from the Imaginarium in York, I love that shop and the Yorkshire Soap Company shop next door, their window displays are truly amazing.

The decorations are not the only thing I have bought, I bought myself an advent calendar, I can't even remember the last time I had one. This advent calendar is special, in fact I think it is my favourite advent calendar of all time. I came across a fabulous Facebook page called Yarn Etc., they are based in Harrogate and sell Yarn Advent Calendars, such a fantastic idea. I first saw a photograph of one on Handmade Over Yonder's Facebook page and once I found out where it came from I emailed them straight away, unfortunately for them this was at 11.45pm and to my utter surprise about ten minutes later I received a message back from the owner Fiona informing me of all the colour variations they had in stock. This has got to be the best customer service, I don't know how many companies reply back to you at that time of night, I was impressed. A couple of days later my calendar arrived extremely well wrapped, complete with measuring tape sellotape and silver stars, it has taken me a lot of self control not to just open every single one of them as I am dying to take a look at all the colours, my husband has taken control of the calendar and regularly checks it just to make sure I haven't been having sneaky peaks lol. Roll on tomorrow.....

 

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Old Projects

I've had a busy few weeks trying to finish off a couple of old projects, one project in particular was a pattern from All About Ami for a chunky shrug, I blogged about this last October, yes, that is how long it's been in my basket. I'm very pleased how it has turned out it is very thick and warm. The pattern was very easy to follow, the only problem I had is that I crochet very tightly and I therefore needed two extra balls of wool to finish it off. I also decided to add a button, the one I choose is made from spalted oak I bought them from Natural Organic Crafts they have a shop on Etsy.

I have also been playing around with needle felting again, this time my Auntie gave me two silver vintage salt and pepper pots I decided to incorporate them into my needle felting and came up with this.

To make the small toadstools stand up I wound some cream felt around small pieces of pipe cleaner and then gently needle felted them. Once I had finished this I decided to make a smaller version, this time using a vintage thimble.

My last old project involved acorns, last year I had collected lots of acorns I wasn't too sure what I would do with them but I thought I would keep them and at some point I would think of something. The 'something' turned into replacing the acorns and making little coloured acorns to fit in the caps. I didn't use a needle for this, I tried the wet felting method instead. I had very sore hands by the time I had finished them, I think next time I will wear thin rubber gloves instead. To attach the acorn to the cap I used a glue gun. I then attached string to them so it was a little easier to tie them to some corkscrew Hazel branches I had.

I am now free to start my new project which involves a subscription to Little Box of Crochet, more on this in my next blog post.

 

 

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Needle Felting

This is my first post of the year, life has yet again got in the way. When I have had some spare time I have been doing various crafts and training Dottie (although she is very well behaved and doesn't need too much training).

Some time ago when I was having a look through Pinterest (so addictive!) I came across needle felting. I decided I would like to try this out and had a look on Etsy to see if they had any kits, there are literally hundreds of needle felting items on there. I whittled it down to two, one was a Swaledale Sheep kit from Hawthorn Handmade and the other was a Deluxe kit from Sue's Country Creations.

The Swaledale Sheep kit consists of a foam pad, two needles (in case the first one breaks), British Swaledale wool, British Blue Faced Leicester wool, British Shetland wool plus full colour instructions with 27 step by step photos. Hawthorn Handmade now has their own website. This kit costs £18.00 with the foam pad and £15.50 without it. The finished sheep should measure 15cm, I thought this might be a little bit too big so I decided to make a smaller one and had enough wool left over to make a second one if I wanted to.

Needle felting takes a lot of perseverance, you feel like you're not getting anywhere with it and then suddenly it starts to take shape. I was also painfully aware how sharp and barbed the needles were this is definitely not a hobby for a child, I stabbed myself numerous times before I had the sense to open my second box and use the finger protectors provided which really were a godsend.

I followed the instructions which were well written and the photographs definitely helped, although I did Google Swaledale sheep, so I could have a better look at how their colouring and shape actually is.

I think the main part of the body was probably the hardest part as you need to roll the felt in your hands and shape it and then start to prick it with the needle and keep following this pattern until it takes the shape you need.

I forgot to take photographs of the legs, these were made by cutting small pieces of pipe cleaner and wrapping the black wool around it and then very carefully pricking it with the needle, the pipe cleaners are used as it makes the legs a lot sturdier and helps it to stand up.

The second box I bought was called a Super Deluxe Animal Felting Kit from Sue's Country Creations on Etsy. The box included 17 different colours in merino wool, 3 Shetland colours, 6 different colour coded needles, a wooden needle handle, foam felt pad, 2 finger protectors, 30 pairs of 4mm black eyes and an awl plus a bundle of mixed armature wire this cost £26.00 and Sue also includes a small kit for making your own bee. Sue has plenty of different kits, wool and accessories and her Etsy site is definitely worth a look. Please note I do not know Sue personally I was just impressed with her shop and also the fact that I like to support local shops/craft people and Sue comes from Kendal.

I've started to needle felt my own little creations which I will show you in my next post... Coming soon (I promise!)

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