Needle Felting

If you have been reading Mereknits for any length of time you know I have a bit of a yarn problem.  I am a certified yarn-a-holic.  I have confessed this before so this should not come as a surprise.  If it has anything to do with yarn then count me in.  While visiting Rhinebeck with my sister Claudia several years ago, we came came across kits to make yarn with a drop spindle.  I have kept the kit, but never learned how to use the roving to make the yarn.  I  come across it now and again and look at that fluffy bunch of wool and wonder when I will take the time to learn.  I had also bought a needle felting kit that has gone unused for years.  It had the foam pad, four needles and some basic directions.  I may never learn how to make yarn because I just remembered I had both, so I was all set to try something new without going out and purchasing a thing.

I have been interested in needle felting for some time.  I pin lots of felted items on Pinterest.  I am fascinated at how people create such beauty from wool.  They create three dimensional objects from wool fluff, sculpting and painting using wool.  So this weekend I gave it a try.  Remember I am new, new, new to this, but I'll tell you I had fun trying to figure it out.  I watched some videos and read some information, but mostly I played around.  I decided to start with a simple shape and go from there.  What to see?  

Acorns!

 I cut up some beautiful pine cones I found on a walk with Max and there you have it.  I am hoping to spend more time today trying to fine tune my technique.  It just so happens that my LYS is visited by lots of spinners, so there are many options for beautiful colors of roving, almost at my back door.  I am very excited, the possibilities are endless, that is when I get much, much better at this.  Hooray a new way to work with wool.

I finished my friend Amy's scarf from the yarn of my friend Finula, who passed away this past Autumn.  I have washed it and now it is ready to be shipped to New York so Amy can have something that  Finula once had.  I am not in love with this Noro Yuzen yarn, I find it very scratchy and once again Noro just joins yarn wherever without consideration to the color palate being used, which can be very frustrating.  But it is the thought behind this knitted item, not necesarily about the yarn used for it. 

I hope she likes it. That is three finished projects for me, with my yarn total at 1,060 yards used so far in 2013.  I am crocheting up a ripple blanket that is consuming a lot of my knitting/crochet time.  It may be a bit before that project can be counted.  

Happy Sunday.