Playing with needle felting - again!

Well yes. I'm back on the needle felting again. I do know one thing - this will never be a favourite hobby but it's also quite interesting too!!!! 

While I was out and about with a friend a few weeks ago I bought a needle felting 'brush' (a cheap one). It's sort of like a scrubbing brush. Now I do find this a LOT better than the original spongy sort of pad I'd got so I will stick with this for now. 

A friend down the road accidentally washed her jumper (cashmere) on too high a heat and it shrunk a LOT. Bad news for her but good news for me!!!! She gave me the sorry garment and I've cut some of it into strips. I felted the one strip to make a bookmark and the new brush means that the fleece goes through the cashmere really, really well. So I decided to back the finished item onto fabric. 

Actually the pictures don't really do the bookmark justice - or is it that I need more practice!!! Would somebody kindly send me another 24 hours to fit into my 24 hour day, please?

Teapots finished

Remember these little teapots I showed you? 

Well they were for an exchange I did with the Fringe Element in Canada. My partner has now received hers so I'm happy to show you. 

What I haven't told you is that the person I was given to make for is a very, very special friend who has put up with me twice by allowing me to stay with her in her house. Her husband is special too - love his dry sense of humour. 

One of the remits on this exchange was to use beads. Now, I can hear you wondering where the beads are on the picture below but I can assure you they're there. Tiny gold sparkly ones. My very special favourite ones. 

I had to make the large teapot VERY carefully so that I got all the beads in the right places. Thanks to Martha Ess's wonderful instructions and diagrams in her 'Tea is for Tatting' book this wasn't hard but just required dedicated concentration - thank GOODNESS BC3 behaved well throughout!!! All the teapots are in that book.

Crochet puppet!

Do you remember the knitted puppet? Well if not and you haven't 'jumped ship' yet then here's the link.

Now I can knit and do like making socks (as you probably know) but I'm not that fond of using the needles. I do like to crochet, however, so decided to make a crochet puppet. There's a pattern on the knitfornowt site which I read through but then decided to 'wing it' on my own!!!

The hair is crocheted too and I sewed it on while sewing up the puppet. BUT, being the plonker I am, I managed to sew the hair to the inside!!!! I've always told you I'm not fit to be allowed out on my own and now I've proved it. Now I needn't have told you that bit about the hair but it just goes to show that I'm nowt but honest!!! 

Can you see the pocket on this one? That's for the children to put their worries in. 

I wonder what the next puppet will turn out like?!?!?

An idea for a bracelet!

Now I must admit I do love this pattern even though I shouldn't brag that I do!!!! It's such an interesting but easy one once you get started. I re-wrote it a few years ago and it's certainly a lot clearer now even to my fuddled old brain.

So this time I decided I wanted/needed a wider bracelet - more a sort of cuff, I think you'd call it. This is what I've done so far. Yes there are beads missing off the pink side but there's a reason for that. No, I didn't forget to put them there - it was a deliberated thing!!!!

Gold thread comparison

I decided to make another of the Rosemarie Peel stars but this time in size 20 Lizbeth. This was done purely to 'test' the size of the metallic thread.

As I was working the second star (top picture) I kept thinking it was going to be oodles and doodles smaller. So when it was finished I was more than a little surprised to find (see the second picture) that it wasn't 'that' much smaller. 

Yes it would make a difference if you had a specific size in mind and that the item HAD to fit into or onto something - like a bangle bracelet but apart from that it's fine. 

What I wouldn't do now is use a regular Lizbeth thread with the metallic Liz as that would probably not work unless some small adjustments were made to the stitch count on the pattern. 

Hmmmmm, now I've give BC3 an idea I just MAY have to try that out!!!