Itty Bitty Knitting - Part 2

Well, it seems that this Itty Bitty Knitting is taking longer than I had planned...or is it just too many 'Itty Bitty' projects on the go. The neighbors have a new baby so with a gift unfinished, the best I could do is this 'Wee Sweater' card. The new parents (especially Mom) loved it so now I can breathe easier knowing that the gift will be made at least in the New Year.

Several other knitting projects have been completed and are ready to wrap to put under the Christmas tree. Can't put them onto the post yet since the recipients may subscribe to my blog postings. I have also had some teaching assignments last month - Fabulous Felted Scarves - for the Edmonton Weavers Guild www.edmontonweavers.org/. Next posting, I will put up photos of my fabulous student's work. I sold my felted scarfs at the annual Edmonton Weavers' Guild sale as well. I have a few available that I will show you here, so if you are still shopping for Christmas gifts, give me a call or email and I can send one or more along to you.

DO YOU KNOW that Interweave Press, the folks who bring you the magazines, Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors, have many ebooks and How To videos available from their website www.interweavepress.com. You can also subscribe to several enewsletters that they publish (nearly every day to my delight). They including Quilting Daily, Cloth Paper Scissors (almost daily)and Knitting Daily. These newsletters include FREE projects and lots of FREE advice for quilters, knitters and journal junkies like myself. This is such a furious time of year and today I am taking a breath following a family birthday, knitting madly and stitching madly to finish Christmas gifts, and just the general furor surrounding Christmas preparations. Now I will get down to writing the annual Christmas letter. I am planning to post one more blog before Christmas so watch for that. In the meantime have a glorious time preparing for your own Christmas celebrations.

Fabulous Felted Fusion

At the Edmonton Weavers Guild (clubweb.interbaun.com/~ewg/) on March 17th. Eight students worked madly all day producing felted scarfs. It was a very diverse group of students - some knew a bit about felting and for others it was a first try. In the morning they made a scarf of just wool roving with decorations of bits of roving from their neighboring students and silk throwsters waste (ask me about this product). Following the layout of the roving and wetting it down everyone spent the morning rolling and rolling their soon to be felted fabric. And voila...the magic of soapy water on wool came alive with resulting Fabulous Felted Scarfs. The afternoon was a second method of laying the roving onto silk and again rolling and rolling. Even the teacher (that would be me) was tired at the end of the day. Eight students produced sixteen Fabulous scarfs. They were all really pleased and so was I. I have been invited to teach another felting class in May. If you want to join me, contact me for registration. Glenn kindly took photos that are posted here.

Fabulous Felted Fusion

Well finally I am back here again.  It is Valentine's Day so I will wish everyone sweet wishes today.

The scarfs in the photos are pieces that I made for the November 2011 Edmonton Weavers Guild Sale.  The pink one didn't sell and I am happy because it matches my winter jacket.  I feel very dressed up when I wear this one.  This was one of the projects that I worked on during the summer of mad felting with friends.  The warm deck was just the place to do this work - me rolling felt underfoot while reading 'girly' novels.  I must have read quite a bit because I did produce quite a few scarfs like these.

There was quite a bit of interest from guild members about the technique that I used to produce these scarfs.  As a result of that, I have been invited to teach this technique.  I call the class 'Fabulous Felted Fusion'.  The class will take place on March 17th at our guild home.  At the time of writing, the class is full.  There is still interest from several potential students so hopefully the class will be held again later in the year.

As I write this my sweetheart is having his afternoon siesta.  He has had a tough year end with a slip on the ice resulting in broken ribs and punctured lung.  He is taking care of himself now and hopefully recovered from that escapade.  He needs a vacation.

I am madly knitting tiny socks for my new wee 'great' nephew born on January 27th.  Photos of those will be in an upcoming posting.

I have been working on a mapping project in my journal this year.  I have been inspired by Jill Berry in an online workshop as well as her book, Personal Geographies.  Now I am seeing 'everything' looking like maps.  I wonder what kind of a map I can make from the baby socks?  Have a look at Jill's blog and website.  Try some 'mapping' and let me know what you come up with.  I will post some of my maps in upcoming days.  It seems that I have much to show but in the meantime I had better get at my work.  Send me photos of your projects.