First Time Felting For Me!

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Felting has always been one of those things that I have always wanted to give a try. Just recently I saw something that caught my eye on Ravelry. A couple of people have made felted coasters out of the free knitted star coaster pattern from knittingonthenet.com. You can check them out here and here. Anywho, the last time we were out shopping Hubby took me to Michael's to find some real wool so I could give this felting thing a go! Found some really nice colour combos so that made me happy and I went home and casted on the star coaster pattern. I found out real fast that I didn't like the method of picking up stitches along the side of my star after every wedge so I ripped it out and went looking for some other kind of knitted star that I could use. The first star shape that came to mind was Dione's great starfish cloth! I figured after the felting that my finished creation was going to shrink a whole bunch anyway so I thought why not do up a dishcloth? So there I went again...casted on the required 15 stitches and went to work. What a wonderful pattern to follow...the only change I made was I didn't do the yarn overs as I didn't know how the holes would look when felted so I just knit in the front and back of the stitch before the yarn over as not to make a hole. Here is my finished starfish knit with Patons Classic Wool/Rosewood.

Isn't it pretty? All those beautiful colours together? I was extremely happy with the way it knit up. So now I had the shape I wanted and it was time to figure out what method for felting I would use. I was reluctant to throw it in the washer as I didn't want to just have this one little bitty thing to throw in there and also I didn't want to throw anything else in with it being scared of the colours mixing in the hot water. So I found these great instructions on knittingabout.com for hand felting. I threw my star in a sink of really hot water with a tad bit of dishwashing soap and I swished away with it in there. It didn't take long at all for it to shrink and start getting all fuzzy...so I just kept doing that until I thought it looked good and then I rinsed it in cold water and lay out to fully dry. Here is my finished felted starfish.

As you can see it shrunk quite a bit...it's still a bit big to be considered a coaster but I am more than happy with the way it turned out no matter what it gets used for. Now I'm trying to figure out what else I could felt. What a neat thing to do with wool! There are so many things to try...bags, bowls, slippers, flowers, vases...the possiblities really are endless!

Feeling Blue............

Not the sad kind of blue, but the colour blue of course! If anyone knows me, they know that I am just crazy over the colour blue! Especially when it comes to things in my kitchen! I seem to be drawn to this colour for whatever reason...people laugh at me when I tell them that I love when Hubby takes me into Canadian Tire and Home Hardware cuz they have a wonderful selection of "kitcheny" things and lots of them in blue too!

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So you can just imagine the look on my face when I received this Gorgeous Blue Snowman Lamp from my dear friend Marilyn! She told me that she was sending me a little package for Christmas and she said it was delicate and fragile so I was expecting something small...when Hubby walked in with the parcel I nearly fell off my chair! Marilyn made me this beautiful lamp out of an old wine jug...it is so unique and so cute and so BLUE!!!
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As you can see, it matches perfect! Not sure if you can see, but the lamp shade is all sparkly too! If you click on the pictures you can see all the work that went into this beauty!
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Here is a close-up photo of the adorable snowmen..these cute little guys made their way around the whole lamp...pretty cute, hey?

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And here you can see the sparkly snow on the bottom of the lamp...when the lamp is turned on they just sparkle like real snow in the sunshine!
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Here it is all lit up...it looks sooo pretty in the evening...I just love it so much! Thank you so very much Marilyn for taking the time to do all this for me!
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And another big thank you is definitely in order...this time for my dear friend, Mary Anne! If you don't know Mary Anne, you seriously have to get on over to her blog...every Friday she updates her blog with all that's been going on in her life that week...sometimes it's knitting, sometimes it's not, sometimes it's pictures of the beautiful scenery or of a certain fella with his bike...but whatever it is, Mary Anne always has this charming way of entertaining her readers with a little humor and a little education too! Anyway, last night when Hubby came home from work, he gave me a package that came in the mail addressed to me! Here it was an envelope filled with beautiful knitted dishcloths in all tones of blue!
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Don't they all look wonderful on my kitchen counter? I love them all! There are of course Mary Anne's extremely famous Feather and Fans and also there were a couple in the Basket Rib stitch!
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Check out her beautiful yellow card with the blue flowers on it...so pretty!
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And she even sealed the envelope with a teddy...how adorable!
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All ready to dive into all those bubbles and do the dirty work now!
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Thank you so very much Mary Anne for all the delightful blue dishcloths, I love them all!
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Hugs and Love to the pair of you for thinking of me and taking the time to brighten my holiday and making me feel special with these beautiful gifts made from the heart!