Events for 2008

Artists Clearing House at Crossings March 29-30, 2008
Textile Camp at Crossings July 21-25, 2008
Midwest Felting Symposium Madison, WI July 23-27, 2008 (just attending classes!)
RAC Artists Morning December 6, 2008
Fabrications V at Crossings at Carnegie December 2008

more to be added later I hope

New Felting Books

I've acquired several new books over the last few weeks:
How We Felt by Carol Juber Cypher
Uniquely Felt by Christine White
Complete Feltmaking by Gilliam Harris
Fabulous Felted Scarves by Chad Alice Hagen and Jorie Johnson
Felt to Stitch by Shelia Smith
Needle Felting by Hand or Machine by Linda Turner Griepentrog and Pauline Wilde Richards
I like them all, but I won't declare a favorite publicly in case any of these authors are reading my blog. Haha.

I will be trying out some new techniques soon, though, including Chris White's ribbon felt, and some nuno collage. My dear hubby gave me a needle felting tool for a Christmas gift so I will be embellishing. A needle felting machine will have to be a long term member of my wish list, as they are pretty expensive. I did not bring any felting projects on our Christmas travels, so I brainstormed instead about what kind of vessels I want to try. I will have to order more batts, or maybe roving. I'd rather use batts.

I bought some Felbi prefelts made by Fibre Fusion. I purchased them from Outback Fibers. I am anxious to try them out.

There are pictures of some of my pieces on the Bluff Country Artists Gallery website.
Also there is a possibility that I will teach at the Textile Camp this summer at Crossings at Carnegie. I am pretty excited about the prospect.

Christmas Gifts Made

For my grandmother, a hat with ear flaps. Modeled by my daughter.

For Sandy and Dennis, felted coasters.

For the kids' godparents, felted Christmas ornaments.

December ramblings

Today, I mailed four pieces to Bluff Country Artists Gallery in Spring Grove. They were wet felted pieces-2 large and 2 small.


There will be an "artists clearinghouse" at Crossings in Zumbrota in March. I have a couple of months to get ready for that.

Rochester Athletic Club Artists' Morning

Last weekend was the RAC Artist's morning. I'm glad I participated. It was an easy way to get an idea how to do a show, what things people liked, how to arrange the table, etc. I didn't sell very much but that was ok.

Fabrications IV: Fibers and Finery

I just got back from the Fabrications artists open house at Crossings. It was tremendous fun to meet all the other artists and hear about what kinds of things they do.


There were several jewelry artists. I admit, I'm not much into jewelry, but I am starting to appreciate the different types and methods of jewelry making. There were some fused glass pieces that I liked a lot, as well as some made from metalic clay that is then baked or fired to reveal the metal. They were all pretty. One lady was also a painter, so she had scanned some of her artwork into pendant sizes and made necklaces.


The silk fusion pieces were beautiful. Another artist dyed silk. I bought one of her scarves for my mother in law. The wool hooked-rug pieces were attractive...much more contemporary designs rather than the traditional looking pieces you might expect to see in hooked rugs.


There were all kinds of knitted scarves, weaving, pieced table runners, and Native American mandelas. There were even vessels woven from water-colored paper.
I must admit I was quite pleased when Crossings owner, Marie Marvin told me she like my pieces. I guess I am a praise junkie.


Here are some of the pieces I submitted for the show.

My felted vessel

This is the vessel that I started in Sharon Costello's Felted Vessels class at the Midwest Felting Symposium in July. I brought it home without any surface decoration except for the silk cap on the outer surface. My kids said it looked like a pumpkin...not what I was going for. Finally I got brave and did some cutting on the surface. Then I needle felted some variagated wool yarn onto the surface and added beads to the cuts. The result is something like flowers. I am quite pleased with it and will NOT be selling this one. I guess I'm a bit sentimental since it is my first one.

November knitting

I submitted 5 entries to Fabrications IV: Fibers and Finery at Crossings at Carnegie. The acceptance email came Thursday, and I can bring in other things as well, if I choose. I submitted 4 knitted and fulled items, and one of my large felted vessels. The pictures are not the best. DH suggested that the color of our table is not a good background. I've noticed that our camera does funny things with pinks.




I am still working on the hats. They are a lot of work. One I made with random leftovers that I had. I took it off the needles but I'm not sure I'm done knitting yet. The other hat is 6 colors with lots of stripes. It is a bit complicated in construction, but I am almost done with the knitting part and will be able to piece it together soon. Meanwhile I have gotten a load of felting books from the library (thank you Interlibrary Loan System), and I am trying to generate some felting (not fulling) ideas to try when I get these hats completed. There are so many things to explore. I love doing vessels, but I may try some felted hats as well. Maybe I should take a class before I try it.

October check in

It's almost Halloween and that means that Crossings at Carnegie will soon be having its fiber art show. This year it will be called "Fibers and Finery." I need to pick 3-5 items to submit. They've asked me to make some hats that are similar to my bowls. I might get one done by the submission deadline, if I really get to work.
I have 2 felt bowls (traditional felting, not knit-n-full) that I will enter, unless I decide to send them to Bluff Country Artists Gallery. I was stuck on these 2 bowls for awhile. They didn't seem finished to me, but I couldn't figure out what else they needed. Finally, I got brave, and did some cutting on one of them, revealing the contrasting colors of the layers of wool beneath the surface. I may add some beads as well. To the other one I needle felted some strands of variagated mohair yarn and curly wool locks and added some beads. I really like the sparkle added by the beads. They adds a lot of interest to the pieces I've used them on. I've added beads to some of my knit-n-full pieces that I wasn't quite satisfied with, and the beads, combined with needlefelting really made a difference.
I'll have to put up some pictures.
In an ideal world, I would: knit'n'full 2 hats, make 2 more felted bowls, frame some of the work I've already done, create some pictures using needle felting, as well as knit Christmas gifts for everyone I know.

Back on track

The kids are back in school. I like being back in a predictable routine. But I still feel as though I'll never catch up on household things. And I can't do much art until I do. But here are some results of the past...ahem...many weeks since I last posted. These vessels have been fulled in the washing machine. You can see them pre-fulled in the previous post.

Here is the vessel I made at the Midwest Felting Symposium in Madison, WI. I still need to do some cutting on it, but I haven't worked up the courage yet. While the vessels above are made by knitting then fulling, the vessel below is truly felted. I made it using 4 layers of unspun wool, bits of yarn, and a silk cap.

The Before Pictures

Here are the before pictures of the three bowls that need to be fulled.
They do look a bit strange at this stage. They don't hold their shape very well until they have been fulled. When they shrink, the fabric becomes much more dense. Some yarns work better than others though. I've made a few bowls that continue to be a bit floppy even after fulling. It's disappointing when that happens, but it's a learning experience. The brown and green one has Lamb's pride and Araucania Nature Wool. The pink and blue bowls are made with Ella Rae yarn.

Knitting complete

I finished the knitting portion of another bowl. Now that I have three projects (I think) ready for the fulling process, I'll do the fulling this week. I'll try to post before and after pictures.
The bowl I just finished has rouching all along the sides. It is done in greens and browns.
Another bowl ready for the washer has a blue ruffly "skirt" along the bottom, which is supposed to look like a puddle of water leaking out from the side of the bowl. I attached a little i-cord coming out the side of the bowl to look like the water pouring out of the side into the puddle. I'm optimistic that it will be attractive when finished, but after all, it is an experiment. Keep your fingers crossed.
The third bowl is pink and burgundy, with little antennas all along the top. It's more silly looking than the others.
I may have a couple of other things I need to send through the fulling process, but I can't for the life of me remember what they are, and tonight I am at my folks house so I'll have to look tomorrow.

July goals

Looking back at my goals for June, I see that I got amost none of them done. I'll have to chalk it up to the kids being home for summer and having a totally crazy schedule with all their activities. July is also busy with family stuff, but here are my optimistic goals for July:

• Design a piece for TLDdesign Center and Gallery's student show in December


• Produce 5 knitted and fulled vessels including items from June that need completing


• Produce 1 wet felted piece


• Visit SEMVA


• Take the Felt Vessels class by Sharon Costello class at Midwest Felting Symposium


• Frame a my felted fish piece


• Frame my broken crayons piece

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!
We had a pretty layed back holiday. I wound some balls of yarn from some hanks I got at a second hand store. They were all labeled 100% wool, but since all wool is not created equal, I also knitted some small swatches to make sure the wool will felt. I haven't run them through the washer yet.
At noon, we had a picnic in a park. I had a lovely afternoon nap. We spent time this evening shooting off fireworks and lighting sparklers.

Find and Refine

Crossings at Carnegie is having an exhibition called Find and Refine. I submitted 3 bowls to the show. They were made by recycling a wool sweater. After I felted them in the washing machine, I embellished them with matalic yarn. The metalic yarn really made them pop.

June's goals

My goal for June was to complete 3 projects. I didn't quite make it. I started my third project today, and my first 2 aren't quite finished. The first one is ready to be fulled/felted. The second one is almost ready. I have to tweak some things before it goes in the washer.
The third one is on the needles. I'm using Nicky Epstein's Knitting Beyond the Edge as inspiration. I have read her new book Knitting Never Felt Better, but it had to go back to the library. I will get my own copy. Nicky is one of the authors I get the most inspiration from. I especially liked her shibori ideas...felting around small objects to give the felted project another dimension. One of my goals for the summer is to use the shibori technique in a project.
The Midwest Felting Symposium is coming up in a few weeks. I will be taking a 2 day class: Felt Vessels: Exploring Images and Forms taught by Sharon Costello.

What do I knit?

What do I knit?
Mostly I knit bowls. I design them and knit them with wool yarn. Then I felt the knitted bowls in the washing machine. Some would say that I "full" the bowls, since felting is the process of making fabric from unspun fibers. I respect that, since I have done that sort of felting, too. But, if I use the term "fulling" or "fulled", most people won't know what I'm talking about. Most of the time I say that I "felt" the bowls. I don't really want to get into a debate about vocabulary. I like all forms of felt-making I have tried. The bowl above is made from Loft yarn. I loved the colors of the yarn, so this is definitely a color-inspired piece. This bowl is currently on display at Bluff Country Artists Gallery in Spring Grove, Minnesota.

Let me finish my row!

"Let me finish my row!" It seems like I say that a lot. Any chance I get, I have my knitting in my hand. Before I can go on to the next thing, you have to let me finish my row. Knitting to the end of a row gives me the sense that I have completed something-or at least that I have made measurable progress.
I love knitting. It fits my lifestyle. It's tidy (except for the pile of knitting stuff on my dining room table). I can pick it up and put it down when duty calls. It is portable.
It is theraputic. Knitting for a few minutes allows me to catch my breath after one task before going on to the next. It allows me time to settle down and think. It allows me to be creative.
Here I will share my knitting "adventures" as time permits.