"Warm Fuzzies"

This book, by Betz White, made me wish that I had kept every wool sweater that I could not wear because they gave me rashes - and every sweater that I tried to wear & later shrank in the wash ! Most books about felting & fulling are written about newly knitted or felted items. This book, however, is eco-friendly and has a wealth of projects that utilize old,worn out sweaters and other knit goods. Some of the projects are perhaps more suited to a younger crowd but there are a few that are just plain fabulous. I ran right out to our local thrift store - but found that the sweaters there were too costly to invest in for craft projects - and would be better served leaving them for people who need to get warm! I am showing the pages of two of my favorite projects from the book. A Cupcake Pincushion (shown on the cover and in the photos below) and a bowl that I have shown in the last photos(yes, I really do LOVE bowls!). I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves crafting and has (or can get) a supply of old, worn wool sweaters, mittens, or scarves. If anyone has a great source for them - let me know ! I want to make 'cupcakes'!

Textile Hardeners

I have been trying out various methods of textile hardening. I am SO desirous of taking a class with Lisa Klakulak to learn some of her techniques with felts. Her felted bags just make me swoon! She uses shellac flakes in her work and I was not yet quite ready to try that out yet. The GAC400 works really well though. The photos above is a knitted, felted bowl that is now hardened sufficiently to seriously contain whatever I put in it. I made the bottom of the bowl very hard (you can knock it on a counter kind of hard) and watered the solution down a bit so that the sides are hardened but still retain the feel of knitted felt - actually a fulled knit rather than a true felt. I have been experimenting with various amounts of the solution for different effects. I really like this product. Next I will try to use it on a true felted vessel and see how it works... and I will report on the experiments here. I have applied for a scholarship for one of Lisa's workshops - so I am asking for all of your good thoughts that I will be the lucky person who gets chosen ! Then I can learn about how she uses shellac flakes for hardening - as well as all of the other things I want to know about !