Apr
27
2010
Oh, I am a bad bad blogger. I keep finishing things and taking pictures, but forgetting to put them up. This will be a short little post with pictures, because the Hanami Stole really just speaks for itself. It’s lovely! Thank you Melanie of Pink Lemon Twist for creating this pattern. I’ve knitted it up in an alpaca/silk dusty rose blend, added a few extra beads, and put it into the church auction. It brought in a pretty penny and went to someone who really appreciates it.
Given Hanami’s Japanese motifs, I’ve asked the Japanese maple in my backyard to model it for us…
Sep
14
2009
I have avoided felting. It seems an unkind and unnatural thing to do to yarn than one has loved, fondled, and turned into something wonderful. I am a spinner, after all, and it just seems odd to take perfectly good yarn — yarn that has been organized into sensible plies — and then force it to become all disorganized and fuzzy again. All that hard work, vanished in such a short time!
That said, I wanted slippers for my loom room, a.k.a. my basement with concrete floors.
Even walking to the loom was uncomfortable…and so I decided to do it. I decided to Felt the Pain Away (with apologies to Peaches). I took the woolen odds and ends of various projects and proceeded to knit remnant slippers. The ugliest things I could imagine. See?
And, once again, I knew the only solution was to felt the pain away, but this time, the pain in my eyes. Ye gods! It’s like evil pixelated confetti in shoe form…and yet, like certain bulldogs and babies, strangely cute. After a serious session with two zippered pillowcases, an old towel, and a hot washing machine, they were done. I wore them, standing on towels to absorb the water, once they were cool enough to manage. It did take them much longer to dry than I would have guessed — about 2 days to be fully dry — but they are wonderful!
More examples of these ubiquitous slippers can be found here on Ravelry and the pattern found here on the web.
Who knew felting could be so wrong and yet feel so good…?
