Upcoming workshops....'cause a hard rains a gonna fall...

Not that I'm predicting us all to be inside for the next 8 months 

but you all know what's coming....autumn, rain, winter, rain,

maybe a bit of snow to put us all in a Canadian state of mind, more rain....

(did I mention there's going to be rain?)

Therefore you may be looking to try your hand at some felting classes

at the local wool shop...something to keep your fingers busy on those

cold dark nights.

Seaside Yarn and Button here in Sooke will be offering quite a few of these 

fun, short intro classes to this highly addictive art form and 

yours truly will be hosting several.

So what's on hand?

An owl perhaps...

...a sleeping fox?

 ...maybe an orca?

...little fuzzy acorns for the tree?

 ...for a little more challenge, you could make a wee gnome (or gnomett if you're so inclined)

Here's the link for you with all the info...hope to see you there!

History relocated...

On Sunday Norene and I travelled up Island to Irma's but first

we made a stop at the wool shop just north of there.

The Loom is a tiny little shop chock a block full of wool, roving and 

all things wool related. 

It's located within a tiny little town that was once somewhere else.

Whipple Tree Junction, just south of Duncan is made up 

of 14 buildings which were actually Duncan's China town.

They were destined to be demolished in 1969 and fortunately 

for all of us, one man decided to save them and relocate them here...

They have been a variety of different business' over the years

but the integrity of the buildings has stayed in tact, including the brightly colored paint...

Along with the buildings there are a number of artifacts and relics of the past

strewn everywhere you look...

There's even a teapot garden of sorts...

We were there on a Sunday so sadly, most shops weren't

open until noon, including our beloved wool shop...

 At least drooling through the window was free!...

LOVE this doorknob on the coffee shop...

In a corner of the courtyard there's an old rusting contraption...

Upon further investigation, I discovered it was an old printing press.

Made in Brooklyn, NY around 1920, this 'line casting' machine was capable of

printing whole lines of type at once! Wow! can you imagine?!

It was used to print newspapers.

As I look at pictures of this thing and watch my fingers typing

on my laptop, I can't help but marvel at how far we've come.

I couldn't even fathom how this type machine worked with all of its levers

and levels and cranks and buttons!

And the noise it must have produced!

Will someone. someday find one of our laptops in a field

and wonder the same thing a hundred years from now?

We continued our walk around Whipple Tree  loving

all the rusty bits and antiques...

This cute little shop would be a gorgeous studio...

 Speaking of studios...would love to come back sometime

to visit this weavers, spinners space...

So for now I leave you with a taste of this history

relocated in all its quaintness and beauty of the past...

 

Something new...

I've been working on a new bag for a bit now and finally finished it.

Imagine that a beautiful and tough piece of fabric starts out as tufts of wool!...

My first attempt was much too big and that along with a few other factors,

 like not paying attention and not reviewing my process before I started,

resulted in a bit of a failure...BUT...I persevered and decided to go much smaller

and not be in such a hurry to get to the finished project.

Oh, I can hear my dad's words echoing from my childhood...

"Patience is a virtue, Kerry!"

Anyway I'm quite happy with the final outcome...

The spring flower pattern was a bit dull when the bag dried so I went

over bits of them with some needle felting to give them and the green stems more depth.

The inside is made from some alpaca that was too itchy for use in anything

wearable and I love how the colour is darker on the inside...

The strap was made up from the same colours as the outside of the bag,  

some gorgeous, soft merino-silk blends and strands of pure, died silk from 'Knotty by Nature' wool shop in Victoria...

Yesterday as I was working on the strap, we had a wicked wind storm and

at a few times during the day it hailed quite heavily.

So in keeping with the spring theme, I needle felted little white dots

to represent how crazy the weather can be at this time of year...

After I took this photo, I realized that I had been secretly inspired by the very couch I was sitting on!

Funny how the size of the bag is just the perfect size to fit my wallet and a Lindt chocolate bar!

Hmmm, I wonder how that happened?!

 

(p.s I just noticed this is my 800th post! who knew!)

 

 



Warm and fuzzy...

So Norene and I set out to attempt to make wet felted slippers.

It was an extremely long process and made all the more difficult since

we'd never done these before. Wet felting, yes... hats, gauntlets, bowls and cuffs

but never a pair of slippers. We were a bit nervous about the amount of wool

to be used. As you can see in these pictures, Norene is beginning to lay

out the many, many tufts of roving...

It's about 8 - 12 layers.

I won't go into the fine details as I've already talked about wet felting in previous posts.

It took about 4 and a half hours to get to this point...

Obviously the one on the left is finished and the one on the right still has to be worked into shape.

It's amazing how big they start!

By the way, did you notice that these ones are NOT the same colours as the pictures above?

That's because the first pair turned out to be a bit of a disaster which is

a learning curve and we won't go into how much we learned.

Let's just say that it was enough knowledge to make us want to conquer another pair.

Never let a craft beat you!

Anyway the second pair turned out pretty good except I might change the

pattern a bit  next time...

I added some pretty orange silk bits to the tops to break up the grey colour...

I love the green / gold colours of the inside...

So there you go...one more reason to visit the wool shop!

(like I needed one!)