Fiber Fool

Today was the monthly birthday gathering for the Monday afternoon (and sometimes Wednesday) knitting group I go to. April seems to be a very popular month for babies. I have several relatives with birthdays within a week of mine. In college and high school I had several friends who fell into that range as well. And, this knitting group is no different! There were four of us (three of us in attendance). So, I had to pull together something to gift my fellow Aries babies.

I decided on felted notebook covers. The one I made for the holiday exchange was a huge hit and the cause of some fights. Since I did not know if any of these women journal or use sketchbooks I thought a smaller, purse-friendly version would be more universal of a gift. So, I got a 3-pack of the small kraft moleskine journals and made covers for those. They too seemed to be a hit.

The photo at the top of the post used one of my new birthday toys - a +4 close-up filter :-) Thanks Mom and Dad!

For more fun felting blog posts, check out this week’s Fiber Friday at Alpaca Farm Girl’s Blog!

Last Friday I ventured up to Wellington in search of more needles (do you ever get to the point where you have all the needles you might need?) and some of the gals I knit with on Mondays were going to be there knitting so got my needles and stayed a while. I did more number crunching than actual knitting, but it is nice to get out of the house and into public once in a while :-)

While I was there we had a visitor to Nanytutu’s - a llama! I’m afraid I don’t really know the whole story, but I think there were 3 or 4 the woman picked up from a rescue. She’s a friend of Nancy’s and brought him by to say hi. That’s Nancy in the photo with him. He’s a younger one, I think this spring will be his first shearing if I heard the new owner right.

One might think it extremely odd to have an llama show up out of the blue for a visit, but for Nanytutu’s that isn’t terribly odd. Not too long ago a woman lost a bet about being able to train a chicken and had to knit a cape for the chicken. She didn’t even know how to knit! So, Nancy taught her and helped her design a cape for him and he even wore it in a city parade, LOL!

Last week we also celebrated January birthdays at Sheila’s house once again. This time we took felt and turned it into pins. I didn’t get to photograph all of them, but there was a stunning variety produced by the talented gals who got together that day. I have to say mine paled in comparison to everyone else, but I hadn’t planned on taking part either. I was kind of concentrating on trying to wrap up another pattern.

‘Tis the season for last minute and inexpensive gifts! This past Sunday one of my knitting groups hat a holiday gathering at the mountain home of one of the founding members. We were asked to bring a handmade gift with materials adding up to $10 or less. We did not *have* to make the gift, though that of course was highly encouraged. We drew numbers and each person could steal an already open gift or open a wrapped gift. Each gift could only be stolen twice. After that it was at its permanent home.

My plan was to make a handbound knitting journal with a hand felted cover. Nothing was going quite right in terms of the handbound book and was working on it at the very last minute (of course), so I went with plan B and bought a blank journal at the bookstore. Despite the store bought journal it was one of the gifts to get stolen the maximum number of times.

The cover used dyed corriedale roving in several different colors which I hand felted using bubble wrap to aid in the agitation. Because it wasn’t a large piece I skipped the stabilizing sheer fabric. Once the felt was dry I wrapped it around the journal, folding the front edge to form a pocket that hooked on the front cover of the book. I used needle felting to close the pocket seamlessly and also to attach a length of handspun mohair yarn for the closure. Three different buttons before sewing them to the cover to wrap the yarn around. I chose to not make a back pocket because the edges of handmade felt are so interesting.

It was a really economical project in both time and funds and is one of my favorite things I’ve made this year. Go figure! LOL!