My first venture into felting
A couple of years back I thought it would be fun to try spinning my own yarn. It seemed simple enough; it looked easy in movies. When we visited Homestead Heritage with my in-laws, I bought a drop spindle kit.
I have to laugh at my naivety now. Who honestly buys a kit and thinks, oh spinning will be a breeze? Eventually my patience with it ran thin. Well, I say eventually. This about as much as I managed:
My spun...blue? I'm not sure what it is.
This is where that little birdie comes in. I bought a needle felting kit from Michaels (yep, another kit!) After some playing around, I decided to make a bird. It took several hours, but was oddly therapeutic. From there I bought some more felt and got a bit more creative in my endeavours.
Hector, my zombie buddy
Eventually, I’ll get back to the spinning. There’s plenty of blue left. I think I need a class, though. I need someone to sit down with me and show me what to do. I realise the spun yarn is not going to be anywhere near even or consistent (which will undoubtedly drive me crazy) for quite a while.
I have done some knitting recently, but not on the shawl. I’m a great procrastinator. A while back I got in my head that I’d like a bow necklace. I didn’t use a pattern on this necklace. I made it out of Loops & Threads Impeccable from my stash on size 10 straight needles.
My little bow necklace
Basically it’s this:
Cast on 16 stitches.
RS: Knit across
WS: Purl across
Repeat this 6 times (so you have a total of 14 rows). Bind off and weave in your ends. Pinch the middle until you get the pleating you like best. Use a long strand of yarn to wrap the middle tightly and securely. Tie the yarn and use a crochet hook to pull the knot under the wrap. Attach a chain (I prefer long ones as I don’t really like clasps). Voila!
Now, I should probably get back to that shawl. We are down to 11 days and counting.
For the Knit of It 