Monday, May 19, 2008

I've been using my thumb as a pin cushion this weekend.

Ouch! My thumb has several pin sized holes in it. No, I didn't do it on purpose. It is just one of those things you can expect when you needle felt a 3D figure (oh, and I have poked myself a few times doing needle felting on a flat surface too).

You may remember on Mother's Day weekend Lisa Anderson and I met up at the Shepherd's Harvest Wool and Sheep Festival in Lake Elmo, MN. We both fell in love with the 3D needle felted figures at one of the booths (pictured in Lisa's post here). Being the adventurous and artistic person that I am, I of course had to try it out for myself.

It was my first time needle felting in 3D. Since I have an alpaca farm tour coming up this fall, I need to work on projects to sell anyway. I decided to start out making an alpaca. What do you think? Does it look like an alpaca? I think it just needs a little more fuzz (sorry for the poor quality photo, I took it with my camera phone).



I have also been busy loom knitting some afghan blocks for my friend's comfort-ghan. There are sparkly silver strands (not showing up in the pic) in the super soft yarn I used in this block and I didn't want to distract from these strands so I just used a simple e-wrap stitch.



I wanted to use some of my super soft alpaca but unfortunately, I think the color is too dark for the stitch pattern I came up with (yes, I'll write it up for those who would like to use the pattern in their own loom knit projects). It is still pretty and the texture is nice anyway. I think I'll use it for my shrug I was suppose to be loom knitting for the May LAL on Ravelry. I'll need to use my DA adult hat loom though. Hopefully it will be wide enough. It will be 24 inches if I use all of the pegs.



Until next time!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That alpaca is absolutely adorable. I want one. Or at least tell me how to make one. :D

I also like the pattern you are using on your shrug. Very cool. I gave up with the loom knit one as I really didn't like the e-wrap that most of the provocraft patterns use. You know me....don't really like to follow a pattern. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to your next post!

Steph

Robin McCoy said...

I love your little felted alpaca. I am with Steph...I want one or to at least know how to make one. :D I want a whole little collection of felted animals...but only the ones that we use fur to make yarn on a regular basis (i.e. alpacas, sheep, rabbits). I can't get those silly rabbits from Lisa's pics out of my head! I want a silly rabbit so badly now. I even told Chris that in between hair cuts (or whatever it is you do to bunnies to get their fur for spinning) we could use it as a fuzzy pillow on the couch! :D
How much would you charge for the little felted alpacas? You did a really good job!