Wool and Wossit

Finally - here's the bauble tutorial I promised you earlier in the week.  I know there's load of different ways of doing them out there, but here is my own personal favourite. 1.  Take a ball of knitting wool.  This can be any type, it doesn’t matter if there’s actually any wool content or not.  The thicker the wool though, the faster you will be able to make the core for your bauble. 2.  Wind the wool around your fingers, until you have a fairly large ‘lump’ then remove from your fingers and wind into a tight ball. 3.  When the ball of yarn is the size which you would like your bauble to be, stop winding the yarn onto it and cut the strand you are winding.   4.Take a piece of wool roving and begin wrapping the yarn ball in the roving.  You need enough roving to completely cover the ball of yarn, so that it doesn’t show through the roving.  Needle the roving into place if necessary. 5. Place ...

I've had a lovely time lately, making these: They're a lot of fun - so much so that I thought I'd do a tutorial for you. I'm very evangelical when it comes to felting you see - I strongly feel that everyone in the world would really enjoy it, if they just gave it one little go.  I may therefore be posting quite a few felting tutorials for you to enjoy.  Of course, I do also sell kits to make these baubles, so give me a shout if you'd like one.  They have full colour instructions written by yours truly, and featuring many pictures of my hand stabbing stuff with a very sharp needle. This bauble with the trees on it is my current favourite, even though when producing the original bauble blank, I managed to make one that wasn't completely round.  I think it just gives it a bit more character.  What do you think? :) I'm also considering using better string to hang them, as I don't think that the embroidery silk looks particularly good.  I...

So, incase you were wondering, this is what I've been up to lately...  I'm hugely in love with autumn colours this year.  I've made a load of very autumnal bags and purses, as well as some felted cards.  The sales side of things has been pretty good, but I hate to see these pieces go, as I only make them once.  It must be a bit like seeing your child leave home for the first time.  It's funny but I never consider keeping any of them - it's more that I hope they have a good life with their new family, where ever they end up. All of the bags are wet felted over a resist made from a double thickness of bubble wrap.  I like to use bubble wrap as a resist as I probably massively over water everything when felting, so a waterproof resist is more practical, also with a double layer you can feel where the edges are more easily.  Plus, the little bumps help the piece to felt inside while I'm concentrating on the outside.  Some days, you need all t...