mad hatter ?

There are many things I want to try.

I mean : that I want to try making things.

I'm always curious if my craftsmanship

is good enough to create something I see

that someone I admire has done.

Most of the time it's then that you realize that making wonderful things

takes a lot of time and a lot of practice !

Felting wasn't "my baby" in the beginning

but when I realized how it worked, in the way of planning ahead,

I started to like it very much.

But making a felted hat ...

no I hadn't done that,

probably because I like hats, but I think they don't look very good on me .....

So when a friend said she wanted to make her own felted hat

I agreed to give it a try, because I know how it's done ...

Last Monday she came over and we both started making a hat !

It was a fun day, talked a lot,

had lunch ...

and in the end, there really was a hat !

(mine was still in a premature state because my main task was helping her) 

Yesterday I continued where I left off on Monday

I chose the same colours and the same fabric for the "nuno"

as the bag I made some months ago

And after a LOT of serious rolling and gentle throwing

this was the result.

There are still some linen threads visible that I used

to keep things in place during the process.

After it has dried completely I will remove those

and be the proud owner of a homemade hat !

(but no, I don't think I will compete with Alice's Mad Hatter !)

concertina

"container"

A wide variety of things

probably comes into your mind

when you think of that word.

As my first felt project of this year

I wanted to make a start for the "felt-along" :

thirty odd people, who love felt in all it's aspects,

who sometimes like to set themselves a goal

to make, under the same denominator,

something interesting out of

FELT

The "felt-along" is held for the 8 th time

but this is the first time I 'm participating,

because I thought it was fun to give it a try !

" Gefässe aller Art "

(all kind of containers / vessels)

Lots of ideas were tumbling through my head,

lots of things to try

.....

and this is what I've come up with !

" CONCERTINA "

I thought this name was appropriate for the form I made

And, container ... ?

well you could put in

...

some pencils ...

little pieces of paper with little poems written on it ...

some beautiful stones ...

some flowers (in tiny glass pots) ...

or whatever you like !

or

...

nothing !

*

... a bit of the making-of ...

So far, this will be my entry,

but there might be others :

lots of ideas left !

( My next step will be to post it on the other blog

being my "felt-along" contribution )

winter ... ?

No, winter hasn't been around here (yet)

Still hoping for a bit of snow

or ice

...

( though not everybody will agree to that )

No, nature isn't expecting much "winter" anymore as it seems

one would say, looking at this !

( but I might be totally wrong .... )

 *

I do love the colours of this new self-striping Regia sock yarn !

The top one are socks for me, knitted by my daughter,

the bottom one is the just finished pair

for the little birthday boy

I can hardly believe it myself :

but I started the second sock this morning

( I'm not an early riser in the weekend )

and it was finished by 6 pm ... !

A sock a day ???

Never did thát before !

Yes, I know

these socks are not as big as mine :

I cast on 60 for mine
and only cast on 52 stitches for these

nevertheless

.....

Though I don't think my hands will like it very much

if I do this kind of thing every week

So now I really can go back to felting and stitching

pffffft !

a new year ...

Oooooh wow,

a whole week of the new year is already gone !

where was I ?

Taking it reeeeeal easy :

fun with the grandchildren,

a bit of sale - shopping

in my favourite Cora Kemperman shop,

a bit of knitting

.....

just  s l o w l y  starting again

Within two weeks there will be two happy, I hope, birthday boys !

( one big, one small ) 

*

Today I took some time to play

with my beautiful Karisma colour pencils

and made two little mandalas

In the second one there appeared some jungle animals

... I hadn't plánned that ... 

but it might be because I saw a picture of a leopard

earlier in this morning's newspaper ...

( he, or she, was found in a North - Indian city,

attacking people,

these big cats start to come out of the jungle

because their habitat is getting smaller and smaller ) 

Two other little mandalas are waiting to be send away

but I'm still missing one address

( so please Fiona ..... and yes Yvette it is the mail )

so for now only some details

*

And my plan is ( although I didn't make any resolutions )

to start again making some felt-fabrics

......