Monday, September 28, 2009

A new adventure!

They say sometimes opportunity knocks and you should answer the door. Sometimes though, you can get so distracted that opportunity has to knock you over the head to get you to answer it! That has happened to me.

I used to do a lot of plastic canvas a few years ago but got bored with it. I had some left over tapestry wool that I hadn't used and didn't know what to do with it. I thought of crocheting something out of it, but dreaded weaving in all those ends as the skeins are very tiny. I decided to try felting it and made a very colorful fish hot pad and a small purse for myself. That was a couple of years ago.



Also around that time, as I was experimenting with felting, I saw an ad for a design contest on Elann.com. You had to use their yarn. I finally came up with a design and ordered the yarn, however, by this time, the deadline was almost upon me. By the time I got the purse figured out and made, the deadline was waaay past! :( Not to be put off, I decided to use the purse myself.

The purse was made to look like a flame when the flap was opened. I decided to call it "Eternal Flame" and made it to represent the eternal flame of hope kind of like they use in the Olympics.



To make a long story short, I have been using these 2 purses for a couple of years now and I am still getting as many comments on them now as I did when I first made them! The message finally sunk in one day (personally, I got tired of being hit over the head :) and I have decided to design, make and sell my crocheted felted purses! I'm just in the process of making a few purses to start and looking into maybe setting up a web site. I'm taking this one day at a time for now.

This is the first one of many. It's made from Lion Brand Wool in Lemon Grass and cocoa.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

felting

I bought a ball of a yarn called Mainland Earth Collection. It's 80% Baby Alpaca and 20% Silk. I originally bought it to try some free form crochet with, but wasn't happy with the outcome. I decided to try felting it and this is the result. I thought it turned out rather well. I only ended up with a small bowl, but it would look nice on a dresser or table with something colorful in it.