Roses

What a lovely bunch of roses I was given from Jo and her Jas this morning when we met for coffee. The colours remind me of the colours of the felted soaps. They also gave me a book of felted animals which will be a challenge for me but I will try and see what I come up with, so keep posted.??? The chocolates are in the fridge hiding from me till I get a chocattack.!!!!
Check on Home Cottage Creations for Jo and Jas blog and check out what they are doing. We have a lot in common, with our animals, gardening and spinning/felting/weaving.
If you look closely you can see Twiggy my siamese curled up sleeping on her favorite recliner. How spoilt is she.

Hand Felted Soap

What beautiful colours this basket displays hand felted soap. For the soap that all you have to do is add water and wash as normal soap. The more you use it the more it felts. It will end up a small ball of felt so as a lot of people ask can it be recovered. NO. The soap lasts longer, and is great as a skin exfoliater.
It also is not slippery and therefor less likely to slip through your hand, so great for the arthritic hands or anybodys, small to large.
You could just have a few in a basket for display and spray on perfume to make the room smell lovely.
I had a lovely time making them, but I need lots of towels, detergent and cups of tea in between stages.
My hand look like prunes and have to stop when I need for them to recover.

Hand felted soap, using natural bath soap as a base but you could use exotic or those beautiful perfume soaps, detergent to help cover the many colours of pre hand dyed merino fleece, lot of rubbing but well worth the result.

Rest Haven for Animals

Two galahs, who dont think they are galahs. One coughs coughs and will occasionally give a wolf wistle. Then a Rabbitt Rabbitt. goodness knows how they came up with these.

Above is Milly the dog and here found her on the recliner chair, "sprung", and we have Pepper the beautiful Burmese cat have a wonderful relaxing time on the couch next to a ball of wool, on holidays at my place whilst their owner (my sister) is having a week at the snow.I dont think they are in a rush for them to get back.

Shetland Wool/Silk Beanie

This time I used shetland fleece carded with silk to give this unusual yarn when spun up, not quite as soft as the merino. I couldn't help but dye it with earthy colours, rust and dark brown . This style has the double rib band and using circular needles knitted three rows of plain then three rows of purl.



This style is for the larger head with lots of hair. Double rib band and with circular needles knitted plain.
The dye makes it show a random pattern.

Shetland fleece carded with silk is a coarser fibre, but it sure to last a very long time if the wearer treats it with lots of care.

Berets for Winter

This beret knitted with a mixture of pre dyed fleece spun chunky and plied with gold metalic yarn . Knitted on size 10mm needles.



I like this beret, spun with white merino and plied back with silver thread then dyed violet & pink shades. I knitted using 7mm needles.

What a cute beret, spun white merino and plied with wool yarn. I dyed it burnt orange and blue which ended up this unusual shade. Dont ask me to do it again.
Thats the fun of dyeing it yourself. I knitted using 7mm needles.

I found these yarns in my stash and they all called out to me to knit berets with them.

I like the look of berets, gives the wearer a bit of pizazz.

Flowering Orchid

What a beautiful flower. I have been waiting eagerly for it to open out.
I was given many orchids from my Mothers friend which she cherished but didnt have the room to keep them so I have repotted them and will await for the other plants to flower.

I thought I would vary my blog with another of my favorite past times gardening. Not that I spend much time now a days, too busy spinning and knitting, however I do love to see new flowers and love to get and prune over grown bushes to give them a new lease of life and watch the new shoots develop.

Scarf for Carol

I wanted to knit one of my long time friends, Carol a scarf, as she lives in Melbourne, Vic. Aust. and it has long cold winters.
I asked her what she would like and she said something "bright"
I hope she likes it and as she wears a black coat should brighten up her day and keep her warm during those cold mornings and night coming and going to work.

For this scarf I used hand dyed merino fleece and randomly spun up different colours so that I would get the stripe effect without having to joint in so many different ends, it is reasonably long so she can wear it different styles.