Last spring I started a bright landscape weaving... and then I procrastinated the last steps of taking it off the loom. It was a fun project to test out using different types of yarn and fibers as this is only my third weaving.
While I was making the weaving I documented it on Instagram as part of my 100 day project.
My cat helping with the weaving process.
The finished piece!
Did I fool ya? Some of those peeps are not like the others.
Most years I make something out of Peeps so this year I thought I'd make an everlasting Peep using needle felting. I figured it would help with peeps withdrawal after Easter to have one of these guys hanging around.
After making the first one at actual Peep size I thought I'd try going larger. The proportions were a little odd so that's why the pink one in the photo above is sporting a fluffy mohawk. Peeps are just more adorable at their petite marshmallow size.
And of course more adorable than a Peep itself is Peeps on little chicas. My friend Ada above has no problems wearing things on her head so I'm sure I'll be attaching more felted objects to her before she transforms into full on tot. Zara bellow was less into the hairband idea so I came up with the idea of turning her peep into a necklace. She loves it and I will be stealing her style and making a peep necklace for myself no doubt. (Note: the necklace is on the long side so she'll be able to enjoy it for many years).
The full peep lineup
Using yarn instead of wool roving
One challenge for this project was finding wool roving in bright peep colors. My go-to local resource sometimes has a wide variety of colors and sometimes doesn't. So instead of waiting for roving to be shipped I bought wool yarn in bright colors to use. It's a little bit more of a process but works in a pinch.
There's a couple things to be aware of when needle felting with yarn. Because I don't knit I didn't know there's a process called super washing that is done to some wool yarns. This is so you can actually wash your knitted sweater without having it to shrink. BUT this means the fibers won't work for needle felting. Look out for that when purchasing a yarn to felt with.
Second it's helpful to have a fiber blending tool. Shown in the photo above they're like miniature wool carders so you can unravel your yarn a bit before working with it. Just like a marshmallow Peep my felt version is white on the inside. I used natural roving for the base structure and then covered it and put the finishing touches on using one of the bright colors. For ease of use I just fuzzed up a little snip of yarn at a time.
Peeps eaten this season prior to writing this blog post: 0
Peeps eaten while writing this blog post: 1 pink, 3 yellow. Yellow tastes the best/tastes the least like food coloring.
Today I'm sharing my first little loom weavings as I've started to explore this craft. I bought myself a loom for Christmas at the West Coast Craft Fair from Meghan Shimek. She has a beginner's kit that includes, loom, yarn, and an instruction book for making a sampler weaving. The sampler is a good tutorial for learning basic techniques and how to merge different kinds of yarn within a weaving.
I had been wanting to take a beginning class for awhile so decided to just go the kit route. I was also given a little tutorial when I purchased my loom. It was very helpful along with hunting down some good blog posts and youtube tutorials on the subject.
This heart weaving is the first project I've planned out. I wanted to use only yarns I already owned. With a little help from a friend I decided to make it a fuzzy heart using wool roving.
My first weaving made with the Meghan Shimek kit.
This was my second little weaving and I was exploring fibers I already owned.
In the past when I've gone to the yarn store to get wool roving for needle felting projects I've always had to avert my eyes from all the wonderful looking yarns. If I bought them they would have just waited for a future project or a future where I suddenly enjoy knitting. Unlike knitting I do indeed weave it!
Yes, I am amazed I didn't think of this sooner. For your Christmas 2014 giggling while gifting I've made some Jingle Balls. These are a product extension of the other catnip balls I make and sell in my Kitty Confetti Etsy shop.
These toys don't have any catnip in them because believe it or not there are some cats who don't like the nip. I wanted to have a nip free option for those felines and adding some jingle is a puuurfect alternative.
These will only be available throughout the holidays so get 'em while they're in season.
This grumpy card is a sequel to my catnip holiday card. I've had some success selling the holiday card and wanted to create a card for all seasons.
Why is the cat grumpy? I'm guessing that my cat would be grumpy if he had to wear a clown nose. Your cat won't be grumpy after you pull off the nose which is a catnip filled wool ball.
There's a printed nose under the wool.
This was one of my smoothest printing projects. Usually when I print I've forgotten an important detail and need to jerry-rig something to accommodate my error. It made the process go quicker by choosing colors that didn't need to be mixed. I used them straight from the ink tube. I printed slightly over 100 cards using 3 colors, 4 plates plus creasing for the fold. This added up to over 500 impressions. Something so simple can add up to a lot of work but I'm very pleased.
