November 14 was the fourth installment of the foundation’s textile workshops. So far, we’ve covered spinning, natural dyes, and weaving (which was sort of a bust). This month’s focus was felting, with a project emphasis on wet felting and knit felting (pretty much the same as wet felting, but done with a finished knit/crochet/woven item, instead of raw wool).

The original title I came up with for the workshop was “Felt Up,” which all the textile ladies thought was hilarious and approved of, but my boss made me change it, since we were applying for grants to help cover the cost of the workshops. Apparently, the idea of including “Felt Up” in a grant proposal was a little too much.

In preparation for the workshop, I gave myself a crash course in all things felting. I purchased some felting needles and stabbed tried my hand at needle-felting. I made a little tiny Hedwig (the results of which were less-than-fantastic) and needle-felted some accents onto a crocheted heart that didn’t completely felt the way I wanted it to (I think the yarn is mostly acrylic, which would explain why it didn’t felt in hot water).

I also did a dry run with wet felting some Merino wool (haha…see what I did there?).

[Felting Tutorial Here]

It was a fun project, but I don’t know if I’m completely sold on felting as an additional hobby. Certainly not like I was with spinning. I do think, though, that I might incorporate felting into this year’s bevy of hand-crafted Christmas gifts, though. Perhaps it’ll make an appearance in ornament construction, or an embellishment for another gift. We’ll see.

Construction of this year’s Handmade Christmas has already commenced. Which, unfortunately, means that you probably won’t see too many pictures or read many details about the projects that will be filling my time over the coming weeks. Afterall, some of my family and friends read this and we certainly don’t want them to find out, now, do we Precious? No, Precious, we do not.

Sorry. Couldn’t resist a random LotR quote.

So, what can I tell you about what I’ve been working on? Hmm…well, I canned some apple butter last night. I needed to make some for use later this month, in one of the pies that I’ll be making for Thanksgiving. It was a much smaller batch than years past, which was strange, considering I filled the crockpot to brimming yet again. I think I’ll probably have to make another batch in a few weeks, to count as Christmas gifts to a lucky few.

I’ve finally finished the applique on a LOOOOOONG term project I’ve been working on, which means I can start piecing it back together and get it back to being a quilt, instead of just pieces on my worktable soon. And yes, that long-awaited post is still coming. Believe me, it’ll be a doozy. And once you see the pictures of the original state of the quilt, you’ll understand why it’s been so long in coming.

I’ve continued work on a couple of smaller side projects…things I can pick up and put down and pick up and put down and lose for a while and pick up, etc. Among these are my skull shawl and the sawtooth star quilt that will one day grace my own bed. Raven likes to sit on the pieces of the latter.

Alvin, in the meantime, has become best friends with my spinning wheel. He likes to rub his face on the drive wheel, and weave around the legs, and I’ve even caught him trying to work the treadle with one of his paws. Silly cat.