Wool Dying Weekend mmmmmmm delish !!!

Had a really great weekend this weekend and accomplished a fair amount of Fibre dying and carding. I wish i could just stay home and do this everyday, i love it, Why wasnt i born rich hehehe 

There's still more Dying and Carding to be done during this week and i do have tomorrow off,   No-one home cept me and the puppy , so guess what i'll be doin lol

Blend of the mossy green and orange, love this combo

First lot of Dying,

Any Idea's Anyone lol

Hi Everyone
I've been trying to figure out why is it that when i'm searching on google for Needle Felting or Art Dolls or anything to do with needle felting nothing of mine show's up. Ive searched all over with all sorts of ways of spelling it but  nothing,  Yet when i search through Yahoo mine comes up then but only all my early things and nothing from later on.  I'm not that worried about it really lol  but it does bug me a bit that i can see lots of people's work that i know , just not mine,  Am i doing something wrong or is it that google doesnt like me very much.  hehehe 
Anyway i know this is a silly question but i just thought someone would have some idea"s  ????

Cheers Karen

Li'l Needle Felted Benny and the big one.

Just grabbed the real Ben for a photo shoot when he called in after work on his way home. Made him sit for this pic and he didnt mind at all. We had a good laugh anyway

My Li'l Benny all Needle Felted

I've had so much fun the last couple of days, i found this pic of my Son Ben when he was about 3 yrs old, he was a pint sized little Dare Devil back then and still is , He's 24 now.  I couldnt resist trying to replicate him in felt and although i did have trouble with his eyes i'm still really happy with the way he turned out.  He was just getting over 2 huge black eyes back then so you can see a bit of bruising still, i had to put that in.  Big Benny's gunna flip when he see's himself immortalized in Felt  hehehe.  Ahhhh gotta love needle felting
Ok who's next  lol 

Needle Felted Character Doll

I've had a great weekend felting away all by myself while the rest of the crew were away for the weekend. Its been so good and soooooo peaceful.  Ive had Kay's (kay Petal) online DVD here for a while with not much time to sit and do, so this time i did and i loved it.  Managed to finish this Person and i do like her,  she still needs some little touch up's but i think i'm done for the day, She's 100% needle felted and made  from dyed  merino lambswool with my hand spun yarn for her hair. No name as yet i'll have to just look at her for a while. She can stand on her own for about 10sec's lol  but if she just rest's her hand on something then she's fine. She stands 12inch tall and she's my smallest one i think.  I'm pretty happy with her so far.      eeeeeekkkkk  family's back, there goes my peace and quiet, i love them but   ooooo its been lovely !!!! 

Still Going but getting there!

Ok as you can see i'm still going and trying to change a few things.  I think after the last week of sadness and traveling interstate and then coming back home and feeling very BLAHHHHH.  I needed a change ,so i'm challenging myself to change this blog, I was getting a bit sick of looking at the same thing and although all i've done is move things from one side to the other lol  and added some pages, although thats still not what i was going for i'm starting to feel like i'm getting somewhere.
So now i've put a few things in the pages but no matter what i do i cant get them all lined up properly, not that it really matters  butttttt you know what i mean !    I'll add more as i go and try to become a bit more computer savvy i think lol  Anyway so tell me what you think,  remembering that i needed a change and thats color and everything , had to get away from the black and i'm feeling so much better now !!!

Tribute to my Brother In-Law

Sorry I have to do this  !  We've had such a very sad week, My Brother In-law Darren was tragically killed in a motor bike accident on Sunday night.  As you can see bikes were his love after his family. My Little Sister has lost the only Man she has ever loved and 2 gorgeous Nephew's have lost the Best Father anyone could ever want.  He did everything with his boys, bike riding, camping, fishing, four wheel driving or just hanging out. I've never met a better Father and At 41 years young he was taken way to early. He will be so very sadly missed

This was taken a couple of years ago but this is how we saw him most times !

His youngest son Mitchell just had a birthday 11, from left Oldest son Alex 13, my sis Kelly, Mitch and Darren

Always in our Hearts Darren and dont worry about your boys, their well looked after and strong like their Dad !!!!

Im crying now and i cant see so this is my Tribute to You !!!!!!!!!

Learning Something New

Well i suppose most of you very talented artist out there will know all about this  but i didnt and its been bugging me. I couldnt for the life of me work out what you would do with Silk Rods , i asked on the forum and they told me but in my own head it just didnt make sense, have you seen those ugly little things ( well you probably have ) lol  to me they just made no sense at all. I know that a lot of people use them in there felt works and they do look gorgeous.  Well all thats changed now lol  i'm happy to say. My friend Zed sent me some to try and i've been looking at them for ages not knowing what to do so yesterday i dyed them the same way i dye everything else and they came out nice but NOW what hehehe. I thought you pulled them apart to make like a roving but that didnt really work so it was suggested that i might have to soak them again to seperate.  I'm thinking seperate what ! there so flat but then i put some stronger glasses on lol  and i could actually see a semblence of layers, aha i thought so i very slowly tried to peel the layers apart, alot harder than you think, the first effort resulted in a tangled mess and i realised then that this is how they get the throwsters waste, we'll leave that to one side and i just waited for some to dry before another play and wow i started to pull off this fluff,  i soon realised that if i wanted more fluff than stringy bits i have to wait till its crispy dry and then just with gentle fingers started to pull at the ends,  I love how it comes out so here's some pics to show off.
I should have taken a pic before dying, sorry i didnt think of that !!

Dying the rods

Peeling the layers off, this is still wet

The final yummy fluffy Cloud  but it has to be crispy dry to pull it out. otherwise it goes to a waste , i left a layer of the rod there in each color to show you and everyone likes it different so know we can do both.

When your in a hurry to seperate and dont have patients, this is what happen's

Anyway as i said im sure most of you will have know this but not me, so this is my lesson for the day

Happy Felting

On a roll

This is some Gotland Fibre that i hand dyed and  loosely spun and then plyed with a gorgeous bronze metalic thread, I'm into a bit a bling at the moment and this one has lots of sparkle and very soft.  She'll be going on Etsy !!

Silk Hankie Batt

I've been playing with my drum carder today and wanted to make something a bit different, so i started with some merino in different colors and then i added a whole silk hankie all the way through and very slowly , its so sticky but one hankie goes such a long way that i didnt realise how far you can pull them out. I'll definitely use them again. Its given a really nice shine to this batt .  I've also listed it on Etsy.

Another Day of Spinning,Dying and Carding

Had a great day today, i made this nice bling Batt using merino lambswool and silk tops in a gorgeous Autumn Mist color, love how it turned out. I did list this one on Etsy . I actually started ,my etsy shop back up again about 3-4 weeks ago and have yet to sell anything, i know it takes time and i'm starting to wonder weather my wares are just to boring considering some of the amazing fibre batts out there, or do i just have to have more patients lol which i will do .

More spinning using natural white romney fibre then dying in blue and purple, just left as a single at the moment but i might ply it with some nice metalic thread

These are the yarn i've made since i purchased the wheel last week, i do have another hanging to dry and forgot to unclude it in this pic, What to do with them all now  lol

You guessed it, more yarn !!

This is my hand dyed lambswool and i plyed using a gold metalic crochet thread, i tried to be really clever and after a while i took the thread back up on itself to try to create a little nobby bit lol you cant see it to much in the pic but it looks good and i love the color combo to. This could make pretty funky dolls hair for our needle felting ?



I watched a youtube video tutorial on core spinning by Jazzturtlecreations , she is so good at what she does and the video was really easy to follow so i had to try, it took me a while to get the hang of it but i think i did ok. I used a fine crochet cotton as the base and my hand dyed lambswool i was trying to spin up into a textured yarn !!

Second Try at Coils

Ok here we go again, this is the second try at coils, i'm struggling a bit with over twisting in the base yarn and i think it might be a bit thick, i was just using some bought 4ply for the base and when spinning the coils its very hard to feed through onto the spool. Should i be using a really fine base yarn ??? I'm not giving up though cause i really love coils , maybe i should just learn how to spin properly first. I Always was impatient lol
The coils are spun from Gotland Fibre that i dyed myself.





The rest of the yarn left as a single ply, i really love those colors

First Yarn off the Wheel

Omg this is the first yarn off my new second hand wheel and i'm probably getting way ahead of myself but i've been dying to try coils cause i think there just gorgeous. So even though this has lots of lumps, bumps and extra fluff (dont ask me how) lol i still love it. I'm trying again now with the second lot and i think its just gunna take lots of practise.
So Exciting !!

I'm a Happy Girl

I went to a huge market this morning and found this Ashford's Wheel ,I got it for $40.00 which is a bargain and its in perfect condition, so now all i have to do is learn how to use it properly. I'm so excited lol

Its about Time

Well i thought i better get my butt into gear and list some things on Etsy, havent done that for ages and nearly forgot how lol I'm so not sure about pricing though its the worst thing to do so i hope its all ok, If anyone wants to jump in and let me know then i'd really appreciate that.
cheers all and enjoy your weekend

Sheep King , Needle Felted Farmer Gary

Our very close friends Gary & Mary are our local sheep farmers in this area and Gary supplies a heck of a lot of my wool and it always amazes him what can be made from his sheeps fleece , When Mary saw my li'l scotty she asked me to make Gary's head, i jumped at the chance to have another go at yet another head and i'm sooooo happy with the way he turned out. I will be making a body for him cause i think our local sheep king really needs one, Li'l Gary is Needle Felted using a single barbed needle

Needle Felted Li'l Scotty

My son Sean asked me to felt the head of his best mate Scotty to give to him just for fun, I had to have a go and Man did i have fun. Sean thinks its Awesome and cant wait to pass it on. This is only the 2nd time i've worked from a picture and i really love the way he turned out. Big Scotty's gunna get a huge kick out of it and his Lady Love Erina will have something to throw when he's naughty lol
This took me a whole 9 hours of Needle Felting to make because i just couldnt put him down so its lucky i didnt have to make a body for him as well :)



the Real Scotty,

All together now, Needle Felted Heads

My fun little group of needle felted heads,  all except the orange girl will get bodies, heaps of fun lol

Last Head in Needle Felting

lol Well i couldnt really call him Elvis could i, i'm having so much fun but i think i better stop with the heads already lol  He's Needle Felted using a single barbed needle.

Needle Felted Mick & Jolly Roger

I'm really really loving this guy Mick, i love the expression on his face and i put my hand in so you can see how big he is. I'll definitely be making a body for him but just not sure how he should look yet. He looks like a Mick dont you think lol I didn't want to make an older person but as he was coming out i was lovin him. !! He's all needle felted using a single barbed needle !





I reworked Jolly Roger a bit because i wasnt that happy with him, Now he has a new bigger nose, i've pulled his eyes in a bit more, still maybe need to do more, and straightened up his mouth and chin, He looks a lot better now and probably needs a nice big fat body lol

Cheeky Milly

I'm trying not to stress so much when felting and making it harder on myself , its supposed to be a fun thing. Well i was having fun making Milly and she's just so colorful. For the first time i didnt actually add eyelids but pulled down the brow instead, Still cant make the eyes smaller but who care's as long as its fun right LOL

Frustration Plus lol

I started this Character the other night and i hated him. I have this idea in my head for making more human looking characters and they just dont work for me, yet, so ended up squishing him all up and making a whole new face straight on top. I'm liking him a lot better and i think i've come to realise that you have to just let the wool take you were it wants to go and not try to do something else. One day i'll try for that human looking person but for now i'll just try exaggerating some features and see what happens. He still needs some work as he still looks like most of the other characters i've made but I'm moving on lol
not sure i'll make a body for him either, i think i'll just watch him for a while and see if the next one is different.

The Big Day Arrived

Yeahhhhhh

I know a lot of you would have rolled your eyes as i went on and on about my Son ( Sean's ) upcoming wedding, Well guess what lol Its happened and its all over bar the shouting lol
I know i'm bias but it was the most Beautiful Day ever and all 130 guest's agreed it was the best wedding they had been to. Tears flowed during the service as a poem was read out that was written by Sean, I didnt know he had that in him. It was perfect
Sean has his 2 brothers as Bestman and Groomsman and his Best Mate as another Groomsman
Kelly had her best friend as Maid of Honour and her sister laura and our daughter as Bridemaids. Kelly's sister Laura made the wedding dress by hand . I'm sorry you cant see much detail in these couple of pics but it truly is Stunning. the Bride and Groom are so Happy i just love them to pieces lol

What a lovely suprise from Tracy (narkeymarkey) who has nominated me for the Sunshine Blog award. Thankyou Tracy you've made my day and its my very first blog award to.


There are some rules to this award if you choose to follow and they are

The sunshine award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world.
the rules for accepting the sunshine award are: and please feel free to ignore these rules and just enjoy the award!)-
put the logo on your blog or within your post-
pass the award onto 12 bloggers-
link the nominees within your post-
let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog-
share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award

Very Nice

Sunshine blogs for me

Gunknitter
Felt by Zed
Sycamore Moon Studio's

Will be adding more shortly