3 month

AUnbelievable 3 month have gone since I wrote the last post. A lot has happened since. Alex had his second hip replacement surgery and is recovering very well, much better than the first time. He got sent home 2 days after the operation and avoided the nasty hospital bugs. He had a different surgeon who encouraged him to do what ever he likes, so he is back in the garden now a very happy man.
I started to attend the new local market, which offered an indoor room for the arts and crafts. Unfortunately after 2 successful Saturdays the local council closed the room and is demanding more work. I tried to go with a gazebo but that didn't work out very well, so I have to wait until the building work is finished. These photos are from the first market:

The weekend after we had our first Art Trail in Kerikeri. It was a very busy weekend with lots of visitors, some sales and lots of interesting chats. I made a little display under the carport :

Now is the year almost over. We spent Christmas with family, this time only one daughter with her family because my other daughter moved with her family to Australia/Brisbane.

I have done little work, at the moment I make another of the crochet circle vest. 

Let's see what the new year will bring.

Daylight savings

have started last night. It was a very sleepless night, I was listening to my Baroque channel on Pandora  since about 2 am and finally got now up to have a fresh coffee.
Lot of things have happened the last time. First Alex was almost to be taken off the waiting list for hip replacement surgery and then suddenly they rang to tell that his operation will be on 9th of October. Now we are in a rush to prepare everything and he has to be very careful not to catch any infection otherwise they will send him home again.
I am also working for the Art Trail of course and in the middle of all the news came that my oldest daughter is moving to Australia with her family end of the year. She had such a good job offer that she couldn't say no. Well I am sad to see them go, but life carries on.
Between rain and storms we had also some really lovely days. We went with the dog to Roland's Wood in Kerikeri, where dogs can run free. It is so lovely there right now with lots of flowers, a true memory of European spring:

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I made 2 felted flower paintings

The first one is on a dark background and the second one is on white. That makes it more blurry, a little bit impressionist style. I think I leave that one how it is but will stitch on the other one, just to see what difference it makes.

And I made more flower brooches

The red poppies have in the meantime nice poppy centers and for the others I have not decided yet, what to do.
So better get started now and sew the pins on.

Springtime

and it is still raining, but we had a great day on Monday, a true spring day!
Another 6 weeks and the new Saturday market here in Kerikeri starts. I have handed in my registration today and I am looking forward to meet many people there.
The new Filzfun magazine has arrived too with lots of inspiration. It is always great to see all the wonderful work people have done. I love the inspiration!
I have finished the 3 fairies I was working on.

Yesterday I prepared parts for some more felted Pauas. That is always a bit tricky, because it is not so easy to get it attached to the shell. I felt the rope for hanging first and also the bottom bits, but leave one end unfelted.

the shell is already a piece of art

the outer layer is already wearing off here, it would look great polished!

The longer rope is for hanging and the 3 smaller ones will be decoration for the bottom

Then I wrap the unfelted wool around the shell and add gradually some more, adding water and soap and gently rub it, until it starts to felt.

It is a very slow process, because it needs to be handled very gently and soft, it tends to slip on the shell. Every time when I tried to rush, it did not turn out perfect, so it is worth to be patient. And they get better with practice.

And here are 2 examples what to do with them

outdoor 

indoor

Last winter weekend

Heavy rain outside on our last winter weekend. I haven't posted anything for a long time. The winter has been not as easy this time, full of illness and dark days though lots of things have happened. It seems the whole world has some sort of turned upside down. So many bad things are happening all over the world, wars, natural disasters, which can make one worry. So it is good to be in here, sitting at the fire and listening to the rain drumming on the tin roof.
I have slowly started to work again on some small things, some chocolates, some floating pauas, slippers, a poppy bag, haven't figured out yet how to attach photos here on the tablet properly. Today I finished a fairy, I think I'd better call her fairy, because she has a lot of green and I am still thinking about to make her a flower hat.
I am making all this things because we will have here in town on Labour Weekend end of October the first Art Trail KOAST, which will hopefully be an annual event, and I am part of it.
In October starts also a new Saturday Market here in town for growers and artisans and I will try my luck there.
So it will be an exciting spring !

fun on the knitting machine

No, I haven't finished the rug yet. After lots of problems I finally managed to get it going ok. I had bad problems with the selvages, it was my own fault of course. I did not want to undo it  but widened it while weaving. It does look not very nice, but let's see how it looks when it is finished. But at the moment, it has to wait, because I discovered the knitting machine again and made already 2 garments, a third is at the moment on the machine half  finished.

This is the first top I made. It is very simple. I made 2 parts, the front part about 10 cm longer than the back, knitted side to side. Then the front was turned before sewing together, finished! No need for a pattern! The felted flower brooch is one I made years ago and it fits very well. I like to wear this!

And here is my second top, also my own pattern, which is not really a pattern.

This time it is straight knitted in two halves. I used 100 stitches for each half, I am a big girl....
While knitting the second half I attached already the first one always on the end of the row, so now sewing was required there.
This top can be made in so many variations, that's really fun!
The yarn I was using is a cotton/acrylic mix I bought long ago on Ebay in Germany. I used it already for a lot of things and there is still some left. I've got it in 6 colours, 3 in purple/pink shades, a white, a light blue and a black one.
With the white one I started today a 'waterfall cardigan' a pattern which was in Knitting Machine monthly November 2012. I saw recently several photos posted in the Machine Knitting Facebook Group and have to try this out. And what is already knitted lookes quite good. And the best, it is knitted in one piece and no sewing required!

Trouble with the loom

I spent the last weeks getting used to the loom I had been given last year.

My friend suggested I should try to weave Krokbragd. She has already made several wall hangings and they look stunning. Because I was also given quite a lot of carpet wool I decided to weave a little rug.
I looked through my stash and found a cotton I thought would be suitable as warp

My friend came to help and she wound the warp and also threaded it. She did a brilliant job, I found only a small threading error, when I started the pattern.

I haven't woven for some years and never on a floor loom. So I read a lot how to tie the pedals, because this loom has a rising shed. But of course in the end the pattern was upside down, grrrr. So I started again and tied the pedals differently, but guess what now it looks like it is upside down again, hmmmm feeling a bit lost right now and fed up.
Besides the front beam has started to slip, doesn't hold the tension and the warp is not strong enough, I had already to fix a break. Looks like it wasn't a great idea to do a rug. But I am NOT giving up, will find the solution!

a colourful top

Almost a year ago I bought some fabric from Spotlight, used a pattern I already had and cut it. Well and then I got distracted, made all sorts of stichting on felt and forgot about my top.
But today I dug it out, checked it

and tataaaaaaa!    -   the finished top 

and it fits perfectly 

I love the patterns from Atelier Hardy in Germany, they fit me very well.

Happy New Year

Already January 10, I hope everybody enjoyed Christmas and the New Year celebration.
I spent my time with lots of cleaning and reorganizing the house. Its an ongoing challenge to have a functioning living space and a functioning workshop. But at the moment there is no reason to do much felting, I have boxes full of things and it is not sell-able here. People don't have money for buying art, a friend who is a great felter is now dyeing cheesecloth in bright colors, just cuts holes in for the arms and is selling it cheap at the Artisan market ($23) and has great success. The tops will not last longer than 3-4 washes but they are bright and cheap and people are mad about it and she can make a living.
Well that's not my way, so it will be hard to make a living. And I really would like to make a bit a living from my work without lowering my standards. Well I guess that's what lots of artist would like to achieve and the most don't.
New Year - new challenge