Baby Surprise Jacket

is the name of the pattern I am knitting at the moment. In fact it is not the baby but the child version of the famous Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern

I bought some lovely wool last year in Germany, it's Zauberball Staerke 6 from Schoppel Wolle in 'durch die Blume' and I am knitting this jacket for Storm. I bought 2 balls and how it looks it will be enough to finish the jacket.

2 entry forms

did I fill out today for sending off tomorrow.
I've decided to send 'Remember last Summer' to Porirua for the Creative Fibre National exhibition http://www.creativefibre.org.nz/cs/Services.asp?type=30. I have mixed feelings about, not sure if it is good enough from the execution. I'll just give it a try.
And then did I receive an invitation from Riversdale Arts Southland to exhibit at their 40th annual exhibition in July riversdale arts.
I am very surprised by this invitation and I wonder how they discovered me. I feel privileged and I will happily send some work. I am thinking about to send  'Remember last Summer' after the exhibition in Porirua in April. Then I will send 'Spring', which is at the moment in Justimagine Gallery in Russell. The gallery closes in Winter, so I can take the wallhanging out for the exhibition. And of course I am working on some more new things. I am working on a'weedy' wallhanging at the moment, which will show some of our Northland beautiful and very invasive pests, the beauty in the beast. And I want to revamp my 'Seven Sisters' I made for Matariki some years ago.
And last but not least there is another exhibition coming up also in July, the Creative Fibre Northland exhibition. The theme is 'Hundertwasser inspiring ewe'. I like this theme very much, but at the moment I still don't know what to make. It doesn't help that we leave 2nd of June for our yearly 3-month stay in Europe. I guess I have to speed up a bit.
I have lots of experimental things in my mind. I was going to try out how to knit with wire on the knitting machine. Now I am a proud owner of a little floor loom since last Friday, I am so happy about that!  It makes me think about weaving again and of course some experimental weaving.
Exiting times!

Remember last Summer

is the title of the finished wallhanging

I added more flowers than I wanted first, but now I am happy with the balance. And of course I also added 'drops' again. Here are some details

This wallhanging took a long time, but it was a good learning process. I like the emboidered background very much. It was not planed first, so I have some difficulties with the finishing. It has 'wobbly' edges, which I will try to rescue with some binding, thanks for the tip, Monika! I don't want to put a backing fabric on, the stitching is too nice for that. It was a great experience to work together and combine felting and quilting techniques.

Roses and Delphiniums

will be on the next wallhanging. I just distributed some of the flowers on the background felt to get an impression:

I need lots more of green leaves, but I should have enough blue flowers already made. I will also make more roses, but this time the background is almost too good to cover it up completely because

Monika my daughter did some lovely freehand motion stitching on it, I love it! She used a beautiful multicoloured thread and the bottom looks almost like pebbles at a river

Somehow I want to have this partly visible. Well lots to think about and to try out.

Beside of this I am working on a crochet top for my daughter Andrea, which I'll try to finish until Christmas, might not work out completely, but it is on a good way. I love to crochet and I have still several tops left which I made, when I was a member of Origin. I will probably undo some of them again, if I cannot find anybody for it. I have given away lots of things already, but there are still 5 more boxes with tops and sox, knitted and felted scarves, vessels, slippers, fingerless mittens and and and..... Would be lovely at least to get something back for the material. Well, can't help and the old car is still here too and nobody wants it. It runs still very well and was valued quite high. I don't think that I will ever sell a car privately again, I will not sell a car again anyway. The new car Alex bougth will be our last car.

I am very pleased that my angels found a new home, they are now for sale at Hot Ginger, a local gallery, which I like very much. It is so inspiring and colourful there!

some more angels

I managed to finish some more angels today

Tomorrow I will go to some local galleries to find out, if somebody would take them on.

stitching on felt

After finally the darning foot for the sewing machine arrived, I tried out some free motion stitching on felt. I have never done it before so it was quite a challenge and it still looks very wobbly. After doing some samples yesterday

I couldn't resist to do something with a felted leave I made some weeks ago, many of those for the next wallhanging. And I am pleasantly surprised about the effect it makes!

It is still very wobbly and basic, but I like the texture it gives the felt. My mind is spinning with ideas now!!

A big thank you to my daughter Monika Kern for all the good advise for the stitching she gives me. I love her quilts and admire the patience she has to do all this beside of work and 3 boys and a big house and garden. Please check out her blog and you will understand how proud I am.

How to carry on?

Last weekend I went to a 3 day workshop with Lisa Klakulak. I am not allowed to show photos here, but in case somebody doesn't know her work, have a look here

It was a very different working for our Far North Felting group, some of the ladies are in their 70s and 80s and they hadn't seen a calculator for many years nor have they used it. We were working with so less wool (4g the first day!) and it had to be layed out so thin, that it could shrink 94%! I will not explain the whole process, I guess that would also be a breach of the promise. Anyway a lot of rolling was involved, one of our very experienced and well known felters said: What I'd rolled today I haven't rolled in 6 months! It was physically challenging! And for some of the members the understanding was very challenging too. 

Before we all left we could see and feel some of Lisa's work, one word: incredible! Amazing fabric! The time she must have spent on it!

The first day I had a moment where I thought, I'd better don't do any felting anymore, because what I am doing is all wrong and not good enough and I think most of the others had the same feeling.

Don't get me wrong, Lisa is a wonderful person, so patient with us oldies and also very patient with our kiwi jokes. It was wonderful to have her here!

But at the moment I feel a bit everything has turned upside-down. I look at my things and think, what the hell am I doing here? Though I had a big success yesterday - my spring wallhanging is now hanging in the Just Imagine Gallery in Russell, the owner liked it very much and it has a very nice and special place. It is not sold of course, but just to be there in this very exquisite gallery, I feel very good about. When I look back to the co-op where one of the members didn't acknowledge fibrework as art, it is a dramatic change to the positive.

But I look at the wallhanging and I find so many things not good enough now, things which could be done better, I almost feel I should start again, make it less rough!

Well this workshop made me think about my work a lot and where I want to go with, haven't fully figured it out yet. I certainly want to produce better quality and I have to find my own way, because to do it totally her way is just impossible for me.

Well I guess I can at least post a photo just of my samples I ended up with

I haven't done any stitching yet. I didn't take my sewing machine, but in the meantime the freemotion foot arrived and I will start soon. Maybe I can do some stitching on the background felt for the next wallhanging.