Saturday 24 November 2012

Busy Bee

Hand dyed felt book cover
The yarn I had ordered arrived quite quickly so I’ve been knitting furiously, a couple of cowls and four scarves.    I also attended a class on knitted/felted jewellery in which I produced a ring and a necklace.   The lady who took the class had made some woven some absolutely gorgeous, elegant wraps/shrugs in beautiful colours and, I’m afraid, I succumbed to temptation and bought one.   I’ve worn it 3 times already and it has been much admired – money well spent, I say.
 Last Saturday’s Fair at Ullett Road was very successful - it was in a beautiful building, and there were plenty of people about, especially in the morning.    I sold a warm, wool and taffeta scarf which I was quite fond of and Liz sold a sparkly knitted scarf as well.   

On Sunday, I had intended to go walking, but opted, in the end to go to see a wind band masterclass in the afternoon and a concert by a local symphony orchestra in the evening.   The Master Class was held at Hope University- what a lovely building set in a little oasis of peace so close to the bustling city.    I always find masterclasses fascinating and this was no exception – the final performance of the piece that the massed bands had worked on was great.    In  the evening, our eldest grandson was one of the percussionists in his first ever classical concert and we were really proud to see him there amongst all the seasoned (and much older) players.   He very much looked the part too!
cobweb scarf

 
I’ve been working hard to produce items to sell at the 8 craft fairs we’re going to between now and 10th December.   The felt I dyed last week has already been turned into two diary covers – I sold one before I could photograph it but there is a picture of the other one.   I’ve done a bit more experimenting with nuno this week as well – the first experiment didn’t go too well but I salvaged a cobwebby scarf from that effort.  
red nuno scarf, hand dyed
 
 
gold nuno scarf
The experiment continued, this time, I used a white silk chiffon scarf and undyed wool and some silk fibres.   The scarf felted very well, but the result was not quite as I’d  wanted  - a bit thicker than I anticipated and not as textured.  I decided, because the silk didn’t show up very well, to dye it red which made quite a difference and, with the spare dye I dyed some wool tops a lovely baby pink.  The third try produced a much better result .  Again I used a silk chiffon scarf, but this time a much finer layer of gold wool and silk fibres – the scarf is much lighter and has something nearer the texture I was hoping for.  I’m still going to have another go at getting the result I envisaged.   Watch this space!
Today, we’ve been at the Adult College at Lancaster where we always enjoy ourselves, the staff  are always so helpful and welcoming – I think they were disappointed by the turnout but, as far as we’re concerned, it was fine, in fact, I’ll need to make some more felt for book covers before next week! 
 Tomorrow, we’re off to the Mansion House, a lovely building in St. Helens, for their Christmas Fair,  so the busy weekend continues.

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