Wool Sweater Pants (Soakers)

I needed some bigger soakers, and knitting was taking too long.

We all piled in the car and headed to GoodWill; a nice wool sweater for $1.99 (Shetland wool) that, now as a knitter, I feel almost guilty felting and using as a diaper cover. When looking for a good sweater to felt, I find that men's are the best since they're bigger and usually thicker. The thinner wool sweaters usually shrink up to nothing when you felt them.

Decided not to shrink this one as much, so it would stay stretchy. I'll just wash it gentle/cold when I wash in the machine.  (I posted Instructions for Felted Wool Thrift Store Soakers a while back)

And I couldn't resist using the cables for something, so the middle part of the sweater became soaker shorts. They are actually enormous, so I'll add elastic to the top and legs to make sort-of bloomers.

I didn't lanolize these and they are working fine for us, even overnight.

Part of WFMW

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Wool Felt Bookmarks

I've been making some more bookmarks to give as Christmas gifts. I was going to pair one with the book Real Learning to give a like-minded friend, but it looks like it's out of print right now and the used copies are going for quite a bit! So I think we'll be giving, maybe Toymaking With Children, another fun one.
More craft posts:
How to make the bookmarks
Make a wool felt birthday crown
And a snow globe inspired I Spy Bottle

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Rainy Day Activity: Homemade Gak/flubber/slime

This is as fun to help make as it is to play with.

1 tablespoon Borax (Ours was on the bottom shelf in the laundry isle)
2 cups of water
8 ounces (1 cup, 2 of the 'regular size' white glue)
A ziplock

Mix the glue and 1 cup of water in the ziplock.  Mix the borax and other cup of water in a container (I used my measuring cup). Combine and squish, watch it gel up.  Let it sit and it will soak up the rest of the water if there is any, or you can play with it right away.

It does stick to clothes, and I wouldn't want to try to get it out of the carpet, so we play with it in a bowl and heavily supervised.

Mixing the glue and water in the ziplock

Stir stir stir!

Mash mash mash everything together.

Do you love the imitation? Such a responsibility to be watched so carefully (she ran and got 'her' camera)

We like to stick things in it, cookie cutters would be fun too

I think these animals are great. Plastic, I know, but durable and so useful for sorting and counting; beginning math. Got them in a teacher's supply store, I can't enter those stores often because they are chock full of neat things.

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Needle Felted Wool Angel How-to

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Undyed wool lends itself to natural airy angels. Since I have one pictured up top, I wanted to do a quick tutorial. I weeded down the 47 pictures I took while I was felting, and they should give you a pretty good idea of the steps I took. I love needle felting, it's like working with clay but not as messy. I'm also loving that felted sculptures are more full-figured, a refreshing change of pace from the body images we see every day in the media.

Undyed and dyed wool roving, along with needles are available at Weir Dolls and Crafts. A multi-needle holder isn't necessary, but is nice if you enjoy felting.



To start, I grabbed a big handful of wool. Mine is leftover from making waldorf dolls.
To start, I rolled the wool firmly into a cylinder. We'll mold the body and head out of this. I find it's easier to start all with one piece than try and work multiple pieces together, for the most part (you'll see the wings are a different piece)
With 3 needles in the holder (I find it easier to manage this way), I firmed up the entire thing
Then using the C shape of the three needles, I'm able to easily go around a neck and form the head
Poking up into the head from the body (hmm, this sounds rather graphic, doesn't it?)
I look around and see which side lends itself to the front. I can already see where I'll make the arms here, so this is the front
Again with the C shape, forming the line of the arms

They're enthralled with whatever I'm doing, which I adore. You can see my basic form here, with the two arms. I try to just get it into the rough shape with coarse needles and the multi needle holder.
Flattening the bottom, checking after felting to make sure she stands straight
And a bit of wool for the wings. I use a felted oven mitt to felt on. I'm into the simplicity of making do with what you have.
Firmed up the wool a little, and molded it into a loose heart shape
Attaching the wings right down the center
Now, with a coarse single needle I go around my 'edges' - the neck, arms, wings and give them a little more definition.

And then go around the whole thing wherever there are any rough spots, with a finer needle. I'm actually hopeless at keeping my needles labled, so I just poke one at a time in til I get the fineness/coarseness that I want. I think I have 36, 38, and 40s
Firming up the wings a bit. I left them pretty airy though.
And decided to give her a star. The points on the star are kind of hard to do, flowers or hearts are easier

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Knit Superwash Wool Hats

For my brother and his girlfriend. I'm loving the nearly-kill-proof qualities of superwash wool. Heart is from a chart in Weekend Knitting, it's really subtle and I have no idea if they'll even notice it.

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