Sorry if you were expecting books as it's Monday but FibreFest was predictably inspiring yesterday and I've lived off that sense of new inspiration all day.
There was an amazing knitted installation...
Absolutely every single thing knitted including the Devon coastline...
I have no plans to knit a beach but I do seem to have come home with half a sheep in various guises on the basis that there's no point in taking along a large Orla Kiely bag if you don't put it through its paces.
I resisted most of this ...
...in favour of things called 'tops' and 'rovings' in an attempt to further my felt-making career. This is the wool in its pre-spun phase, a whole new world for someone who has always neatly sidestepped the world of spinning on the basis that it's quicker to buy the finished thing... but I can see the allure.
I picked up some Wensleydale and Shetland, some Merino, some Alpaca bits and various dyed odds and ends.
So with two weeks off work and time to indulge my inner person-who-has-to-make-things I am planning to teach myself some new skills. I have spent the day wet-felting and I think I am going to like this, it's like painting with wool and I can think of a thousand and one things to make.
Softest of soft wool with that faint but pleasant scent of sheep, and the special accessories of soapy water, bubble wrap and a rolling pin and I have managed to go from this...
to this, now about 12" square but only after a great deal of rolling, mashing, beating and general rough treatment.
Then a little polka-dot sample to try and gauge the thickness you need to start with and then how much it will shrink by, and what a blessing an Aga is at times like this. It's August and it's supposed to be switched off but we only lasted a week.
Meanwhile the second slipper is in progress and I am also knitting one of these..
What do you mean you don't know what it is..
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