Spring Felt

You know that first moment when you dig out last year's sandals, dust them off and slip your feet in? Cast aside the tights and boots?.. I'm there!

In honour of Spring, Mel another crafty mama in our school Craft Group recently guided us through some lovely simple projects with pure wool felt and handsewing. We began with a little gnome in a bed..

 followed by a session where we made our own felt from which to fashion these mama and baby birds.. 

The babe slots snugly into the mama's winged back... very endearing.
The difference between using felt that you buy and making your own, is immeasurable. With handmade felt you are master of the colour, the thickness and the texture.

I've always loved the element of surprise that awaits, upon the completion of a creative process. Wet-into-wet watercolours have this quality. You merely touch the wet paper with a loaded brush, and whoosh ...you never know exactly where the colour will go or how it will look when it dries.

Wet Felting is like this in the most delicious way. I almost feel like the wool comes alive in my hands in the felting process. All my attachment and intention when I carefully place the wool in the first stage, I happily let go of when I sprinkle the hot soapy water in the second stage. For the felt will go its own way. I love that! The fibres grow together and eventually the most amazing texture rises...a characteristic you can neither predict or necessarily design. One way or another the wool will surprise you. 

And, brilliantly, all those separate layers of loose soft fibres integrate to produce a fabric so strong, it cannot be pulled apart. Here, I had a go at a three-dimensional piece, making a wet felted Vessel. This, I'm really interested in taking further, but more on that later.

Getting a little carried away here, I know ; )

And with birdsong delightfully in the air again, eggs were on our minds...

For anyone with a young child in their lives and the inclination to craft with them, this is such a lovely project to share. There is a tutorial here. There's a beautiful array of coloured wool available at the Woolly Gathering shop for this, or try your local craft supplies shop. It was magic to do this with my son, he adored the felting process.

and is enchanted with his egg babe..

It's so meaningful for a child to play with a toy born of their own hands. It connects them closely to the natural world, when you can so simply help them trace the journey from sheep on the hill, which we see all around us, to wool, to their handwork, to beloved toy!

In a later session, Jenny led us in the making of felted playscapes. Essentially a natural mat for imaginative play. When I took mine home to dry, this simple felted piece ended up totally capturing my imagination, and that of a certain small boy too ; )
I put one of my walnut babies on the pond (this made me think of Moses in his basket) watched over by a Woodland Elder, and already a story was forming in my mind. ..

 I gathered some other small things I've made over the months, and some natural bits we've collected on walks and popped them all on the floor. Then, my small boy took it to a whole other level, with much loftier ideas indeed!
He placed what he told me was a bench for the gnomes to rest on by the water...And so started the first story.

In a later version...the little pebbles needed to go just so...

"The ducks are pushing the babies around in their boats Mommy"..

When little friends came to play and began setting up a farm on the floor, I was touched by how much it seemed to enrich their play when I slipped in the playscape. All in a moment, the animals had a context, their feet rested on soft green. The meadow had a boundary. The pond asked for ducks...the stream asked for stepping stones.

When they had so thoughtfully set their scene, I said to Jenny's four year old son "I like the way you put the bumblebee beside the gnome." "Ya," he said "they're getting married."  : ) 

 Let the stories begin!

Mia

WOOLLY GATHERINGS - NUNO FELTING starting 12th of May

Nuno Felting Workshop - for Beginners and intermediate

An insight into the popular nuno-felting technique; which is essentially felting into fabric and vice versa. We will be looking and sampling  several fabrics that can be used to create amazing texture to your felt work.

Material Costs: .35 Euros (due on booking)
this covers a treasure bag full of  special fibres, wool, fabrics etc. and a length of silk for the final project.

Limited spaces available, please ring or e-mail for booking. 




Week 1 starting 12th of May 2011

- Introduction to the different wool and natural fibres
- Introduction to felting/nuno felting techniques
- Introduction on the tools needed
- practrical experience: creating a sample piece of felt

Week 2

- Introduction to silk fibre and fabric in combination with wool
- practical experience: creating a sample piece of nuno felt

Week 3

- Experiencing fibres
- different laying out techniques
- getting ready for the final project

Week 4

- Choosing a project
- First steps

Week 5 - 6
- Project Work
- Problem solving
- Finshing off

Timeless stitching..

I had a real soft-spot for my Grandmother, one that ran deep. As an art student in my early twenties I would catch the bus about once a month to spend the weekend with her in County Limerick. A traditional hot meal always lay ready for me and an old-fashioned nightie lay neatly folded on the spare bed.

She would sit by the range knitting, two needles clicking away in the still evening as we caught up. It helped keep arthritis from crippling the hands she'd heard, and she repeated this to me somewhat hopefully! I'd join her later with my crochet. I had the basic stitches then and I went through a stage of making cushion covers for friends and family, made of the granny square stitch. I knew nothing of wool then, of the value of natural fibres and the amazing qualities of pure wool. I doubt I ever gave a second thought to the origins of the yarns I used. I simply sought the very cheapest and the very brightest. Acrylic, inevitably! Nana seemed to find both the garish colour combinations and the openwork of the crochet itself somewhat exotic, relative to her stoic, undyed wool and solid aran stitching. This amused me as, for me she was a master of her craft and despite those neon colours, mine paled in comparison!

When the making of aran jumpers had become too heavy and involved for her as she aged, she moved to knitting panels. Strips of cablework that would then be attached to the sleeves and collars of jumpers machine-knit by another woman. For this, she was paid a meagre fee and the assembled jumpers were then labelled 'handcrafted' and sold, mostly to tourists. She was glad of the ongoing arrangement I think, the work helped her keep active, the bit of pocket money handy in whatever small way.

By the Sunday afternoon of my stay, loathe as I was to return to my cold, grubby flat in the city, she would always send me on my way with a batch of freshly baked scones wrapped in wax paper to share with my flatmates. Welcome indeed on a Sunday night!

Looking back, I envy those quiet amiable evenings sitting together by the range, the turf burning warm, when she'd often ask me to sing a song for her as we stitched away. I'm not sure if I fully appreciated then the richness of those times but I cherish the thought of it now.

 she is knitting away here as her great-granddaughter plays around her

Years passed, other creative pursuits took over and in the meantime I'd all but forgotten how to use the humble hook! Until recently, through my involvement in my son's school craft group, I became interested in crochet again and realised I still love it somehow, but yearn to find life beyond the granny square. I never managed to progress past the bare basics and the very idea of being able to follow a pattern seemed way beyond me. So, how to move beyond these frustratingly limited skills I know I share with many..?

Enter Liz, our dear friend and Crochet Queen...check out her beautiful shop here . This girl can dream up her designs as she goes! And I realise, every beginner needs a mentor, no? And I was thrilled at the opportunity to become involved with these Woolly Gatherings.

Hence, here are my very humble beginnings. As a refresher, the first thing I made was this hook roll. It was novel to make something that is everyday useful. This is the first pattern I ever managed to follow through to the end, and while its not perfect, hey, it worked out! This pure wool yarn is really vibrant but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to beginners as it varies a lot in thickness as you go.

At the first of our Woolly Gatherings Liz bravely started us off with a simple pattern for wrist warmers. One pair made in an evening and decorated the next. Deep Satisfaction!

I cannot explain how I have become besotted with such things of late, as buttons, ribbons, embroidery hoops (what..?!) and of course yarn, glorious yarn. Like a child in a sweet shop, even our modest local haberdashery can have me all in a sweat. All number of possibilities, but I settled on ribbon, buttons and embroidery and really had fun with that part on my second go:

These days, I'm interested in where the wool comes from and I try, where possible to buy Irish, or at least Celtic! Here's the lovely Donegal Aran Tweed. Really affordable and very hard wearing. From my favourite local wool shop.

And, for old times sake...? Ye old granny square. And who knows, maybe another cushion cover in the making.. but this time in pure cotton that I got here, a pure pleasure to work in. I worked with a size 3.5 hook. I'd really recommend this particular yarn to beginners, as your stitches will be clearly visible without any of the fuzziness of wool, it makes any mistakes easy to see and ripping back is a breeze. .

If you can get over the name of the website! I found this a really fun inspiration ; )

http://fuckyeahgrannysquare.tumblr.com/

Then, Valentines was in the air and Liz helped us find our way through this surprisingly tricky heart pattern:

At home I tried out some simple flowers,

but at our last (for now)gathering Liz presented us with what must surely be the mother of all flower patterns, and voila! The petals seemed to unfurl before our very eyes as we stitched...

And I remember, that in contrast to the need for solitude while working on a painting, which is my background, I do love sittin round a table with a bunch of women, stitching, helping each other out and sharing patterns. Thank you Liz!

As a result of these sessions, I'm in the process of beginning my first ambitious project, a cotton waistcoat for meself. Yikes! One thing I've discovered through bitter experience is that the tension swatch is essential, though I really want to dodge this part of the pattern. I'll write again to let you know how it works out. I'll actually feel like I've arrived somewhere when I can make my own clothes.

Joining the local steiner school community has raised my awareness of the importance of wearing natural, breathable fibres and the insulating layer provided by wool, particularly in our climate. I got to thinking about the aran jumpers that I wore at different ages, and perusing old photo albums, I was really struck by the presence of these handknits, down through the generations and differing social contexts. Like here's my mother at home in Kerry in the sixties, with her brother and sister, going to the well for water

And here she is wearing an Aran at work, in New York where she'd emigrated and gotten a job in a bank..

 

Here's me at three years old wearing one of the many made by my grandmother. (over a dress that a dear friend had crocheted for me!)

And years later, this Aran Cardigan also made by my Grandmother, which proved a worthy ally day and night against the cold and wind, in my cycling and caravan years in Dingle. These jumpers truly stand the test of time.

And so... work in progress, a connection to my past rekindled, to the historical context of traditional handcrafts in Ireland and to that dear old lady working peacefully by the fire.

 Mia Foley