Finally, in a store near you!

In a store near you if you live in Lynden.

I've been busy busy busy.  Knitting and felting.  SharonTopia has been getting filled with this and that and those and these.

I knitted and felted a basket:

I knitted a bag out of ribbon and lined it with some lovely yellow satin:

I researched ETSY and and other on-line sources to sell my lovely creations.  I was not happy with the process involved in selling through those avenues.  

Since I live in a tourist town.  Or at least a town that is desperately trying to be a tourist town I figured maybe there was a place for me here locally.  We have a Dutch Village Mall downtown that is undergoing renovations trying to put life back into our downtown core.  (Mind you, our downtown is one street, three blocks long...)  The Dutch Village Mall houses a local theater, a Thai restaurant, a hotel (in the windmill portion) and a canal that runs the length of it, filled with large koi.

A cute little chotskies shop called "The Hen House" has recently opened it's doors in our newly renovated mall.  

Today I bundled up most of the bags that I have made in the last few years and carted them down to the shop.  Paige (the lovely shopkeeper) seemed quite pleased by them and gladly put them in her shop.  I'm sure her pleasure had little to do with the nice commission she will make and more to do with the fine work I was stocking her shop with.  Despite her commission, if the bags sell for what we priced them at I will still make a fine profit. 

I'm excited and eager to see how they sell - or even IF they sell.  I'm ready to start knitting and making more items.  I'm ready to quit the post office and make this my career.  Hahaha.  Kidding.  I am sure I will never get rich, but it WOULD be great if I could at least get this hobby to pay for itself.

Fabulous Felting Fun

Ages ago I announced how much I love felting, and then I go spend all my time redoing floors, quilting and other assorted things.  It recently became clear to me that it was time to felt a little.  Or a lot maybe.

For the type of felting I find fascinating I must first knit the item. I found a pattern, bought some lovely wool and began to knit.  and knit and knit and knit.  Here is a photo of the knitted monstrosity.  It measures 36 inches.  Yikes!  (and aren't I wearing lovely socks?)

Pre-felted bag & my psychedelic socks

One spin through the washer left it about the 1/2 the size - but still not shaped right. It piqued the cat's interest though!

One washing

Another run through gave me something much closer, but still not quite right, and the cat is still fascinated by it.

Two washing

Here is where it get's dangerous.  Do I run it through again and possibly ruin it?  Do I stop now?  So much at risk.  So much unknown..

One more pass through the felting machine, also known as the washer, still left me unsatisfied.
It just isn't coming out the way I envisioned it.

Three washing

That's the thing about felting, you knit one thing and plan for it to turn into something else, but there are no guarantees.  It's pot luck.  It's best guess.  It's cross your fingers and hope for the best.  Kinda like life I guess.  Oh wow.  That's deep.  Really deep.

I have a friend who just doesn't get the whole knitted/felted bag/bowl thing.  She just looks at them and says, "why?"  I don't have an answer for her but I've discovered that these are the things I enjoy making.  I don't care to knit clothing.  Knitting scarves and mittens doesn't float my goat either.  These things make me happy so these things are what I'll make.

I'm hoping to put this one (and maybe some others) in a consignment shop and actually start selling my bowls and baskets and bags and totes.  Maybe someone else will find them interesting and be willing to pay for them.  Pay big too.  I have about $40.00 in yarn invested in this bag and I'm going to ask $80.00 I think.  I'm probably crazy.

Finally.  It's still not quite what I pictured in my head but it's close.  I'm hoping once it is complete dry and shaped it will be perfect.

Final bag & Sparky's toes

I need more fiber!

But before I go into that..  I FINALLY finished the socks I was working on.  Aren't they cute?  It helped that today was a very rainy and blustery day and I was cooped up inside.

Now, about that fiber.  Saturday Jill and I went to the Canby Flock and Fiber Festival.  I was on tactile overload.  I had to touch and feel and caress all the lovely merchandise.  Unlike so many places there were actual signs that said "please touch."  So I did.  I couldn't have helped myself anyway.  I wanted to dive into it head first. I wanted to roll around in some of the fiber. I purchased a big bag of natural cream colored alpaca roving.  In the animal barns there were alpacas, llamas, angora rabbits, romney sheep, black faced sheep, angora goats and my favorite, pygora goats.  I learned a lot from the goat breeders.  I still have a lot more to learn.

I have great plans for my alpaca fiber.  I'm going to spin some of it and ply it with some red alpaca I purchased several weeks ago and then make some really neat felted things.  The rest of it is going to be sacrificed as a dying experiment. 

Despite hours of fiber immersion on Saturday, I needed MORE.  I had not yet gotten my fiber fix.  Sunday morning I went back to Canby for the parking lot fiber sale.  I wanted to get my hands on some freshly sheared pygora fiber.  I wanted it all dirty and unwashed.  I wanted to experience the process from start (minus the shearing) to finish.  Unfortunately I was unable to find pygora.  In fact, I was almost unable to find the sale because, despite it's name it was not in the parking lot at all.  It was in the fair grounds arena.  I haven't quite figured that out.  Although I couldn't find pygora I was able to bring home some lovely brown and gray romney fiber.  I'll learn washing and carding with that. 

Fiber is good.

Shirley's got a brand new bag.

Let me tell you about my friend Shirley.

A year or so ago she discovered that I had a quilt top made by my grandmother and her twin sister somewhere around 1940. She took it to her quilting group (the Galloping Horse Quilters of Portland Oregon) who turned it into an incredible masterpiece, handstitching everything to keep with the era and technique's it was started with. She would not take payment for this.

Last fall when my son crashed his car on I-5 and I had to frantically dash to Redding, CA Shirley stayed at my house and took care of my animals. She stayed without hesitation, without a change of clothes, without a toothbrush. She lives 50 miles north of me and didn't even go back home for clean underwear (okay.. that might be too much information.. there ARE Targets around here.. maybe she bought some). I thanked her heartily.. but let's face it, that's a little lame.

A few months ago she stayed again. With more notice (and a change of clothes), but she stayed for part of a week so that I could go north to Peters and "get away" from it all before I started my new job.

I have made her a felted bag. She chose the colors.. they are heather and pink. I chose the pattern. It's taken far too long to make this bag but it was made with love and gratitude.

Thank you Shirley.

Knitted but not felted:

Felting #1:

Final Felting #2:

about 400 days until I move north..

Just thought I'd throw that out there! Woo hoo!

I signed on the dotted line today for the new job. I start June 7th (assuming I pass the criminal background check and that incident in the early 80's never comes to light...). I'm out next week. I don't work Friday's so day-after-tomorrow is my last day with my current job. YIKES! I've been at that job for 16 years. I've worked on the third floor of that building for 16 years. I'll probably go there out of habit!

I was told my new office (cubical really..) is on the "garden level." Doesn't that sound lovely? I was also told that the nickname for this location is... "The dungeon." No windows, low ceilings. Simply charming.

Other news.. The bag I was making for my Aunt is offically done. It's also offically the bag that I hate the most. It simply did not produce a result I'm happy with. I think I shall "shelve" it and start over with something new for her. I'm fairly certain I know what would float her boat so I shall make excuses.. tell her the dog ate it or something and eventually give her something I'm much more pleased with. She'll never know.

oh.. HI Aunt Carmela! Please pretend you didn't read this!

Other, other news: No chickies. There are no chickies for us. I'm very sad. Our last egg produced nothing but gooey egg yolk. ewwww. I'm thinking of skipping the egg stage and just getting little chicks.. but it might be too late for this year.. maybe.

Yummy! Wet dog!

I'm obsessed with felting. I am so obsessed that the smell of felting is a wonderful smell to me. "What smell?" you ask. "That stinky wet dog smell," says I. After all, wool yarn is just animal fiber.

I made this bag from a pattern in my head. I've been working on it about a week. This is the pre-felt stage.

I'm a little nervous about this project. I've taken the skills and techniques I've learned from other projects and applied them here. The bottom of the bag is crafted using the technique from the large blue and green bag I made for Jill. The strap was made using a technique from the first bag I made. The dimensions, flap and stripes I made up on my own.

The first felting is certainly not what I had envisioned, but that's not surprising considering Jill's bag took 4 feltings - it IS the level of felting I anticipated for the hat(s) I made for Peter. I'm starting to wonder if it is the yarn, more than the felting technique. This yarn is old yarn Peter's mother gave me. It was purchased in Canada about a zillion years ago. It has very short fibers that make it very rough & fragile.

Aha! The second felting is bringing us very close.

But I want to try it one more time. It's always so nerve-wracking.. Should I stop? Should I go on and risk ruining it? Once more. I tried it once more...

I like it! :)

But perhaps I should have stopped with two..

"The Bag"

Before felting it looked like this:

After one run through the felting process it looked like this (not so pretty):

A second trip through made it look like this (better.. but not right):
A third felting brought us this (getting very close..but I think I can do better):

We sent it through one more time and ended up with:
All we have to do is add the button and it'll be perfect!

Now.. on to the next project!