It's been awhile since I've posted on the blog but I've been busy busy busy!  I have had a lot of health problems this last year but my art and crafts have kept me from going crazy about it.  I was able to participate in two art shows with my needle felts last year which was fun.  I am hoping to attend more this year.  I have started to design a booth in case I can make it in a couple of art fairs.  We couldn't afford expensive art panels to display the needle felts.  We are creating our own.  I will post pictures when I start working more on it.

 Here are some of my projects from the past year....

Newest needle felt- 18x18 Vineyard

12x18 Needle Felt- Horse

He was challenging.  I hadn't worked with dark first and then hilights. 

12x18 Needle Felt- Desert Scene

I love the texture and colors of the desert.  This was inspired by a photo I took at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona on our trip in 2006.

12x36 Needle Felt-Pelican

I broke 10 needles on this one but I love how he turned out.

 

 

12x36 Needle Felt-McKenzie River Oregon Fly Fishing

I spent hours and hours for weeks on this painting.  I learned a lot with it.

More Needle Felts from this year...

I started getting into making Primitives.  

They are so fun to stain and make to look old.

I was asked to make a rabbit sweater from my friend.  She loved it. I added it to my shop and have had many people have me make them custom sweaters for their dogs and cats.  It's been great fun to make these beautiful wool sweaters for people and to see how much they and their critters enjoyed them.

My first "cable" attempt.  I love this woven stitch.

Someone asked for a cabled dog sweater so I gave it a shot... 

First fingerless gloves

My aunt asked me to make her fingerless gloves with her donkey's baby fiber for Christmas.  Donkey fiber is extremely dusty and full of debris.  It took a lot to get a little fiber.  I managed to salvage some and blend it with alpaca and angora to make her the gloves.  She loved them.

My first freehand project without a pattern: He was fun to make with my handspun scraps of alpaca/merino/firestar yarns and various eyelash/cotton yarn.

I found a really cute pattern of a pug to knit.  It took me over a year to finish it for my friend, but I was able to give it to her for her birthday in January. 

 Some knitting projects from this year.  I was getting ready for two craft fairs at Christmas and the day both shows were to start, we had a freak snow storm and I missed both. Yikes!

 This was "Henry the Rabbit" pattern I found on Ravelry.  He was so fun to make and Lily loved him too!

This was a very fun crochet ice cream cone baby cocoon I made for a friend at work. I used organic cotton for the main parts.

I tried out dying Merino wool.  I had a heck of a time, dyeing doesn't seem to be my thing.  This was supposed to be blue.

Latest knitting and crochet projects

I've been knitting and crocheting a lot and am having a lot of fun.  I had to stop for awhile because I developed some terrible joint pain that has been a mystery for three months.  They tested me for RA and Lupus but luckily the tests were negative.  The prednisone she put me on seems to be improving the wrist pain and I was able to complete my projects.

Crochet grocery bags- Eugene,Oregon has started charging for their grocery bags at all stores so I was inspired to make my own bags out of some clearance cotton yarn I had gotten awhile back...  The teal, coral and yellow one was my first, adding a custom made silk flower hairclip (see post from April).  They are super easy to crochet and turn out so fun.  I have some really fun ideas for them coming soon....

I had a lot of fun creating a folk art, primitive style knitted rabbit with my friend's yarn of wool and cat hair. I found the pattern online in German.  I spent about an hour translating it and rewriting it.  I could not figure out some of the directions for the ears but they still turned out cute.  I'd never knitted something to be felted before.  I used natural wool for the stuffing and had to redo it while it was in the dryer.  The wool was felting to the knitted part in bad spots so I restuffed, resewed the bottom and put him back in the dryer.  He made it though.  I needle-felted an angora rabbit hair tail to his backside.  I used my hand-dyed fair-trade sari silk ribbon and jute for a bow around his neck. He's approximately 18" tall.

I've also been trying to spin some yarn up to help my friend fill out her booth at her local fiber show.(also available on my Etsy shop, www.thewoolywanderer.etsy.com)

 I had some leftover yarns and decided to try and do another headband for the show.  I love how it turned out and even added a wrap around the seam to create a feminine and stylish look. (Available on www.thewoolywanderer.etsy.com)

I've been needle felting too!  My favorite art-  My pieces NEVER turn out how I picture them but they always turn out cool.  I really enjoy painting with wool.  They all look better in person than in photos though.  They have a lot of texture and color and sparkle. (Available on www.thewoolywanderer.etsy.com)

 And last but not least is my friend's baby blanket I finished up today.  It started out as a blue organic cotton monkey washcloth but I had made it too big so I decided to use more of my organic cotton yarn and make a blanket out of it.  I hadn't made a blanket for and wasn't sure how to fix it up.  I ended up crocheting around the knitted monkey part.  The corners are rounded but I thought it still turned out cute... I hope she will like it and it will go with her monkey theme for Gracian.