Ho...Ho...Ho.... and a bag of fibre....

Summer tends to be a little slow, so I've been busy working on kits for the winter season. Well, it is over 30ºC outside and I need to cool off!!

Plus some shops start their Christmas planning early. For example, if you're putting together Advent boxes, which contain a project a day from Dec 1 to Dec 24, you need some time to come up with 24 projects that can be finished in a day!! (Actually Advent starts a full 4 weeks before Christmas, but let's not worry about technicalities, which would also mean another 3 or 4 projects in the box!!) A needlework project a day sounds like a lot of fun and much more slimming than a cookie recipe a day or a chocolate a day - because let's face it who can eat just one chocolate a day!!

Here is my first winter ornament - I love the effect of the "curly locks" fibre on the hair and beard!!

These kits will be available soon and each kit will make either one ornament with a face on either side or two ornaments with plain felt on the back. Included in the kits will be everything you need to make the project  -  felting mat, felting needle, fibre, squares of felt backing, and complete instructions.

I had lots of fun with my computer program creating this face template, which will be included with the instructions.

Lots of fun all around!! I think I'll have to teach a few classes to see how everyone brings their own personality to their Santa face!!

P.S. Kits will retail for $15.00. If you stock our Bhedawool and TrueFelt squares, you can supply customers, who want to make more, at much less, because they will have the felting mat, needle and instructions already!!

I also forgot to mention that I created most of the ornament to the strains of Bob Dylan. My neighbour was working in his garden and instead of listening to the bird song, he opted for the bard song. I still can't get

"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now" out of my head.

Is this why he won the Nobel prize for literature?

Have a good one.
Carol

Lazy Summer Blogging...

....Now that it has finally stopped raining in southern Ontario, I get to see the sun. In the words of John Denver - "Sunshine always makes me high!" So I am going to be a little lazy and post something I wrote for one of my other blogs. It's on knitting and a blog idea generator, which I think I have to visit again soon. Here it is -

My blogs are works in progress. That is, I often re-read a post, which might be listed on my stats. page, as recently read by someone else. Invariably, I find an error, usually minor, in the spelling or the syntax, which I then correct.

Today, someone read this post - Content Marketing Tools Can Be Fun. It reminded me that there is this really cool site that will generate blog topics for you. Since I was writing about knitting again, I decided to key the word knitting into the idea generator and let the fun begin. Here are some random topics from the generator, with comments :)

1. How Knitting Makes You A Better Lover - Knitting is not just the domain of grandmothers and even if it were, grandmothers can be lovers too. I was always fascinated by the concept that some people knit underwear - very sexy underwear. If you were at all timid about going into a lingerie shop, you might just want to buy a few balls of gorgeous silk yarn and knit yourself a "Teddy" - just saying.

2. Unbelievable Knitting Success Stories - There really are some amazing "things" that people have done with knitting and crochet. Some people have covered cars and buses with hand knit pieces. One woman even knit a house cozy. Yes, she covered an entire bungalow with knitted squares. That's not to say that finishing your first ever knitting project is anything less than an amazing accomplishment!!

Fair isle knitting

3. Why Knitting Should Be One Of The 7 Deadly Sins - Sloth comes to mind. It's not that knitters are a lazy lot; it's just that when we sit down to knit, it's really difficult to break that concentration to get up and make dinner or clean the house, for example.

4. Why Do People Think That Knitting is a Good Idea? - I have always maintained that, if you have a skill, however small, you have the means of earning a living or augmenting a pension, through sheer industriousness. Many people have supported whole families by knitting.

5. Ways Your Mother Lied To You About Knitting - My mother crocheted. She could knit, but preferred the fact that with crochet, you only had to keep track of one stitch at a time. I would see these gorgeous fair isle sweaters and decide that I wanted to knit one. My mother would say, "Oh, they're far too difficult." I was almost 40 before I attempted fair isle knitting. It is still my favourite!!

Have a awesome day!!