Needle Felted Skulls

Over the past few months I've continued to sculpt various pieces with needle felting. I really like this medium and it's possible to achieve great results and effects without much mess (unless you consider being knee deep in wool a mess)...

Here are a few basic skull beads that I made a while back. They were needled quite firmly to the point that they feel like high density polystyrene. They weigh practically nothing and are great fun to embellish with embroidery if you fancy a 'dia de los muertos' look.

I'm still waiting on the perfect project to add these to and an excuse to make even more. But for now, enjoy this sneaky peek at my geekery!

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Swaps: ISE5 Angel scarf & goodies - piccies!

It's been a busy few days in Casa Craftybernie. In between sleeping as I get over the dreaded 'lurgy and keeping Katie busy during half-term, I've been slowly working my way through all the recent finished projects and swaps, posting photos of everything that I have received or completed.

About 1/2 an hour ago I finished uploading the photos of everything that I received from my amazing ISE5 Angel, Martha.

Check out the results of Martha's hard work starting with this beautiful scarf in Rowan Felted Tweed. The scarf pattern is Eugen Buegler's 'Streaming Leaves Lace Scarf'. And it is DIVINE! It's so soft and squishy. Martha was a little concerned about the alpaca guard hairs but it's not a problem - it feels lovely and soft against my skin. Beautiful! I love it.

Martha also kindly included a second scarf, Edgar from the fall 2005 issue of Knitty knit in Silk Garden Lite, for Katie. I guess I could have claimed it for myself but I will probably end up borrowing it anyway and this way Katie feels spoiled too! She was seriously stunned that a stranger across the ocean remembered her in this way and she asked me to say that she "absolutely loves the colours and the pattern". Thanks Martha (from Katie!)


Another indication of Martha's thoughtfulness, is the undyed wool and Kool-Aid packages that she enclosed so that Katie and I could dye the wool together. How lovely is that!! Katie was very interested in testing the Kool-Aid for herself when I explained that we would be using it to dye wool and not drinking it! "Imagine what it does to your insides", she said! Kids. Lol.

The box was absolutely stuffed full of thoughtful little extras and I know that Martha & her hubby had a lot of 'fun' squeezing everything in. By no stretch of the imgaination was this a small box. There is enough fiber, yarn, beads and more to keep me going for months of projects!

I put together this little photographic collage of the items that my amazing Angel sent me. Working left to right, starting with the top row we have:


1) Clover Natural Wool Roving
2) Bluefaced Leicester
3) Dream in Colour Sockyarn
4) Precious Petals
5) Tubes of Street Bead Connections
6) Naked Cat Fiberworks
7) Edgar Scarf in Noro Silk Lite
8) Patchwork Fat Quarter Bundle
9) a Beautiful Notebook (has graph & plain paper inside!)
10) Sugar'n'Cream Dishcloth Cotton

There's an element of crafty Kharma that goes with being a swap Angel. Stepping in at the last minute to make and send to somebody across an ocean is a challenge-and-a-half, especially when everybody else has had months to get to know their pal and work on their projects. The kindness of our swap Angels is invaluable. It takes a special person to fulfil their duties in a swap, only to do it over again for a second pal.

Thank you Martha for being a true Angel. xx

About my Scarf Angel: Martha lives in Vancouver Washington, with her husband, 2 dogs, 3 cats and 1 or 2 of her 3 children.

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Spinning: My story so far...

One of my goals for 2007 was to learn how to spin using a drop spindle. Top, bottom, mid whorl - didn't matter. I just wanted to learn. That's what I'm like. If I want to learn to do something, I can't rest until I've tried it at least once. Then, once if I enjoy it, I practically become addicted (hence the enormous number of craft projects I always seem to be working on).

I finally bought one when I saw that Cathie from the CTnY forum was selling hers at the end of November. It turns out, it's actually a really cool one - a total 'Babe'! Really, the company that makes these is called 'Babe' and they also make spinning wheels.

Anyway, the spindle comes with two discs so it can be converted into a top whorl, bottom whorl, a mid-whorl or a balkan spindle. You can use one disc for spinning singles and two discs for plying yarn and/or for heavier weight yarn. It has a 12" shaft and the discs are plastic.


Then for Christmas, Mr CB bought me a wooden spindle and 400g of roving from Uk Collect Fiber Works. Although I found this one easier to learn with, I like and use them both equally well.

It wasn't easy initially. I read some info online and watched some videos on YouTube, had a go, didn't like the results, then promptly sat back down again in front of the PC and started again from scratch.

This time it worked!! And I have to say that I'm finding the whole thing quite magical. It's just amazing how the leader thread catches the wool, how the twist travels up the drafted wool and hey presto, you've got yarn! Magical!!!

Thankfully I've got two spindles as Katie likes to play too!


As far as progress goes, here's some photos of the yarn that I've managed to spin since Christmas. I'm not going to post all the photos as they're on my Flickr but just so you can see what's been going on...

This is the first lot of spinning from front to back - the red one was my very first on Christmas night after a lovely day and lots of wine!

I think this picture below really shows my progress. The yarn on the left is the first attempt and the one on the right (resting on the knitting needle) is the 2nd attempt a few days later. I'm finding drafting the wool much easier now and although I have to do do this sitting down, I think I'm managing quite well.


The blue and red yarn is the first yarn that I plied.....


... and wound into a center pull ball. I really like the colours together!


I've had to improvise alot when it comes to spinning accessores: I've modified a cardboard box to use as a Lazy Kate and I use a cardboard tube as a Nostepinne for the center pull balls.

I don't even think I'll try skeining yarn until I get my hands on a Niddy Noddy, although I did see a really cool tutorial on how to make one using plumbing supplies over on Craftster! I guess I'll just have to get myself organised and get a few items into my Etsy shop. Then maybe I'll save enough money to buy some accessories!

Thanks for looking and check back again soon for more updates!!

x Bernie x

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Felted Soap

Back to the reason why I bought that wool roving a few weeks back. Felted Soap. What and why felted soap? Well, felted soap is like soap that is wrapped up in it's own little sponge or cloth. The soap lasts longer and when it does eventually get used up, you'll be left with a cute dainty little felted pouch which you could then recycle into something creative (or fill it with catnip and give it to the puss!)

BTW, check out Arleta's blog. She makes Soap Socks which are like little wooly sacks with soap in them. They are sent out unfelted and as you wash wash wash, the wool eventually shrinks around the soap. Fun!

We used Merino Wool rovings but I guess any felting wool will work. Also, save the nicest colours for the top layer - I wouldn't mind getting a bag of undyed unspun wool or roving to use as the base layers and then put the nice colours on top.

You can make it as decorative or plain as you fancy. Little Miss CB has said that she can't wait to wash her hands with this soap as it looks 'dead cool'. Even if it's just for the kids, it's worth a try. It's relatively inexpensive, and a nice clean activity. We felted a bar in the bath last night and Little Miss CB got clean in the process!!! Lol.

I believe, but haven't tried it yet, that you could add some grains (or whatever) etc.. if you fancy an exfoliating scrub.

There's a few different ways to do it but I read that it is recommended you use round or oval soap when starting as the corners on square or rectangle bars tend to poke through the felt. We bought a big multi pack of 'Simple Soap' from the supermarket and cut one bar in half, rounding off the edges and corners with a sharp knife.

Next we covered the bar with a length of wool roving, wrapping it around the bar in one direction (left to right) and then the opposite way (top to bottom). However many layers you use, make sure the fibres overlap.

Holding the wool wrapped soap in your hand, use your other hand to scoop up some warm-to-hot water and gently dribble it over the soap.**

Then drizzle on some dish soap and rub the soap in your hands; round and round and round and round and round......

** You can also make up a soapy water solution with warm water in the basin and have another basin or pot standing by with cold water in it. Today's effort was made using some shavings of olive soap soaked in hot water til it dissolved. But I guess you can use soap flakes???

Keep an eye on the soap edges and make sure you have covered them well at the start. Once the wool gets wet and sticks to itself it's impossible to cover the gap by 'pulling' the wool over it. You'll simply have to add more wool to the bar to cover any gaps.

Now you can be a bit rougher with the soap and roll or roatate it in your hands making sure you rub the entire surface.

Alternatively, you can rub your bar against a piece of bubblewrap to speed up the felting process. (no fancy equipment in our house!)

From time to time, squeeze the bar to remove any excess water and check how the wool is looking.

If the wool feels like a tight fit around the soap and isn't baggy, rinse gently in warm water and then dunk it into cold water to shock the fibres further. You can then just pat it dry with a towel or some kitchen paper and leave to dry on a cooling rack.

When the bar is dry you can needle felt a design onto it. I needle felted some wool scraps around the roving and wet felted them slightly. Although you've got to wait until the bar of soap is dry before needle felting or your needles will break!!! You've been warned!!!

PS, once again, apologies for the awful piccies. Web cam in operation, normal digital camera with The Man in Spain!

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Needle Felting (not another craft Bernie?)

Yes, Needle Felting. Yes, another craft. Or at least, more of a dabble really. Do you find that crafts overlap in more ways than one? I would never have considered this 12 months ago but it has got to be the most fun and relaxing craft that I have done to date (well, apart from knitting of course) ---:). Plus it is very affordable to do (the two needles, handle and foam pad set me back less than a fiver including postage!).

I mean, what else are you supposed to do with your leftover wool roving, the best part of which you shared with your lovely little daughter, except to perhaps Needle Felt. Actually, Spinning would probably be my first choice but A) I don't have a spindle, and B) if I did i wouldn't know what to do with it.

I digress. Back to the needle felting. I'm working on something super top secret and hush hush at the moment and....... Oh, speaking of which, do you ever find that when you read this on a crafter's blog it usually means they have a book in the pipeline or they are going to be published with a popular e-zine? Yes? No? Well, that's not the case here (had you going there for a minute though didn't I). Stick with me and check out these piccies of my first real needle felting project.

This is the result of a morning and afternoon spent playing with the left overs from yesterday's felting fun. I've also incorporated other fibres with the wool roving and my yarn scraps bag came in very handy for this when I needed just a bit of 'green' or a little bit of 'pink', a smidgen of blue, etc.. (You get the idea).

I can't say much more about this project except it was fun and it really is part of a gift for someone special. Yet another swap pal I hear you say? Well, actually, yes but I've gone of on a slight tangeant with this project and have tackled it in a rather unorthodox way but all will be revealed in a couple of weeks.

BTW, did you know that felting needles have these little 'barbs' on the shaft? No? Neither did I until I ordered a couple on the internet the other day. And all I could think was what the hell am I doing with these lethal weapons. Obviously it's not as intimidating as the instructions but it does pack a prick or two when you accidentally but rather enthusiastically poke yourself in the finger once or thrice!

PS poor quality images due to webcam as digital camera is with him-from-indoors in Spain this week. Harumph! :(

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Wet Felting with Merino Wool Rovings

We've had a fun and interesting couple of hours today. We experimented with Wet Felting.

Initially it was just me and Little Miss CB. She needed a little encouragement as to her, crafting is the devil's work.

Anyway, once she got her hands on the wool she began to enjoy herself, and successfully made two pieces of felt. The top one is the first effort and I think she did a really great job.

We were then joined by one of her friends who wanted a go and they both made a stripey piece each. I gave them each a plastic tray so they could take their felt to the sink easily enough and still work at the table. But by the time time she began to felt the 2nd piece of wool, she really had had enough and started to show off. Regardless of her behaviour though, the girls had fun and were very pleased with the outcome.

Now it's a question of making a small little something with their piece of fabric - maybe a little coin purse or a pencil case or a bookmark perhaps!!??!! That's something for another day.

Anywho, time to put me feet up for a bit. I think I'll just have a valium sandwich to help me settle down though! :) Lol.

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Woolly Stash Enhancement: (just a lickle one, honest!)

I'm flashing my stash as I get ready for a period of serious felting!

I've been on the hunt for wool this past few weeks and have finally managed to replenish my stock. Look at this pretty little haul that I scored off e-bay:

Can you guess what the grey wool is? Of course you can. It's written in HUGE letters on the front. It's Lopi wool, something I've been dying to try for the longest time. That should make a nice felted bag or two.

Next I managed to score some Twilleys Freedom Spirit for a 1/3 of the price which I am very happy about, naturally! I hear this felts up well, too well in fact, so I'll have to watch what I use this for.

And finally, in the bottom of the picture is two packets of merino wool roving in a red/honey mix and a blue/grey mix. This is intended to be used for some easy felting projects with Little Miss CB & her friends (like beads and whatnot) but also to make some felted soaps.

That's it for now. I'm not buying any more wool until I catch up on my FO's and WIPs.

I'll report back at the end of the week on our felting progress, if we haven't killed eachother by then. One more week of TT and they're back at school. Yay!

Oh, and ps: I forgot to mention the two lovely skeins of Cascade 220 which Kathryn sent me in exchange for the red/green needle roll. Thank you Kathryn!

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