The yarn farm yarn

And while I was failing to make functional slippers Jeannette learned how to crochet and then made me a hat.

I definitely feel untalented right now.

Update: I forgot to mention that the hat matches a scarf that Jeannette made me last year.

Bummer of a trip to the felt ranch

So Jeannette thought that if baby booties were so easy that I should try to make her a pair felt slippers. Unfortunately I agreed to give this project a shot.

Now several hours later I have a few pieces of felt and one of the gnarliest 'slippers' I've ever seen. Ugh.

Back down on the felt ranch

After last Saturday's trip to the felt ranch I thought that there wasn't much more to do once the booties and owl had been finished.

Turns out that on Sunday I realized that I could make another trip back to the ranch to turn a handful of the scraps into something or other.  Of course, when I started the recycling project I was really just interested in getting a bunch of the scraps to stick together in something that resembled a ball.

Once I had a ball I decided to use a bit of the black wool that I had purchased (which, until then, had been unused).  From there the remaining bits and bobs just 'spoke to me' and revealed themselves as cat head components.

Now we have a poorly made felted cat head made from scraps and because I put a little bit of effort into it I'm not entirely inclined to throw it away.  Great.  This is the kind of thing we definitely need.

Big day on the felt ranch

The birth and anticipated births of a few friends' babies had Jeannette and I felting up a storm this afternoon/evening.

While I took care of most of the wool-into-felt part of the operation, Jeannette did an excellent job turning my raw 'fabric' into three dimensional structures that look like baby booties.

Oh, and in case you're curious - I did the owl all by myself.  And maybe for the first time in my life I've shaped something that isn't a piece of furniture or bread so that it looks like I hoped it would look.

Maybe if I'd been given some wool and a felting needle instead of crayons and paper kindergarten wouldn't have been such a struggle?

Getting my felt on - 3

It turns out I couldn't stay away from felting (or time-lapse) for very long.


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This afternoon I made a small felted bowl-type thing.  I am not yet sure which purpose it will serve, but I am generally pleased with the outcome, particularly for a second solo felting attempt.

The only aspect of the project that I am not quite satisfied with is the fact that some of the coloured wool seems to have bleed through to the other side of wherever it was placed.

Maybe at some point I will even give Jeannette a chance to give her felting stuff a test run.

Getting my felt on - 2

So the whole felting project moved along rather quickly.

Soon after starting with my basic and equipment and some unspun wool...

...I ended up with a mushroom shaped something or other, though it is currently functioning as a top-heavy pin cushion.

My only problem now is that I have an urge to do more felting and I can't think of anything useful to make.

Getting my felt on - 1

After a two-year hiatus I plan on getting back into needle felting tonight. My plan is to start small. I am going to try to start with some kind of needle cushion type thing. This will then be used by Jeannette when she uses her new sewing machine to make me socks and other sewing machine-made clothes. (No more clothes shopping for me.) The great thing about such a project is that just about any outcome will be at least somewhat functional as a pin cushion. That said, I really do hope to end up with somemthing functional and nice. Here we go.

Apparently we are approaching that time of year again

For the past few days Jeannette has been slowly ramping up for the holiday season. One of primary ways that this ramp up has manifested itself is through gingerbread person themed ornament versions of people (fictional and real).

At first Jeannette started with pretty run-of-the-mill gingerbread men.

Then the neckwear started to change.

First there was a scarf.

Then a standard issue necktie...

...and a bow tie.

I am proud to say that a few of my suggestions were even accepted and gingerbreadized.

One of my earliest suggestions was 'construction worker.'

I then moved on to eighties classics when I suggested Richard Simmons.

Jeannette then decided to run with the popular persona theme and chose to do an Einstein, ...

...MJ (from the Beat It music video),...

...Freddie Mercury, ...

...Luke Skywalker,...

...and Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Oh, and because it was Jeannette making these there were also a few zombies.

And just to demonstrate that Jeannette's skills aren't anything special I decided to make one of my own, a school crossing guard.

Not to brag too much, but I totally nailed it. It's pretty clear that I have captured the essence of crossing guardness more than any other artist before me.

Then, to try to top my crossing guard, Jeannette moved to the 3D realm with this third rate wintery scene.

I mean really, can you get more hotel room art than this? Where's the passion and feeling that you see in my crossing guard? Where's the humanity?

Anyway, we're definitely in the ramp up phase. If we aren't careful we will soon be overrun with homemade seasonal crafts.

Let the Bunny Massacre Begin

At some point yesterday Neil and I realized that we still had not put all that much thought into who would be baking the Easter bread, and when the baking might take place. In the end I rather aggressively volunteered to bake the bread while Neil and Rebecca went to the grocery store.

Before too long the bread had risen for the first time and was ready to be punched down. I was particularly impressed with how nice the risen dough looked before it was deflated.



After the dough was deflated/degassed, I rolled hunks of the dough so that I could create the bunnies. In total I made 18 bunnies. I am quite shocked that I ended up with exactly two pans worth even though I didn't really take the time to divide the dough before starting.



I was a little surprised at how long they took to bake. Given their size I would have imagined that it would have taken much less time than it did.



Obviously we were a little short on counter space for cooling.



Neil tapped into the goods while they were still steaming, thus commencing the bunny massacre, which will presumably continue until at least tomorrow. If things go as Rebecca wants them to, some of these may be iced at some point. at the moment, I think this is most likely to occur at some point tomorrow morning before breakfast, though we haven't really planned that far ahead.



In other easter related news, I finally got my act together and made myself an Easter basket (as I have been promised a visit from the Easter bunny). I impressed myself by making the basket almost entirely from recycled materials.



Also, as you can see, mine is the only one with kitties.

That time of the year

As American Thanksgiving has come and gone it is now officially holiday decorating season. Like last year I decided to go with hand-made paper snowflakes and a single string of Christmas lights. Hopefully this will be visible but not overstated (one never wants to make such decorations too obvious). Also, if I keep things to a minimum I am less likely to annoy either Rebecca or Neil with my decorating scheme.

Yes, this second picture is of our corn. It has done shockingly well considering that it was planted in Halifax in late August. Though it may be hard to see this in the photo, it seems that he corn is sporting the tussles that are common to mature corn. As of yet we still don't have any evidence of ears of corn, though I expect that these will show up in the very near future.