Felting

I received an order, via the gallery, for a 40cm x 25cm lampshade. I have not made a lampshade this big before and it is pretty intimidating.

Obviously when you felt something it shrinks so it needs to start bigger. This shade is 172% bigger than the 20cm shades I mostly make!

I use a roll of laminate underlay to make my shape templates first and then use these to cut round on the British Shetland pre-felt. Whilst I had the huge roll of laminate underlay and the large roll of pre-felt out, I cut out some pieces for some brand new items I will try at some point.

For the 40cm shade, my plan is to lay the fibres out on Monday and make a start on the felting, but it’s so huge I think I will need to continue felting on Tuesday as well. Our breakfast bar is just big enough to work off! Fingers crossed I’ve made the template big enough, have enough fibre and have enough elbow grease to felt it. Some felters use an electric sander they wrap in bubble wrap to felt large pieces but I’m not keen on the idea of water and electricity, so it’s all done manually.

Fibre Prep

I have blended some more colours on my drum carder and hoping that the fibres I have prepped for it are going to be enough.

Knitting

My knitting mojo is coming back so I cast on The Shift by Andrea Mowry. This is a similar pattern to the Nightshift shawl I made, but it uses lighter weight yarns and is a cowl (knit flat and sewn together). I am using a mix of sport and 4 ply yarns from my stash: Handspun BFL/Seacell, handspun Falkland merino, Doulton Flock Border Leicester 4 ply mini skeins and some leftover Ripplescrafts Cochrane yarn. These are all none superwash.

Whilst I had the swift and ball winder out I also caked up some handspun BFL/Seacell 4 ply to make a pair of socks.

Sewing

I used my overlocker to sew and trim the fringe off some older handwoven hand towels. Then I made hanging loops for them all and sewed them on. When you cut a project off the loom you end up with quite a bit of yarn waste which I keep. I made the loops by plaiting/braiding some loom waste and attached with my sewing machine.

Weaving

Rigid heddle loom

I caked up two skeins of West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite lace weight yarn for my next weaving project. I just need to decide how I’m going to use the 2 colours. I may just go with one colour warp and the other for weft, but I am having a think about it.

---

Other News

Foot update: I woke up on Monday and it was feeling a little better. I could make it downstairs without having to put both feet on each step and as the week has gone on it’s been improving.

Windy days have been back so no SUP trips again. Forecast for next week is more wind and rain but at least that will make it easier to stay in and make the lampshade.

---

This is a Year of Projects post.  Officially the Group is in its 12th year, but this is my 5th year participating.  If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry. 

Year 12 list.