Fun With Felt

Looking back over my posts from May of this year, it appears that I never shared with y’all this cool book I picked up in Langley, WA while away on knit retreat: Folk Embroidered Felt Birds

I’ve been meaning to give them a go- and so finally got out the parchment paper today to trace some patterns and get started.

I decided to try a fairly simple shape first, and so settled on the Song Thrush

I’ve got quite a bit of felt scrap in natural colors, and decide to do this birdie in black and light brown, with embroidery in shades of brown and gold

It’s coming along ok- hopefully my handstitching will get better with practice 🙂 Thinking maybe a bright orange eye?

Once I’ve got a few of these under my belt I’d like to maybe do a variation on one of the patterns to make a cedar waxwing. I just love those guys.

I’m also back to working on my Dottie’s Freya sweater. It’s a nice, rhythmic knit, and feels so nice in my hands. Starting to wonder if I’ve spun enough yarn, though, Might have to go back to the wheel before it’s all done. Good thing I’ve got a massive vacuum-packed back of Dottie fleece to draw upon!

I just keep going round and round- I’m about 7 inches below the underarms, and should probably consult the pattern to see how much further i continue with the cables before it turns to ribbing. It’s going to be so cozy. Been toying with the idea of doing edges in a contrast color. Thoughts?

Was just out to give the critters some snacks before I sat down to blog and noticed Fiona partaking of the cobalt block. Good girl!

And as I stood there, out of the corner of my eye I saw an unexpected flash of red

A rose! which isn’t entirely unexpected of this plant, since it is a rosebush, but it’s funny, because I thought that this old long-suffering shrub had entirely reverted back to the variety of it’s rootstock. All the flowers I’d seen this year were violet-y singles. And here comes this single long stemmed velvety red number, which I think might be Mr. Lincoln.

An unlikely and most welcome surprise so late in the season.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” — Abraham Lincoln