Okay, so I have a topic of interest (to me anyway).  Getting rid of the ugly dry cracks on my heels.  Been an adventure for me these past couple of months and I'm finally getting some luck with new, pretty pink-skin heels.  I'll have pictures and process soon!  It's taken some devoted attention and I have to admit that a rather hypochondria-prone friend of mine once told me that cracked, dry heels were some sort of syndrome.   Well, they are.  A syndrome of dry skin that needs to be cared for to be corrected.  Probably will need ongoing care, too.

Winter-time crafting.... I've been in love with felting, creating buttery soft felt from old wool sweaters and then using it in foundations for jewelry.

First step is to cut up the sweater into squares.  I found this Ralph Lauren item in a secondhand shop.

After cutting the squares. several layers are sewn together and then cut into strips.  Since this is a technique to make felt beads, rope, and squares was developed by Odile Gova, I'll reference her shop here so you can order the tutorial PDF if you like.   The magic is that you do it in the washing machine!

This is what results from the washing machine.....

Close up of the beads (which I haven't figured out what I'll do with yet).....

I have been using the larger felt squares though.  The resulting felt is so soft I can't resist.  So I've gotten some necklaces made and also this little flower.

Needle felting is a very different technique and involve using what's called roving, the fiber before it's spun into yarn or cloth, and needles that are sharp (very), thin, and have barbs on their staff to catch the fibers and make them "hang on" to each other.  I'm having a lot of fun with the technique.  It doesn't take long to understand how to but it does take awhile to learn to keep your fingers out of the way!  Ouch!

  

New Year's Ruminations

Moving into the new year has been, as always, a journey for me.  I find myself this year in a new place, one with time, a most precious resource.  I want time, have wanted it for years.  I thought that given the gift of time I could explore my interests and develop something of real and sustaining industry for me.  Not working is wonderful, the day-to-day life is easy to live in and so I clean, take my walk, fuss about in the studio, plan dinner, etc.  What lingers in the back of my mind is that sustaining industry I want to uncover.  What plagues me is that I don't want to mishandle the opportunity of time by frittering it away.

Yesterday I returned to some journals I've kept in my past.  They're an interesting mix of ideas and notions that I wonder about leaving behind for my children to find, i.e. should I or shouldn't I?  How much of it do I reveal and how much do I keep between my past and myself.  I haven't kept a journal for many years now and looking back has been awkward in how the musings tend to mask what was happening outside of the pages while also revealing it, and they illuminate a self-involvement that was on the written page not in my activity.  The writing was an indulgence, a way to focus on me when the outside world was creating so many challenges in my life.  Sometimes the writing is downright poor, just ramblings while I try to explain my feelings to myself.  Sometimes the ideas are great, ones that I think I've subconsciously expanded upon in my life.

Well, what a muddle.  Not an uncommon place for me to be, in a quandary about the past and future while the present plays itself out regardless of my attention to its passing.  My message to myself:  Pay Attention.  Act with Purpose. Do not Waste this Opportunity.  Aha, therein lies the muddle, what is this opportunity I want to apply myself to and what will I want from it..... I must define that in clear terms so I'll know the outcome I'm looking to achieve.

Meanwhile, on the crocheting front, my new hat for Ed!  He loves the colors and the big pom-pom.  When he saw the ones I made for the children, he wanted one too!  Links to how-to are below.

Link to Pom-Pom tutorial I used:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a03BTR3_3qg

I modified this process because a big pom-pom will simply lose more and more yarn over time unless you secure it with more tying.... I made several of them then tied them together to form the larger pom-pom.

I may have given the link to the hat tutorial before but am going to list it again along with another link to an explanation about increasing or decreasing to correctly size the hat.  (Not being overly concerned with this type of thing I just kind of winged it since the head it was being made for was right next to me on the couch....)
Link to Hat tutorial I used:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3K9nbkOwJQ&feature=related

Link to sizing a crocheted hat that I didn't use but think will be helpful in future:  http://oodles4noodles.blogspot.com/2011/08/crocheting-hats-for-preemies-tutorial.html#comments

Pom-Pom Hats

A new year (!) and another holiday season gone.  I always get the blues on New Year's Day and this year, slept a lot to shake them off.  But, we had a great New Year's Eve splash with champagne and clams.  The bread was so good, the broth was made with wine, butter and broth.... SO GOOD!!  And we saw the ball drop with Dick Clark, Wow, he's got staying power and I wish him well.

And, to round out the hat-making adventure, I finished several with large pom-poms:

Etsy Shop

Another day in the studio and what a mess, all for the sake of this little birdie.... he's pretty cute but was he worth the mess?   I just finished cleaning up all the Christmas wrapping paper and bags and tissue paper...  he looks better in person anyway, prettier colors than I captured with the camera.  Must remember the daylight or the photographer's umbrella.

I'm not sure where that annoying new popup that asks to share on Twitter and Facebook came from (*@#X!) but after 2 hours of trying to figure it out, I'll move on.... Sigh..... my apologies, I'll try again to get that removed.

And, moving right into the Christmas holiday, I'll wish you all a happy one!

Felt Flowers and Crochet Headbands

Last night I watched, um.... something on the TV.... oh, right!   It was another episode of a PD James novel from British public station and features the super cool detective Adam Dalgliesh ( I loved reading her books and am now loving the TV interpretation, both good).    Loaded down from Netflix -- easy, cool but finding a movie you want, hard.

And I made felt flowers from this website: http://makeanddogirl.com/2011/10/tutorial-diy-felt-flowers/
Watch out for hot glue!  Very messy.... wonder if there's a better way?  Also get burns on my fingers because it's hard working with the smaller petals and not bending them into shape with my hands.

They're very pretty and I've also made a headband, hunter green, to go with the green and black one.   I think there's going to be some work to do on attaching these to a headband because they're a little heavy.  So I'm working on a sturdier headband, the one in hunter green and mustard.

The headband pattern is very easy, too.  Here's link to YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS39tjLyeyk