Friday, February 22, 2008

Easter Stuff!

Here is my first attempt at a Panoramic Egg! I'm really thrilled! I had purchased a Wilton sugar-egg mold years ago and saved the little description. I have tried to recreate it here in a knitted/felted egg! I cut the bunny shape from the piece I cut out of the egg after felting. I am going to add pink "icing" around the egg hole and a few other felted creatures ... a chick ... a butterfly, etc. This is Lopi Lite white yarn and it felts WONDERFULLY!!! You can't really see it in the photo, but I finger-combed in some green flash into my green-dyed roving inside the egg. The flash looks incredible! I love it!!! It's so sparkly.
Here is my first attempt at a felted duck. I wet felted her bill and feet. I learned a lot while coming up with the pattern and will probably make her body a bit longer next time.
Here she is again, with the little felted hat I knit. I was thinking of wet-felting flowers to make it an Easter bonnet! I'd like to knit an entire duck family and put them on parade.
The duck is about 5 inches tall and the egg is about 4. Do you see how the duck's stitches are still showing??? AAACKKK! The egg is still damp, so I need to shape it a bit more before it's finished drying. I hope the shoe-button eyes arrive soon!

I have been so preoccupied with my little felted things! That's all I can think about! I have been browsing eBay (my favorite place, as you know already!) and looking hard at all the tiny, vintage Steiff animals. They are so wonderful. I am hoping to knit/felt similar-looking pieces. They are quite endearing. I love how full of character some of the smallest creatures can be! Next, I'll be working on a rabbit, a little lamb, etc.

I have to say that I was quite disappointed with my yellow Cascade 220 yarn. I used two strands (maybe I'll use just one next time) and I had to let it go through about four or five washes (in hot water, starting with prewash, no less!!!) in the washer ... it took about 2 hours or more!!! And it still didn't felt like boiled wool. So far, I have to say that Lopi (both regular and lite) is the best felting wool out there. I have heard that Universal is good and am going to buy a little (yes, just a wee little bit, honest!) to test out. It's disappointing to spend a great deal of time on designing a pattern only to have it semi-ruined by the wool! AACKK!

I am still waiting for my glass, shoe-button eyes to come in and then this little duck will be almost finished! The eBay seller I found for the eyes is terrific! Also, he has lots of other colored eyes, so when I work on the mice, I bet I can find pink! I saw some blue with pupils, just like the ones on the Steiff kitten!

I also purchased some glass glitter and I hope to add this to my roving when I'm wet felting. I would love to make a few glitter-speckled, felted disc-shapes, then stuff and sew them together for bases for things. Ah, I say, as I gleefully rub my hands together in anticipation!!!

4 comments:

Lil Knitter said...

You are so creative. I'm impressed! They're both so cute. I would so love to make one of those ducks...my friend's little boy just love ducks.
I've almost finished the Waddle Duck for him for his birthday next month.
Hugs!

Susan said...

Love them, you're so smart!

Unknown said...

So cute! Love them!

Anonymous said...

Impressive, very impressive. I just love your designs. Haven't heard from you in a while. Hope everything is going smooth.