Felting ‘flowers’ into scarves
Swirls of Merino wool flowers, ready to be felted into a scarf or two
I did a felting course on Thursday and Friday last week, so on Saturday I wanted to play around with what I learned.
I dragged out an old bag of leftover Merino bits. The bits were all mixed together and not that inspiring. A bit like when you mix too much paint and all you get is brown. I set about untangling and sorting and had a lovely time creating these ‘flowers’ above.
I am not an experienced felter yet, so thought I’d experiment with embedding them into a scarf. I didn’t know how they would take, given they were a bit worked already, just from hanging around with other bits of wool in the same bag. I placed a thin layer of wool fibres over the top of each flower before felting, just to see if they’d anchor in place.
I am delighted with the result!
Emmylou - felted scarf with 'flowers'
So delighted, in fact, I made another one straight after it, though this time I shaped the scarf around the flowers shown in the first picture.
Felicity - purple, blue and orange felted scarf with 'flowers'
New mohair crochet flower and knit scarf
Rose Red - crochet mohair scarf made of flowers and leaves
Meet Rose Red. She’s the latest in my crochet series of wearable sculptures.
I am thinking of making another like this, and felting it, now that I understand the felting process.
You can see more pictures on my etsy site, in the crochet category.
New skill learned this week – felting!
Elfi - felted grey scarf with coloured and embroidered shapes
This week I took a Yarra Valley Arts Council class at the Healesville Primary School in felting a scarf and felting a hat.
What a great time we had, laying fibres, wetting wool, rolling until we thought we could roll no more. It was much easier and much less messy than I thought.
And here’s the result: Elfi. Named after my Aunty in Augusta, Georigia. You can see more pictures on my etsy site.
Happy felting!!
Erika – knit scarf with crochet flower, includes pattern for flower
Eirka, knit scarf with crochet flower. Pattern included for flower.
I’ve named Erika after my mum, not because it looks like her, though. It’s because when I finished the edges in maroon, it started to take on a Teutonic look (Ma was German). The scarf is knitted, the edges and flower crocheted in complementary colours.
The pattern for the flower is this:
Close up of Erika, knit scarf with crochet flower. Pattern included for flower
Use any wool in complementary colours and pick any crochet hook that’s easy for your thickness of wool and your tension of crochet. You might have to experiment it you’re new to this.
Note, this pattern uses Australian/UK stitch names, not US.
- Form chain ring:
5 chain then slip stitch into first chain to form a ring. - Create 8 spokes with spaces in the ring:
5 chain (the first 3 chain form the first spoke of an eight-spoke wheel you’re about to make).
Make the next seven spokes by crocheting 1 treble then 2 chain seven times.
Slip stitch into the top of the 3rd chain in your original spoke. - Create petals:
1 double crochet into the first gap, next to the first spoke you made from chain stitches.
Follow it with 2 chain, 2 trebles, 2 chain and 1 double crochet.
Repeat this in the remaining 7 gaps until you have 8 petals.
Put a slip stitch near where the first double crochet was, to tighten the flower shape.
Sew in the ends.
You now have a flower.
Note.
- You can either make many of these in different threads (thick, thin) then sew them together like a layered pancake stack, with pancakes decreasing in size; or
- You can crochet another layer or two onto the back of the first round. See extended pattern below.
Creating more petal layers:
After you’ve created your first flower, if you want more layers, work the thread to the back any way you know how, near your first spoke. Make sure the front of the flower is facing you (you’re working behind the first layer).
- Create chain loops behind the flower, anchoring them onto the spokes:
4 chains, anchor the string of chains into the 2nd spoke.
Do this until each spoke has a string of chains behind it (8 sets of chain, strung along the back of your flower, anchored to the spokes. You’ll use these as the base for crocheting more petals, behind the first round of petals. - Create more petals:
When you have your eight strings of chain, slip stitch again into your starting point.
Now, into the first string of chain, 1 double crochet, 2 chains, 3 trebles, 2 chains, 1 double crochet.
(If you want a fuller petal, substitue the 3 trebles with this routine: 1 treble, 1 double treble, 1 treble.)
Now, move to the next chain string, again, with the front of the flower facing you, and keep creating petals as outlined in step 4, above, until all 8 petals are complete.
Slip stitch near the start again to give the flower a strong, uniform shape. - Complete, or keep going: Sew in the ends, or make another layer. Try another texture or colour. Sew in a few French knots. This is the fun part and it’s all up to you!
Visit my etsy store to see more pictures of this scarf. Also, checkout the recycled and upcycled section and let me know what you think. I’m loving recreating from something that existed before.
Lisbeth – recycled and upcycled sheet turned into rag knitting scarf
Lisbeth - recycled and upcycled rag knitted scarf
I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry, both in a culinary sense and when it comes to combining colours.
I also love to recycle then upcycle fabrics, and play around with textures and colours.
Lisbeth is my latest rag knitting scarf, with an op shop shredded sheet as a base, knitted with a sequin yarn and a lovely alpaca blend in raspberry and chocolate. I’ve made this scarf a little shorter, so you double it up and put the flower at the end. It’s probably more like a cowl or scarflet, though it’s still around five feet long.
The flower has five layers, one made out of the shredded sheet, and the centre picking up more of this theme. The flower looks good enough to eat.
I’ve put a long fringe on one of the long sides, to enhance the notion of doubling the scarf over to wear it as a cowl.
There are 12 stitches and three strands of yarns/sheets. It’s done in garter stitch (plain, pearl), and took around 100 metres of each of the three yarns to make.
You can see more recycled and upcycled scarves on my etsy site.
Lisbeth - rag knitting scarf, front view
Lucky, lucky me! Five scarves sold and one on commission!!
Today I feel very lucky. I sold 5 of 17 scarves to Turner and Lane, a lovely shop in Malvern (Victoria, Australia).
Here are the items I sold. Note, the last one is one I have on commission, at Morris Brown in Healesville, Melbourne, Australia.
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- Skeeter – grey wool scarf with yellow orange & red dry-felted hearts
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- Bloom – white knit scarf with flower & leaves
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- Fleur – freeform woollen red & green crochet scarf made up of flowers and leaves
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- Gelati – yellow, orange, red & green crochet scarf made up of flowers and leaves
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- Miss Kitty – grey wool knit scarf with red wool hearts and red baubles
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- Anna K – Kintted scarf made of flowers and leaves
What I’m happy about is not only that I made a couple of hunge (though that’ll pay back the wool, and help fund more creativity), it’s the attitude of the buyers I loved the most. They really seemed to enjoy the designs, the textures, the colours. That they selected some for their gorgeous shop made me feel really happy – really, these women have an eye for the beautiful, a real talent. And they were so easy to deal with and generous in their approach to invoicing.
So, if you’re creative, remember that luck comes to those who believe in luck and to those who believe in their product. Good luck!
Blue mohair crochet scarf with felted coloured circles
Take a look at my new scarf! Like it?
I took three days’ annual leave this week, because my niece turned 8 and I took her to lunch, and the weather in Melbourne has turned from searing to pleasantly mild. Having said that, there was a wind storm on day two that was strong enough to knock out the power for a few hours.
That didn’t concern me, however. I gathered kitties three in and got out my non-electric crochet to finish the latest scarf, pictured.
I enjoyed crocheting, watching the trees do crazy dances in the wild wind and keeping Peabody Wiggle, my Siamese, away from the Merino wool. Later I found a lump of pink Merino and it was soggy, so his wool-watching vigil was a great success.
Now I’ve moved on to making a butter yellow crochet scarf, which has hand-felted coloured circles, making it look a little like a FrootieLoops surprise. I didn’t like it that much at first but yesterday after I added the felt it’s become my new favourite. It’ll be the next post.
Hope your day is filled with creative thoughts and actions!
Three times lucky?
Last weekend I knit
enter a different state of mind to my dominant one, which is working in IT.
But so desperate am I to reach this other mindset, I’m now amassing a collection of scarves, too many for my own personal use!
I need to move them.
So, I set up a shop on etsy.com (www.handmade3777.etsy.com), a site where you can buy and sell handmade goods. It’s like a big online St Kilda Sunday Market and I fear I’ll buy more than I’ll sell.
So, that’s one avenue. No sales so far, but nice to do some social networking and learn 
more about it, and a few people have liked some of the items in my modest ’shop’.
My partner & I, when down at the local bricks and mortar outlets the other day, went into a gifty kind of place. I’m shy about flaunting my wares so he asked the assistant if the owner would be interested in looking at my scarves. She said, ’sure’ and handed us a card with a name to call.
Since then, I met a friend for lunch in Tooronga. We went into that lovely shop, Turner and Lane on Malvern Road, and my friend, knowing the stage-fright I would exhibit if I had to ask, asked the lady in the shop if the owners were interested in viewing some of my winter wares. I now have another card, with another name to call.
Buoyed by how nice these people were, I phoned a favourite local shop, Morris Brown in Healesville. I spoke to one of the two partners and she has agreed to take a look.
Perhaps three times lucky? I’ll let you know how I get on.
Peabody & FrouFrou (aka Siamese & wool)
FrouFrou is made from pink & orange mohair. She’s soft as a bunny and has her stage gear trim on.
Peabody is her biggest admirer, for all the wrong reasons.
The inspiration for Frou came from my friend Helen’s, Laura Ashleigh cardie. It’s mohair with ribbon trim finish and looks smashing on.
While Frou (let’s call her W) was simple to knit, I did encounter problems keeping her from her special best friend: a Siamese called Peabody (let’s call him S).
You know the drill: It just is that S ♥ W.
If S gets really quiet, I can bet he’s opened the cupboard that houses the special felt toys, or he’s found my unfinished, dry-felted curtain and has taken it to his lair. It’s not uncommon for him to string my knitting in progress around the house in five seconds flat. Sometimes it seriously looks like CSI tape by the time he’s done.
Recently he took off with a brand new ball of plum-coloured mohair. He turned it into his own style of knitting by undertaking the following moves: crocodile roll, kick kick kick, bite bite.
I wrongly thought that by letting him have his own project, he would leave mine alone.
So Frou’s done extremely well to survive to photograph stage, though there were a couple of close calls. I chopped out more than one round of kittyknitting from the skeins, after having turned my back for oh so short a time!
