Felting for Frederick Fashion Week

This scarf just makes me think "french" for some reason - so that's what I'm calling it! lovely shades of soft green and aqua in wool and hand-dyed silk.

My friend, Christine, http://www.bagzthat.com/ and I are taking part in some of the event of Frederick Maryland Fashion Week at the Cultural Arts Center, 15 N. Market Street in downtown Frederick. We'll be there on Friday evening at 7 and on Saturday, 9/18, where our models will be sporting our creative "art to wear" during the VIP cocktail hour from 7 - 8:00 p.m. We are very excited to be part of this show which is always sold out!

"Falling Leaves" This leafy wrap background is a gorgeous irridescent brown/copper depending on the way the light hits and it just called out to be an autumn wrap - what is more perfect at this time of year than falling leaves in Fall colors. I love it so much I want to keep it for myself! The "hanging" leaves were done on the Embellisher before being stitched and then wet felted.

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A neck fancy created on the Embellisher before being stitched and then wet felted; soft curls added at the bottom.

Jacobean Wrap: I've very much wanted to create one of these for a long time as I just love the interesting details found in Jacobean embroidery. I'm all about the details and could spend hours. The background is a lovely irridescent deep wine that changes to plum depending on the lighting; ach end has a lovely ruched effect from the wool shrinkage during wet felting. This is mainly wet felted with a few Embellisher touches (what would I do without my Embellisher?).

Felting in Circles

Circles, circles everywhere circles.

I splurged on a gorgeous piece of silk from EmmaOneSock and it looks like a gorgeous garden with a field of flowers sprinkled all over the top with shades of mossy green along the bottom. It got the creative juices flowing and so I felted it on to a mixed green silk/merino blend. I placed a band of the wool/silk roving along the bottom and added small circles of color to mimic the flowers in the silk; I had intended to make a couple of more pieces of felt in this colorway to use for a jacket which would mean I'd have to cut it up but the feedback from more than one person is to leave it the way it is for a wall hanging - we'll have to wait and see what the "muse" decides once I add some stitching around the flowers :-) It was a really fun and interesting piece of felt to make.

A variety of color coordinated silks and enhancements from my stash - more circles of course.

Some tiny circle flowers to match those in the fabric.

Here is the inspiration fabric although the indoor lighting just doesn't do it justice.

Why I Haven't Been Posting

Knitking Bulky 260


. . . . Knitting Machines! I acquired two knitting machines from my dear friend, Jean, who was looking for a good home for them and she knew I'd take good care of them - but I confess I was very intimidated and didn't even know what I had when my husband pulled all these components out of the (many) boxes. For those of you who don't know anything about knitting machines like me a month ago - these are the most sought after and sometimes good ones can be hard to find since Brother stopped making them some time ago. I've always wanted one but never really knew their capabilities until I began reading and searching on-line and now I'm so excited! One of them is a Knitking Bulky 260 with punch cards to enable patterns, the other was still brand new in the unopened, stapled box and is a Compuknit IV which is a completely computerized machine with over 500 patterns built in. Not only did I get the machines but all of the accessories that are available including the ribbers for each and the G carriage (which will knit the garter stitch without assistance) but lots of other goodies as well. I bought gorgeous wool yarn to make a bag on the Bulky and then "full" in the washing machine for my first project but I've been busy getting ready for an event this weekend at the Frederick Center for the Arts that I'm doing with my felting friend, Christine of Bagzthat.com.

Compknit IV (computerized 500+ patterns)

Ribber attachments for each machine.