Not the red and green I had hoped for....

Mmmmm this dyeing business isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

 Well with food colouring it isn't.

Off I went to Asda and came out with 5 colours and some white vinegar ( because you tube said so). Got home wool and colours at the ready.

I decided just to start with red and green, how lovely and bright they looked in the bowls, on my white sink in my white kitchen. I was a bit scared....

I followed the you tube video (do they still call them videos)  to the letter! 

But something went wrong. What? I don't know?

Not very red or green. But on the bright side I have a lovely candy floss looking pink, in places anyway and a white with a touch of sunshine as the paint tin would say..... 

Going to try 'proper' dyes next.

More small steps....

Lots of catching up with things this weekend. 

Little owls made for tutorials, old projects revisited, new projects started, a dear little deer, new cards and labels ordered and lots more wool to card.

Some more small steps and happy days.

What a triumph!

Dah dah!

My fleeces have been a triumph!

I am so pleased. I have carded a bit and look! It's amazingly easy to felt with too! 

I've even had a little try colouring it. This one was coloured using turmeric. Its a lovely shade of yellow ( but smells a bit spicy) still small steps are what I'm taking. I will get there in the end.

Trying something new. Washing fleeces!

I am trying really hard to take positive but small steps to make my felting journey a wider one. So when my friend told me she had some fleeces I could have, I jumped at the chance, not knowing what one earth to do with them.

Thankgoodness for you tube and wool/felting sites, I read and watched tutorials until they arrived.

Here they are 6 whitefaced woodland and 1black Zwartble. 

All a bit wiffy but I kind of liked it.

First step, skirting, evidently this means getting rid of all the bit you dont want.

 Poo bits, very dirty bits, small bits that the shearer has caused, VM ( vegetable matter) etc.

I probably threw away about two bin bags full and wasnt sure if I had thrown away good bits and kept some rubbish and I found it really hard to get the bits of VM out but its all a learning curve.

I ended up with 4 bin bags full to the top!

I 'borrowed' my husbands building tubs and filled them with really hot water then added washing up liquid before gently adding the fleeces. I tried some in lingerie bags and some 'free' 

After leaving them to soak, I repeated the process again before leaving them to soak in plain water.

 I did this until the water was clear(ish)

I used my washing machine spin cycle using the lingerie bags full of squeezed fleece.

Its been a lovely weekend ( thankgoodness) so my garden became a fleece drying zone.

They are looking better arent they!

I'm busy finding out what the step is now.

Watch this space....

Face update, feeling better

I put my last post on some needlefelting pages I am a member of on facebook. And the result? Lots of advice and encouragement, just what I needed.

She is looking now much more like I wanted her to.

What do you think? 

Faces!!

Faces, real looking faces elude me.

I am always scared to start them and when I am happy with my result, one pops up on a needle felting page and I want to give up felting completely. I am my own worst enemy. I have a vision of what I want the faces to look like but making that happen is another story.

I like to take photos of my work as it progresses as I think you can see mistakes on a photo that you don't see in the 'flesh'. 

So today, as I have a quiet,peaceful, no one in the house but me (and the dogs, the cat, with an occasional duck wandering past) day.

 I sat in the conservatory plucking up the courage to start. 

I had been doing my research and had images round me to help, so with no other obstacles in the way, I began.

After two hours and much mumbling to myself here was the progress ( no laughing) 

At this point I stopped.

Im not happy with the lips nose or eyes as yet. The temptation to rip it all off is like trying not to eat chocolate whilst dieting, but I'm not giving up quite yet. Or the diet. 

Does anyone else have this problem? Why I don't just stick to character faces and leave realistic faces to the ones that can, I don't know? 

Todays progress

Todays work in progress.

Can you guess what it's going to be?