Come check out this remarkable smoking jacket created by member Janice Brodie at the NFG exhibit at the Yukon Arts Centre in December through January. This is a rare sighting of a garment created entirely from scratch: first the wool was carded and spun into fine yarn, the yarn was then woven into cloth, the cloth was dyed (with indigo), and then the jacket was sewn -- all by the same person! 
... and here she is, reluctantly posing with the piece as the exhibit is being prepared. Thanks for your truly inspiring work, Janice!

Simone's been busy.  Here's her knitted hat using:

• Marmot brown - 100% quiviut from the Alaska Research Centre
• Glacial Blue 60% quiviut, 20% angora, 20% silk;
• Alaska Blueberry: 55% quiviut, 30% cashmere, 15% silk.

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And Knitted mittens using Briggs & Little "Tuffy" yarn.

The book I am referencing is Filz Geschichten by Annette Quentin-Stoll und Robert Quentin. MaroVerlag is possibly the publisher and everything in it is in german. Yay, Google Translate!

This project creates 9 samples; all done very simply with little tweaks that advance from one sample to the next.  I read them all, put the book down and then used my own methods, my knowledge of resists and prefelts and made my own samples. I added buttons, free motion quilting and other decorative stitching.

Cool, huh?!

Well, that was last year. This year, I returned to the original book, re-translated it and was again in awe with how 9 little projects were made and advanced. I had been inspired, but I also missed the point. This little project had a lot to teach and was enough completely as is. I'm struggling to find the right words, so here it is, everything I love about felting in one little package. Will make a great gift too.

By Nicola Hanna

I got inspired to get into crocheting again after Toos presented some of her pieces done in Tapestry and Tunisian Crochet at the November 2020 meeting. I ordered one book each for these two techniques and a couple of weeks ago bought the yarn at Itsy-Bitsy. Their website is really well set up to determine beforehand what one wants to have a closer look at right at the store, which simplifies and speeds up the process of buying wool under the current circumstances. 

I just finished a bag in Tapestry Crochet which is now on its way to my sister in Portugal!

By Sarah Overington


Here’s the end result of the silk spinning Saturday. On the bobbin, then in the skein. I Navajo plied it to retain the colour sequences.

By Carolyn Steele Lane
Needle felting
I had created my first dinosaur way back in February 2017. I used wire in the arms/fingers only, keeping the arm wires joined and built the wool body in the middle (as opposed to making two separate arms and sticking them into the body).

Last fall, Elisabeth Weigand kindly commissioned one like it for her sister in Germany, so I got to make another! 
I stayed away from wire this time, though last fall seems so long ago, I can't quite remember. I did use a string jointed technique to attach the arms and legs. Simply sewed from inner leg to outer, back through, through body and into second leg and back and forth a few times. If done right, the leg will move on a joint.  Any dimples created can be covered up with more wool.

One of the biggest decisions of a project is size or proportion. All this has been done freehand. I much prefer sizing as I go rather than creating a complete wire frame of the whole project at the start. That's just me. Learning to draw has helped and I've always been spatially aware, except now I'm probably less exacting. I've often start with a head  or a body part that is important to that character such as the claws on this one. The rest is built to fit or adjustments are made as I go and exaggeration is allowed. And like any story book, the character starts making demands such as a flower rather than a heart or sometimes coffee.

I love how this new dinosaur looks so completely different than the first one and shows my work improving.

By Carolyn Steele Lane
Needle felting and wet felting

My daughter asked me to make a couple gifts for her cousins, which led to us watching many episodes of Futurama over Christmas. The Piranha plant from Super Mario, I know well from playing quite a few frustrating video games when the kids were younger. Back when you couldn't save your level or yourself for that matter. I love how I am influenced by my kids. When I can catch their excitement and create something I wouldn't have otherwise.

Introducing Nibbler from Futurama and The Piranha plant from Super Mario fame!

Nibbler's cape is from store bought felt. His diaper was made from quilt batting. I had tried to give him a big, cute butt 'cause its funny, but it didn't fit his character and body type and plus, the diaper. So I do go back and forth with my ideas and rework areas to make it better- even his teeth were cut down and reshaped. It's a good thing wool is forgiving.

The Piranha plant is mostly needle felted, but I wet felted the leaves, machine stitched the veins and stitched onto the stem. The stem is made of pipe cleaners, wrapped in wool and carefully needle felted. I sometimes wet felt the stem as well to make it smoother and tighter, but didn't this time.

Enjoy!

Its been a long time between meetings. A few of us made it out last night to Yukonstruct and had our first Show & Tell. These are Kate Williams Finger Puppets that she knit as well as used a few felt pieces. Great way to use up scraps. They are adorable. Thanks for showing us, Kate!

By Nicola Hanna
​Seeing that we have a cooler summer so far, I decided to make a summer vest from raw and Mulberry silk yarn I acquired at last year's and this year's auctions. 
I found a pattern that I liked:

​But I had to adjust the pattern for the weight of the yarn I was using and the amount I had available!

This is the finished result:

​I am happy with it - and would also be happy to get some really warm days so we can take the vests and jackets off!

Cheers!
Nicola