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

Felted pieces by Nicola Hanna
Created last fall as gifts for family members.

I call this piece “Prairie Sky”, it is wet and needle felted. It was fun to play with the colours for the sky, using different kinds of material like roving yarn and dyed sheep locks.
The old cabin was a bit of a challenge for me in regards to getting definition and shading.

For “Yukon Mountain Valley in Fall” I used the same techniques and similar materials. The challenge for me always is to get definition and dimension - it is an inspiring process.

by Carolyn Steele Lane
using 8/2 un-mercerized cotton, 24 epi

I fell in love with the colours in the Sunset Towels pattern by Sarah Resnick and bought several cones in Canada minus the Italian Cotton/Linen  cone. Without the Cotton/Linen, I decided to find another pattern to use it on.

Then I discovered the Circles and Checks Towels in Taqueté by Susan Poague that were in Handwoven May/June 2019 and I just happened to still have a 8-shaft loom on hand.

Right away I was conscious of the fact that I chose colours that looked awesome in a stripe and proceeded to make something that had a yellow tabby in the warp. Unsure of the yellow, I added some nile green and as I didn't like how the colours flowed, I added purple because well, I like purple. And two greys - one of which ran out one thread short on the warp, so I substituted.

The first sample I wove made me think I might create something very ugly indeed.  Then I learned how many errors I had made in setting up the  loom. There were many.

It didn't improve the next sample.

I tried to relax and enjoy the process more. This of course went out the window when I was finishing the last towel. I learned that I had room for one more "last" towel and proceeded to weave it in a day.

I think I learned about colour. The colour of the weave changes with the angle you look at the cloth because I had a tabby in my warp. This lesson is still sinking in. I definitely learned about tension and got better at it as I went along - my last towel is probably the best. And washing improved everything!

I've already got another project on the loom and its in plain weave on 4-shafts. What a difference! I can actually walk away and easily pick it up again without losing my position in the pattern. It's quite relaxing and this time I'm only making two towels.

by Susan Clark  
Pattern “Chartreuse” by Baby Cocktails  
Material : Llama Natural Worsted from Estelle Yarns by way of Itsy Bitsy Yarn store. 

The sleeves were done first on double pointed and then circular needles in the round. The body was knit as a single piece adding the sleeves in at the appropriate place with  pockets incorporated as the body was knit. The wool was a Christmas gift from my son and it was a challenging knit, especially at the yoke and shoulder area and  matching the two front cable panels coming around to the back of the neck.