Tag Archives: Felt

Bridges – Nether Bridge

Hello All

With all this walk-ling in the early hours I have become conscious of the ebb and flow of the River Kent which accompanies me along much of my route. The swift flowing Kent is a mercurial river prone to flooding during heavy rain but exposing it’s rocky bed when the weather is dry.

You can see the old river is quite frisky after recent downpours.

Historically most of Kendal lay on the west bank of the river but to the east lay the castle, farm lands and important arterial roads. To allow guaranteed river crossings – fords were only available in dry weather – bridges were a necessity. They stitched the town together.

The first bridge I encounter as I pedal along is one of Kendal’s oldest, Nether Bridge. The earliest reference is from 1421. Old enough you’d think but it is likely that a bridge has spanned the river at the same point from much earlier.

Peering under Nether Bridge (and getting funny looks as I peered … well I was hanging over the wall) shows the evidence of the bridge being widened twice.

I often wonder at the strength of Nether Bridge as large lorries roll over it taking up both lanes as they navigate the tight turn to travel south toward the motorway.

Reading Andrew White’s description of the bridge in his “A History of Kendal” I find I am right to wonder. The bridge may have been a principal route but it was so narrow that an ordinance of 1582 banned vehicles with more than one horse. Something needed to be done. Fast … ish.

In 1772 – things up here like to take their time – the first widening of the bridge was made on the downstream side. Unfortunately this was washed away (eek) after a few weeks – we do get a lot of rain…I may have mentioned that before – and the widening was moved to upstream. A further widening took place in 1908 and I assume this has left us with the bridge we can see today.

Should you wish to stop and traffic watch (does anyone do that?!) the bridge comes with seating:

All creature comforts don’t you know.

Of course during dry spells the nearby ford could still be used. I tried to capture the location of this ford but am not sure I have because buildings have vanished and the banks are now steeper. Here’s where I think it lay…

But then again it could be …

…here?

In any event after the tragic drowning of a chaise driver in 1806 the ford no doubt lost some of it’s allure and was better used as a place to water cattle.

As the temperatures here are set to drop over the next few days looking at the cold waters of the River Kent sent me indoors and to the warm wonderfulness of felting.

Working on my wall hanging I decided to start livening up the sombre dancers by needle felting onto the piece.

Very satisfying. A little like Nether Bridge the additions have been a long time coming but I will get there in the end.

Until next we meet,

Moke x

Wall Art

Hello All

Always a good morning when my monthly copy of “Cumbria Life’ (they definitely do not pay me) drops though the letterbox.

This month I was surprised to find I could be … drum roll please …. ‘on trend’!

You see I have a blank wall problem. Brace yourself for something truly dreadful.

But no more as Cumbria Life tells me wall art is the way to go. Of course I have my own spin on this. Not for me the beautiful professionally crafted artwork nor the fabulous paintings by local artists shown on the pages of my favourite glossy. Although if I had the pennies there are several I would love to purchase.

Always on a shoestring it was time for me to pull out – actually less pulling more cupboard excavating – something I part-made earlier.

Strictly speaking the felt piece I am about to reveal was started by me and friend B under the guidance of felting master/mistress Liz Brown, Heartfelt by Liz. I opened it up gingerly in case it had become lunch…dinner…tea and supper for the moths. But lo.

Relief. It is in one piece.

Pop quiz time. What do you think B and I did as Festoon? If you thought we made blinds you would not be alone. Infact we actually provided craft and hand drumming workshops! A ‘re-brand’ was called for and in the 1990s we became ‘On A Roll’ spending many happy years tootling around Cumbria and Lancashire with a car full of drums playing with all sorts of wonderful communities and people. There was sadly one casualty.

Our Festoon felt hanging became redundant. The embellishment ceased. If you look very closely at the top of the ‘F’ you can even see the needle we used for the back stitching abandoned. But that wall (be honest it is ‘orrible isn’t it?) is screaming at me and I think it is time to revive the festoonary and complete the work we started many … many … years ago.

Can’t wait to see it cheering up that bare, dull and uninviting wall. And who knows I may get into this wall art malarkey.

My cupboard archaeology revealed this little guy …. now where can he go….?

Until next we meet,

Moke xxx

Sew Sew – Going Dotty

Hello All

Saturday last saw No 1 Daughter and me off to Leeds for a rather special afternoon tea. Sitting in the Sky Bar of the Hilton the vista of city spread out around us, sipping a glass of chilled Prosecco and enjoying a superb vegan tea we gathered to celebrate soon to be No1 Daughter-in-law’s Hen Do (hope you followed that twisty windy sentence!).

It was lovely to join RS’ wonderful family and friends and be counted among the women that are important to her. I hope my little needle-felted bridal hen goes some way to saying thank you.

As for going dotty. Later in the week and back home I was ratching through my scrap fabric store looking for inspiration and found it: a small bag of pinked squares that I won in a raffle more years ago than I care/dare to remember!

What a super prize. And more than enough for the little project I had in mind.

Which to choose? I couldn’t resist going dotty and with help from Jolly Janome a couple of hours later

I had a warm-hued cushion ready for making the autumn evenings a wee bit cosier.

Good to use up the odd shaped batik off-cuts from the making of a tunic to finish the front and

jazz up the back.

Now suffering with a cold (poor old dear) I am glad to have a snug well cushioned corner where I can lie down with a box of tissues, mugs of hot lemon and a great deal of self pity!

Until next we meet,

Moke xxx

Aaaah-tish-hoooo!

The Experiment….it begins

Hello All

Brace yourselves I am about to share with you Stage 1 of my latest project which I am calling The Experiment. Don’t worry it will not involve the creation of a composite human by way of the exemplary stitching together of body parts and the harnessing of a lightening bolt’s power via an antennae cleverly crafted entirely from my collection of knitting needles. This Experiment requires neither thunderstorms nor sewing…. nor body parts.

I am beginning to wish I had not given this such a build up. I think I have been influenced by the Wordsworth Museum’s “In Search of Mary Shelley” exhibition! I digress: I can reveal that I am experimenting with the use of plant-fibres in needle-felting. Think I can hear the rustle of you rushing for the tantalising little ‘X’ at the top of the screen. STOP! This is going to be fun…honest.

As regular readers will know I started on this path at last week’s

Where I gathered together a range of plant fibres ready to start playing

The motivation for this fibrous adventure was born from my recent change over to a vegan diet which I did largely for environmental reasons (and the hope it would make me a tad thinner … I am that shallow). As you know this has not all been plain sailing but in for a penny in for a pound (ouch! a mixed metaphor if I ever read one). I am keen to look into the environmental impact of each of the fibres I try.

Presently I am not knowledgeable about animal or plant fibres and the environment. I only know what I hear on the inter-web-thingy and don’t want to risk ‘factualising’ information that is not …erm…you know….a fact. This little endeavour of mine will give me the opportunity to snuffle about through the factoids and root out what might be empirical evidence. Oh yeah and it will be FUN! because first I need to see how they needle felt.

Stage 1 of The Experiment – Needle felting trial

All these fibres look a bit the same so let us make different sized needle-felted flowers and hearts:

And to be on the safe side so I definitely can’t get them muddled (believe me it wouldn’t take much) let us make each a little envelope

Now to get cracking. One fibre at a time (you guessed it, so I won’t get confused).

Step up BAMBOO FIBRES.

As you can probably see BAMBOO is very silky. It is also very fine and floaty. I found later I was wearing some of the whispy fibres that got away. The bamboo kept its silky sheen even after needle felting. It soon hardened as I worked the fibres inside the flower ‘cutter’. This felt very different from wool and is something to remember so that you don’t break too many a needle.

The results retained the fibrous texture of the plant skein. The most recently worked side was silky and relatively smooth:

While the reverse, a little like wool, was more tufty until reworked:

You sharp eyed readers will already have noticed that I have not yet utilised the dyes. I decided to needle felt at least one item in each fibre first so that I can trial dyeing them against unworked fibres. That is to say I am scared! I am scared that dying (by me rather than a professional) will somehow undermine the fibres ability to felt. This again is my lack of expertise. So much to learn…

Quick BANANA TOPS your turn.

Before I go any further, no it doesn’t smell of bananas! I have not opened all the sealed packets but I think this may be true across the board although I would be rather happy if the rose fibre were to be subtly fragrant.

Back to BANANA. It felt less silky than bamboo yet also had a sheen which if anything was more obvious on the needle felted item than it was on the bamboo. Again the fibres felted quickly and are soon resistant to the needle. I wonder if this will be a feature across the plant fibres?

Before I went to Woolfest I came across a really helpful video made by Ruth Packham on the Dying House Gallery website. Ruth was testing out a number of fibres (cotton, ramie, hemp and flax) and the word ‘resistance’ cropped up a lot together with warnings about going carefully in order to avoid needle snap-age. If you fancy following in our footsteps it is well worth watching Ruth and taking her advice.

For now Stage 1 of The Experiment is partially complete. I was not disappointed with the results. They were not the same as wool and were different from each other but once I have an overview of the eight fibres I can decide what will work best for any particular needle felting activity I undertake.

I have 6 more samples to work with. There is no escape folks I will keep you updated.

Until next we meet

Moke xxx

Keeping crafty

Hello All

Inspiration has struck! Thank you Women of Cumbria.

Having seen several local suffrage stories I felt (no pun intended…) the time had come for me to make a small homage to the suffragettes. What better way for me to do this than …. needle felting! Ok it’s not chaining myself to Parliament nor enduring any kind of hardship for the cause (although those needles really..really smart when they stab a finger or three) but a little Suffragette Roundel was just the reminder I wanted.

Here’s what I did:

1. Gathered together my needle felting goodies: merino wool tops, foam mat, needles (36 worked best), pastry cutters for shaping and preserving my fingers (although not always!) and a cup of tea…of course.

2. Pressed merino tops into the pastry cutter and got felting to make flowers in the Suffragette colours of white, purple and green. I turned the woolly flowers over regularly so they didn’t stick to the mat as I stabbed away with the barbed needle (oooch ! ouch!) and then I finished them off free-hand in order to tidy the edges, give them definition and add a central dot of black (a friend says my flowers always remind her of liquorice all sorts…I know what she means).

3. Using the same method as the flowers (but with a different template) I made enough leaves to insert between each flower.

4. Played about with the layout of my six flowers and leaves.

5. Fired up the old glue gun (Kendal Cousin don’t get excited!).

6. Completed my Suffragette Roundel by attaching the felting to an embroidery hoop.

The Roundel is now a cheery but a 2018-relevant welcome to our home.

All in all it has been a satisfying crafty week. Invigorated by last Saturday’s visit to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival with the Crafty Ladies and the lovely goodies bought there for future projects

I realised I had better get a move on with some old projects. Those last seen tucked away in cloth bags that whisper to your conscience every time you try and scootle past.

With the companionship of a couple of crafty friends and a day set aside to get cracking with those dreaded works in progress I managed yesterday to get moving with a jumper for Peanut (lucky it is massive as I was seriously worried she would have outgrown it by several years before it got finished…).

BRD and KS it was great to be crafting together and also see your wonderful projects blossoming. Thanks for spurring me on. Keep crafting.

Until next we meet,

Moke xxx

Seagulls and Sewing

Hello All

Does anyone else have a problem with seagulls? Not in the sense that they sky dive to eat your cornet of melty ice cream or worse bomb you with an unhealthy dollop of  guano (if you don’t know don’t ask … spare yourself) but in the fact that they are dastardly difficult to draw. For reasons unbeknownst even to me I have taken it into my head that our work space needs to have its own seagull.

Before needle felting I like to do a little drawing. Things did not start well.

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Think my pencilled comments speak for themselves.

Time to take another tack. I felt like I needed to dissect a gull. Not literally of course but photographically. Nothing for it but to take my camera off to Barrow the home to many a European Herring Gull.

As I sat at the bus stop

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I geared myself up to tackle these monstrous birds. No joking they are HUGE. They make the pavement shudder when they come in to land. Boom. But Hitchcock would not be impressed. They turned camera shy.

They either came over all coy

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and turned their backs leaving me with a rather fuzzy picture of a bundle of feathers or

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they sat down on the job! Obviously they are after Equity rates darlings.

Anyhoo as sitting was the best I was going to get time to move on with the lying down gull drawing prep.

DSCI0011At least I won’t have to worry about those pesky fronty-backy knees … watch this space.

The other small fascination for the week has been brought about by a new book purchase.

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I y-e-a-r-n for some new clothes but find it hard to buy the right shape and style for me. Time to revisit my teenage years and make clothes for myself. Luckily I have no photo evidence of any of those wonderful (!) teen creations – if I did would I show them?! Habibe Acikgoz’ book ‘Bold and Beautiful Easy-Sew Clothes’ is filled with stylish asymmetrical patterns and clear instructions and advice.  Appetite suitably whetted let’s have a go.

First job will be scaling up the pattern (gulp) so I needed dot and cross paper (or a lot of sellotape to join together A4 sheets of graph paper). I had been told that there is a very good dress-making fabric shop in Ulverston so off I set.

What a lovely find. Unique Image in Market Street, Ulverston is a proper dress-making shop and yay! it sells dot and cross paper by the metre.

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This is dot and cross paper in case you didn’t know and let’s face it I didn’t until about two days ago. Now its time for a little maths (eeek) and let scaling commence.

If all else fails Unique Image also run project led courses so I may be investing in a full day workshop in their lovely airy sewing room learning how to dress-make from a professional …. I’ll keep you posted.

Until next we meet, Moke x

Pigs and dragons might fly

Hello All

Having been a bit off colour this week I was glad to trip into town today. Little did I know how literal that was going to be. You know that feeling when you start losing your balance? Your arms windmill like crazy and you briefly believe that everything will be OK and you will right yourself before falling flat on your face? Welcome to a moment in my world.

VERY EMBARRASSING….. but after my failed attempt at flying – a BIG THANK YOU to the kind folks who checked I was OK and helped me back on my feet – I gave myself permission to work on a couple of creative projects where flying could be more successfully achieved.

Over the months I have talked about our wonderful friend Linda who tragically died after a sudden illness. Linda always eagerly anticipated Mintfest – a wacky amalgam of street theatre and performing arts – and every August helped out as an enthusiastic and dedicated steward. In recognition of the tremendous support Linda gave to this community-based festival Mintfest 2014 is dedicated to her memory. DownloadedFile Ah-ha now you can see where I’m going with the flying. Apparently Linda had a vision of Kendal swathed in knitted replicas of the distinctive pink Mintfest flying pig. Now thanks to Homespun community organisation a pattern for the newly named ‘Frickel Pig’ is being sold around Kendal to raise funds for Linda’s favourite charities, help us get knitting and adorn this little old grey town of ours with a splash of pink. Here is my Frickel pig….almost done……

…just awaiting wings and a face. The wings are the tricky bit. Luckily there are some fabulous knitters (I am obviously not one of them) in Kendal and I can’t wait to see all the little Frickel’s taking flight at the end of the month. It should be spectacular. I will try and get some snaps for you, look out for them at a blog near you.

As to my other flying project and for those of you keeping an eye on his progress. Drekie has grown legs and rolled in local Herdwick fleece.

But what to do with his wings and spikes? Any suggestions? Should I go natural fleece or let rip with brightly dyed tops? Decisions, decisions. Let me know what you think.

In my head Drekie has a story involving Vikings, long ships and magic on these north western shores. Perhaps one day I will write it down and give him a little book bag containing his biography ‘The Tale of Drekie”.

Until we meet next. Moke x

Midsummer – and a woman’s fancy turns to…socks

Hello All

Now I don’t know if it is because I have been reading the beautiful Fox’s Lane blog which comes from the opposite hemisphere where it is winter and brrrrrrrr. Or it’s because I have been sooooo hot that I have lost my ankles and dream of chillier weather that will banish my Kankles. Or I am just perverse. But I find myself longing for cold winter evenings and snuggley, warm, home knitted socks!

I have a couple of pairs of own-knitted woolly goodness in my sock drawer.

But if you look closely you will see that they have seen better days. I have spared you close ups of the toes that are sorely in need of darning…. Usually I do not think of repairs and knitting new pairs until the ice crackles underfoot. Unfortunately this means – as the slowest knitter you can imagine – that I have no chance of finishing a new pair until we hear the first cuckoo.

Not this year! Thanks to the thought of the Antipodean winter the double-ended needles came out and stripe-y hose is already being knitted up beautifully (if I say so myself).

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Self striping sock wools. I love them.

Hopefully this is a rare sign of forward planning ( miracles will never cease). At last I can claim my Kendalian sock-y heritage. My aunt May and mother worked in the now long gone sock factory which was based in Sandes Avenue in this little auld grey town of ours. Mind you I seem to recall that my mother left soon after accidentally creating a double-heeled model…. moving swiftly on….

A few of you have been kind enough to say that you like Drekie – believe me he has a swollen head – so I thought you might like a look at how he is evolving. DSCI0222

The little fellow now has two arms and is developing small claws. Hopefully this week he will grow back legs and while I have a few days off become more colourful.

Four days to Woolfest! Celebrating its 10th anniversary Woolfest 2014 is sure to be another cracking event. I have gone along every year…bar one (sob)… and always come away inspired and cheered by meeting such friendly knowledgeable people. Brace yourselves here comes a front shot of yours truly taken at Woolfest (cough.. a few years ago). What is it with me and socks?!36846_442679875750_135370_n

Whoo-hooooo Woolfest here I come…

Until next we meet. Moke.

Cushioning

Hello All

Cushion-making was high on my agenda when I went on leave and three cushions later my cushion needs are fulfilled. As you’ll recall I already had a flower petal cushion underway. That little flowery beauty is now cosily sitting on my sofa

One down two to go.

I originally thought I’d use the same pattern with the Herdwick from the Wool Clip DSCI0070

but in all its rough, hardwearing splendor it didn’t seem right for something as delicate and transient as a flower. I decided to look through my books for inspiration. I found it here the encyclopedia of knitting and crochet

Published in 2008 (I think there is a new version) this gem of a book gives so many knitting and crochet patterns for blocks that overwhelmed I had to sleep on it before finally deciding to use the Log Cabin from the Centre  chart to create the front of cushion number two.

I am not used to using a chart – I normally rely on a pattern – you can perhaps tell from the centre of the block that I got off to a wobbly start DSCI0075

yet once I got the hang of it I appreciated being able to play with the length of the ‘logs’ and the ordering of the colours. I was pleased with the result DSCI0108

and had as much fun making the back of the cushion by carrying through the colour blocks, edging in double crochet with the apple green and adding a bit of fun with a hodge-podge of buttons from my store.

Having costed up cushion inserts (up to £5!!!!) I decided to make my own from my (small) fabric stash and some donated kapok (thanks again JG) DSCI0105

and hey presto another plump cushion

That makes two.

Just before Easter one of my little old Cavalier Spaniels, Thomas, sadly died. Thomas was over thirteen and very frail but a great character always eager to be in the middle of things. In his last few weeks I used to wrap him in one of my old chunky jumpers ‘Big Purp’ to keep him warm at night. After he died I hadn’t the heart to throw out Thomas’ beloved sweater yet its days of being worn were over. Time for Big Purp to get the cushion treatment.

First I felted my trusty old pully. The results were ermmmmm …

…… not that promising. But after attacking it with the vacuum cleaner (it was in need of heavy duty de-fluffing) I cut out two rectangles, one larger than the other, then sewed them together with blanket stitch

The addition of a filling and a toggle made for a huggable pillow

A cuddly, cosy homage to my little old friend Thomas.

All in all a happy few days and cushions I am proud of.. is that an excuse for sit on the sofa?

NO! another project beckons….

Fan that I am of public transport I set off to see friends B and JK in Windermere.

Here comes the bus…. DSCI0090

to take me to another platform (i.e. not Oxenholme)

to sit in the brilliant sunshine admiring the views

before hopping on a train bound for Windermere DSCI0097

Although I was in a bit of a rush to meet my friends I still had time to grab a few snaps of my favourite bookshop

pop my head inside the door to say hello to B’s husband R before arriving at Cafe Italia where me, B and JK happily put the world to rights before it was time to part. Here’s where the next project comes in. I did not leave Windermere empty handed.

B had been busy cutting up old t-shirts and swapped me balls of wonderful stretchy t-arn (if plastic yarn is plarn?……) for a little trinket basket I’d crocheted her. Aren’t they fabulous?

Now what to make?  I am thinking rug. KC I know would suggest cat cave but I don’t think the t-arn will go than far.

What do you think? Ideas gratefully received.

Until next we meet. Moke

A bird in the hand

It was a traumatic start to the weekend because I am a lucky mum to still have No1 daughter, her boyfriend and grand dog. They were driving in the near-side lane of the M6 on Thursday evening when they were side swiped by a lorry, pushed along the carriage-way by the same HGV, spun around 360 degrees across the motorway and ricocheted onto the barrier of the hard shoulder. They are battered and bruised, suffering whiplash and shock but otherwise unharmed. I shiver to think how different it could have been and was most relieved to see No1 daughter yesterday afternoon and give her a hug.

Thankfully I have good friends to rant to, weep on (sorry JG, B and RS) and keep me diverted from thinking about what might have happened.

Its 2014 and time to begin a new Latin book with AHDSCN1152

it’s the last book in the series and from the length of the first translation alone we can tell it will be somewhat taxing.DSCN1148

On a Roman theme I have been asked to share a workshop I attended sometime ago with AH when we spent a couple of days with book binder extraordinaire Michael Burke (of Dominic Riley and Michael Burke fame) making a facsimile of a Vindolanda wax tablet. DSCN1124

It was quite a struggle. There was chiseling ( I have never before or since chiseled!) which meant  CAREFULLY working the beautiful tulip wood to hollow out a very thin recess or pocket in each sheet without piercing the other side of the ‘page’, especially the double-sided leavesDSCN1120

and being EXTREMELY CAREFUL to keep intact the fragile little wooden bars at the centre of each page that act – once the sheets are filled with soot-dyed beeswax (don’t ask me about working with soot and molten wax…) – as a means of separating the leaves (aaarghhhhh, they all have to LINE UP!!!!!). DSCN1121

Once you have wrestled with the problem of getting sooty hot beeswax – I’ve told you, don’t ask me about working with soot and molten wax – on two sides of the three centre pages you finally get to put the waxed cord through the teeny tiny holes that you drilled (yes…DRILLED!) after CAREFUL MEASUREMENT to hold your Roman book together. Phew. DSCN1119

You’ll have gathered it was not the most relaxing craft project that I have undertaken. Infact I seem to remember rushing home to pick up my crochet hook and work a curly-wurly wreath just to calm down. BUT I hope you agree that the finished item is a thing of beauty and for experimental archaeologists a real eye opener. ALSO spending a couple of days in Michael and Dominic’s wonderful home and bindery with such expert bookbinders was a privilege. And do you know I still have the ‘book’ but have no idea what happened to the wreath.

Talking of book binders my two very good friends B and JG – who were taught by Michael and Dominic – are accomplished binders in their own right and today I joined them as they discussed their current project, creating beautiful bindings for ‘Letting Go’ by Angela Topping published by Mother’s Milk Books.

Of course we talked about  interesting books to read. B and RS have the wonderful Fireside Bookshop in Windermere so we were spoilt for choice, I also notice that a library book has crept in too… DSCN1163

and the afternoon would not have been complete without putting the world to rights over a tasty lunch and a slice of B’s latest gluten free baking. Today it was delicious pineapple and banana spiced Hummingbird Cake, DSCN1161

What about the bird in the hand I hear you ask? In the midst of this week’s highs and lows I have been busy creating a needle felted Guinea Fowl for a friend of Bs. Infact it became a bit of a welcome obsession. I doodled him in my craft book (remember the one B made and swapped for a pair of my fingerless mittens)…

I drew him on shopping lists…DSCN1128

I even sketched him in my diary…DSCN1131

He began life as a shaggy pile of wool tops …DSCN1134 then began to take shape…

something like a pheasant/hen/turkey…vulture?!(unkind)…cross…started to look like a down at heel Jemima Puddleduck …DSCN1138 but then found his feet ….

lost them again…DSCN1143

and erm…blossomed into a Ghanaian Crested Guinea Fowl a la Moke….DSCN1159

a bird in the hand.