Learning from Mistakes

It's never fun to have to throw out a messed-up felting project (at least with knitting, you can unravel the yarn!), but I suppose I can say that it's how one improves. Last week one day I had a block of time to make the first of Mirian's slippers. I chose her favorite colors and decided to make them slightly thicker and to use only wool, no alpaca. The alpaca in mine feels incredibly soft, however it is not holding in the rest of the felt very well. Although I love alpaca, it's not well-suited for felting that will take a lot of hard wear.

I traced a pattern for the resist and made it larger to account for shrinkage.... but not enough shrinkage! I guess that using more merino (which shrinks a lot) and not using alpaca (which barely shrinks) made it shrink significantly more. After trying to make this fit Mirian's foot (it felt like I was trying to get Cinderella's stepsister's foot into the glass slipper!), I gave up and started over.

The new slippers made from a larger resist turned out great! I had hoped to photograph them with the leather already sewn on, but I've not been able to whittle out even that little bit of time this week.

I did do a bit of dyeing, carding and spinning this past week, just wish I could have done more!

A friend told me that alpaca couldn't be spun into coils, one had to use merino, so of course I had to try- I love the result.

I'm off to the Southern Select Alpaca Show in Tennessee this weekend, then I'm chaperoning my son's choir trip to Orlando for 5 days! I'm beginning to forsee a time when our daughter will be back in school next year and I'll have larger blocks of time for fiber work again, trying hard not to wish the time away!

TGIFAF (Thank God It's Fiber Arts Friday!)

This has been one of those not-so-great weeks (a LOT of running kids around with little free time to enjoy the beautiful weather, though we did have a llama trek yesterday). Our teens have been pushing my buttoms and my fuse has been short (is there a full moon or something?... yes!), but as I pondered getting out of bed early this morning I thought, “YEAH, I can wear my new slippers!” (Sometimes, no maybe always, it’s about the little things).

My last blog post described my first attempts at felting slippers. I scoured the net for tips on finishing the bottoms. A lot of people paint latex onto the bottoms to make them skid-proof, but I liked the idea of keeping them more natural plus I felt that leather would protect the bottoms a lot more. This blog had some good information on felted slippers and adding bottoms. Someone mentioned using scrap or even recycled leather thrifted from old coats, and a search turned up this Etsy seller. I ordered enough leather in a neutral color to make many future pairs, and had it within a few days. The leather is huge with a few scratches and holes, but for $30 I can probably get about 30 pairs of soles compared to $10 per pair that I’ve found elsewhere.

I made a template by tracing the slipper, then easily cut the leather with regular scissors. I may have trimmed it down a bit small, but time will tell. I used an awl to punch holes in the leather, and sewed them on using a heavy, waxed leather thread.

From the way they feel on my feet this morning, I declare this project a success!

Felted Slippers and Vessels

It's so funny how one thing can lead to another... I went to a class and learned how to use a resist to make a felted bag, then I started making felted birdhouses. As I got better with those I realized that I didn't need anyone to show me how to make a vessel (which I'd been wanting to try), I already knew! Then as I made more birdhouses and a few vessels I thought I could make slippers, so I finally did (with some prodding from my sister-in-law Barbara!). It's intriguing to see how skills build upon one another, especially in art (when you're not a "natural talent!").

So, here are some slippers that I just made! I have had two pairs of awesome hand-felted wool slippers, both which I got in a great little shop off the main square in Cusco, Peru. It's a shop with lots of handmade original silver jewelry (not mass-produced touristy stuff), and also has felted items from the shop owner's friend in Scandinavia! I completely wore out the first pair, and bought some more on my fall, 2009 trip there. My current pair is a little large and I don't love the decoration; I kept thinking that it would be so nice if I could make some myself, custom fit to my feet. Well, I finally did it!

First I made the "baby" slippers (top). I was pleased with how they turned out, though to be critical one is thicker than the other and it was a good reminder that I need to weigh out the fiber and take notes when making things where matching matters.

I made these with alpaca on the inside for extra softness, then C-1 wool (which is rough but shrinks well but gives a lot of structure), then merino wool on the outside. The picture above is a good illustration of the amount of shrinkage that occurs after fulling. It also shows the original resist, and the pieces that were cut out- wow, doesn't the hole grow a lot?

As I was fulling/shrinking them, I kept putting them on my feet and molding/rubbing them for a good fit. I was pleased with how well they matched up, and wanted to add some additional color so I spun up some yarn from roving I'd just hand-dyed. Then I did a blanket-stitch around the opening and stitched a little design on one. I've yet to do the other as my thumb is sore from pushing the needle through the thick felt!

To finish them off completely, I'm going to stitch leather to the bottoms to help with wear and keep them from being too slick on our wood floors. I hope to receive the leather in the mail tomorrow, and if all goes well my next post will be about that process and I'll show the final results. And in the meantime, here are a few completed vessels...