Working with wool

The boys have shown an increased interest in knitting again. I have found that the afternoon seems to be a perfect time to pick up the needles, so one day last week, all four of us were knitting on the couch (love!). Parker is still too young to use needles, so he finger knitted instead. It felt so wonderful to be working creatively beside the boys. I can't say what they are working on as it is going to be gifted to someone who reads this blog ;-)

I have also picked up a new handwork hobby- needlefelting wool! For those of you who may not know what that is, it is simply creating a 3D object made of wool roving by "stabbing" it with a special barbed needle. I had needlefelted a pumpkin a couple of years ago, but never really pursued it as I was also just learning how to knit. Now that I am fairly comfortable with knitting, I decided learning something new was in order. Well, Blake has also been wanting to needlefelt so I was more than happy to show him how. He is working on a fairy and is about half way done at the moment.

For Easter, I made some gnomes for my gnome lovin' guys. These were inspired by the book A Donsy of Gnomes (which is one of our favorites!). I still don't quite have the hang of the caps, as you can see, but I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

I recently also created a little fairy for one of our friends who had a birthday this month. She was my first stand-up figure. I can see myself making a few more of these in the future, hopefully improving my technique on the hair and embellishing the dress a bit more.

She is left without a face so that the child who is playing with her can use their imagination to create any sort of emotion. Honestly, though she doesn't actually have a face, when I look at her, I can "see" her eyes and bright smile! I will be sure to post pictures of Blake's completed fairy as well.