Felted Holiday Trees to Brighten the Gray Days

The gray days of late Autumn are here.  Moving to the darkest night, it is our tendency to add our own brightness to the universe.  I've been craving colors. The brighter the better. And lush softness.  What could be better than to create that color, and soft lushness into the iconic shape of the evergreen. And so I offer these Felted Trees.  I started making these about 2 weeks ago and they seem to fly out the door as soon as they are seen.  Here are a few more:

 

The three above are about 8 inches tall and about 4 1/2 inches at the base. These are $15 each.  The smaller ones below 

 

are about 6 inches tall and 3 inches at the base.  These are selling for $9.00 each.  Each tree is a one of a kind piece.  They are made on a base of Shetland wool from my big Ram Lincoln. Over this I have needlefelted Cotswold locks that have been individually dyed in various greens and blues with some golds and reds.  The individual locks are hand blended to create depth of color such as might be seen reflecting off a hillside of evergreens at sunset at this time of year.  I will keep making these for awhile and will have some at this weekends ArtWalk in Elizabethtown.  If you would like me to hold one or two or three for you to see there, let me know by this Thursday.  I will be delivering 4 to Greensburg, so if you are in that area, let me know right away.  They may also be ordered for delivery after the Winter Holidays, as well.


Knitting with Handspun
Every once in a while I am asked what can be done with a small skein of handspun yarn.  I also was wanting to knit a hat that fits me, keeps my head warm and dry (and my hair from frizzin'!)  Since I've amassed quite a stash of small skeins spindle spun handspun and the perfect project came up in the most recent issue of SpinOff, the time is right to practice what I preach.  Here is the Tahoe Hat I knit this past week.  It was so easy, that I, with my very limited and basic knitting skills, finished it in a few sittings.

I used a black brown worsted weight slightly thick and thin as the unifyer to separate the various colors that stripe around the brim and top.  You can see that some are very bulky and thick and some a smaller guage.  I even threw some light laceweights in there that I doubled to create even more interesting combinations.  And I reached my goal of finishing and wearing it Saturday afternoon.  It kept the dreary drizzle off my painstakingly flat ironed hair and made me feel quite the artista! 

Some of these yarns went into the hat. I'm planning another one.  I love it so much and had fun playing with the colors.  Much much more at the home studio and at the booth this weekend in E town.