Sunday, November 18, 2007

I just want to hear some rhythm

In very exciting news, Leah made a pod from my pattern. Has anyone else tried it?

I've only done a little felting recently.



This has been in my head for ages, and to be honest it looked a bit better there than it does in real life.

It's beautiful hand-dyed wool that Happy Spider gave me, ages ago - deemed a bit too scratchy to sell with all the gorgeous stuff on her ebay store.

I started with a rectangle in wide ribbing (6x1? something like that).



Then I swapped needles for hook and crocheted around the perimeter, down the ribbed stripes, and across to make little compartments.



Before I felted it I thought hard about whether it needed another round of crochet (I think I did two) around the outside. I opted for laziness and hoped that felting would pull it all together. I should have known better.



Still, it is functional, and a better option for the jewellery in high rotation than that classy cigar box lined with tissue paper. It's easier and quicker to find what I want - all the plain studs are in one compartment, for example. I do have a jewellery box, but it's not that accessible, and ends up being full of stuff I'm keeping for various reasons but don't wear.

11 comments:

Djaughan Zelmonde said...

It DOES look as good in real life. Truly.

happyspider said...

Gorgeous! wow :)

amy said...

It's very clever. I never would have thought of something like that!

Donna Lee said...

I put stuff 'to keep' in my jewelry box, too. And when I go to look for something I have to move all of the stuff out of the way. That's a very clever little piece of felt you have made there.

Taphophile said...

*gasp* You knitted and felted a jewellry tray! Love how your mind works. :)

Bells said...

I gasp too! What a tremendous idea. If it looks even remotely like what you imagined, then you've succeeded, I think. It's such a clever idea. You should patent it.

Michelle said...

I think it looks great! Nice work!

Denise said...

Congrats on someone making one of your pods - very exciting! I like the jewellery tray, really beautiful and useful - maybe worth a second attempt to fine-tune the pattern (hint, hint - just thinking of us pattern-hungry types out here!) ;)

m1k1 said...

Thanks for the link to your hand-felting article. I must try it. All how-tos on the subject I have seen before give the last step as "put in clothes dryer", and I don't have one, so didn't whether it was feasible for me. I take it you just leave the pieces to air dry.
You are one cool crafter.

Olivia said...

Wow, thanks for all the enthusiastic comments guys!

You certainly don't need a clothes dryer for hand-felting (or machine felting). I don't have one. I do like to put the piece through a spin cycle in the washing machine to get as much water out as possible. This isn't necessary but it dries faster, and also shows me quickly how firm the fabric is and whether I might want to try to felt it a bit more.

Bron said...

wow, that is soo clever!!!!
(and pretty! =))