I thought it was gone forever

Then I found Armytage again.

The 'Side Saddle' colourway reminded me enough of the old 'Sticky Date' that I just had to order several balls of it and make more brown pears. Indeed, these are brown/white/grey pears, but I'm just as happy. I certainly could manipulate the striping to just get browns, but I quite enjoyed just knitting the pears and letting the colours fall where they would. The four below (pre-felting) are from a single ball.



I did order a few other colours as well. And now that I have confirmed it really is the same old Armytage, I won't be able to resist stocking up again soon.

Your smile seems softer than it was

Okay, I'll admit it. I am on long service leave and have been for a month. Not that you would know it from my output. I seem to be doing just a little more of everything (reading, sleeping, socialising, exercising, knitting, felting, mooching around), none of which adds up to anything substantial to report.

But I do have some nice before'n'after photos. Those are always fun.

One small idea that wafted into my head was to do a felted rainbow something. This little grey pouch wasn't carefully planned, as you may be able to tell from its slightly odd dimensions. I didn't want the flap to obscure the rainbow, the stripe sequence needed a certain number of rows, and then I needed more grey at the bottom to balance it. It probably should have been wider to balance the length.

I used these instructions for travelling jogless stripes but I think the execution is flawed. It looks really messy to me. Maybe I wove in the ends too tight.

However, felting hides a multitude of sins. Actually in this case it only almost hides the mess, though it may not be obvious in the photos. Felting is great for hiding messes. I think with the right simple project, felting might be ideal for beginner knitters. I certainly take advantage of the opportunity to be slack with things like weaving in ends (I don't really bother for most projects) and keeping tension even on DPNs. I often use really large ones - 8mm or more - and don't fuss about the loose stitches at needle changes. For any other project I have to keep an eye out for ladders and tend to constantly move the stitches around the needles. And this has resulted in annoying spirals more than once.

That pear has been stuffed but won't have its stalk and final shaping added until it dries.

Felting for beginners

Here are some of the latest finished pears. I do have a few people waiting for some, but for now, while I build up a decent batch with a good choice of colours, they are decorating the coffee table.

I've also been sequinning again. I now have a delightful range of transparent colours and sizes. The loose sequins are also decorating the coffee table, and sometimes (oops) the carpet.



And I was tickled pink last week when I heard that as part of their summer Yarn Camp, Lancaster Yarn Shop, in Pennsylvania USA, wanted to run a workshop using my pod pattern. I was delighted to be asked and very happy to give my permission.

Can I buy another cheap Picasso fake?

I have some time off work and have been making lots of pears.

Moda Vera Mousse (70% wool, 30% soya) is good for felting and I tend to stock up each time I find it on special at Spotlight.

I was there last week, a frustratingly mistimed visit, as I must have missed the big yarn sale by a day or two. I did find a nice multipack of clear sequins - sequins are not just for Christmas - but I had thought I would be coming home with wool...so I scoured the shelves for something worthwhile. And I found what I thought was more Mousse in the perfect pear colour.

Although the price stickers did obscure the name of the yarn, I should have checked more carefully. A blend of acrylic and milk fibre? Not going to felt. This stuff looks and feels almost exactly like Mousse, but it is a totally different yarn, Chantilly. And I had knitted three pears with it before I realised. I'm glad I hadn't tried to felt them yet - I was able to unravel them and start again with the Mousse. Not sure what I will do with the two balls of Chantilly though. I'm thinking maybe a lacy cowl, though it's not a colour I would normally choose.

This big?

Last time I was at the National Gallery I was happy to see that the pears are back! And the next time, I waited for a group of tourists to finish and then posed for a photo.

undecided

For this one I used a clear sewing thread (like fishing line but finer). I thought this would emphasise the transparent look and help the wool to show through more. But I'm not sure. It looks less sparkly/shiny, but I don't think that could be down to the thread; I think that is just the photography. I don't have one of the first batch here to compare directly.

I'd love to find more clear sequins equal to the quality of the ones I used here (2nd picture). I don't know where they came from, they had been in my bead stash for a while. The clear ones I bought to replace them and have been using for these pears are not as shiny and many have uneven edges or the hole is not in the centre. Of course (once I pick out the rejects), I do still like the overall effect.

she looks ahead not at me

These also went to Craft ACT for their Christmas tree, which was brought out for the first time today. Unfortunately I didn't get there in time, but I did have a sneak preview yesterday.

I am so, so happy with these pears. They are knit and felted as usual, then covered in clear sequins. And I didn't use strips of sequins, I sewed them one at a time. I'm getting quicker.... but it is not fast.

The wool is Cleckheaton Vintage Twist, a very light colourway that includes hints of palest yellow, purple and grey. The sequins have AB coating so they sparkle, but you can also see the colours of the wool coming through. I forgot to measure them but I think they're about 5 or 6 cm high, not including the loop.

Pear brooch

I mentioned before that making pears small enough for 1/12 scale was a challenge. With some practice I was able to gauge just the right amount of wool to roll into the right-sized bead; but to get to that point I first made a few pear-shaped beads that were a bit too big.

These three were all about the same size so I gave them the finishing touches and made them into a brooch to wear to the opening. I sliced part of their backs off so there would be a good flat surface there, and used my new hot glue gun to stick them to the backing (a piece of plastic cut from an ice cream container, covered in black fabric).

opening tomorrow....

The Call of the Small exhibition opens tomorrow night at Craft ACT, along with two other exhibitions. Curator Anna-Maria Sviatko had the brilliant idea of using the unusual Crucible showcase to create a craft exhibition in miniature. (if you're curious there is a picture of the crucible space - basically two large window spaces - here.)

Many of the artists and artisans invited to participate had not worked in 1/12 scale before. It was a challenge for me, and I'm happy with what I came up with, though of course I also wish I could have done more, and better, and smaller and finer, and...well, you never can be completely satisfied with your work. It will be fantastic to see the whole thing come together, having seen a few hints over here.

paper truth in strings, hearts and broken things

I am happy tonight because I managed to affix stalks to all my pears. Sometimes it's the little things. Ha! By the way that is my mobile phone in the background of that photo, just for an idea of scale. The pears are around 9-10mm high.

The method I was using for the stalks was such a nuisance - felting a strand of brown wool for the stalks, cutting a small piece once it was dry, and trying a combination of sewing and needlefelting (which I am seriously not good at - I may need to do a course) to stuff it into place at the top of the pear and make it stay there. And then sometimes the stalk itself would fall apart - I think because they are really too small to for the fibres to hold together.

I had already found that I could stabilise the little stalks with watered-down glue. Tonight, I realised that there was little point felting the stalk first, and I might as well apply it to the pear as unfelted wool, and then felt/glue it to a proper level of stiffness. This meant I could thread the wool right though the pear and sew it in securely much more easily. And I finished in one session what I thought would take much longer. And with less swearing.

Here's one I prepared earlier

The Shopping Sherpa is curating a miniatures exhibition at Craft ACT next month. For quite a few of the participants - including me - working in 1/12 scale is a new experience. It's been quite a challenge but I have enjoyed getting my head around it. Not just technically how to go small enough, but also the logistics of handling and and storing tiny, light, 9mm high pears. (I handed one to my sister the other day and it bounced away to the floor - luckily we found it easily).

TSS came over this morning for a 'studio visit' and took photos of the process of making these little pears. They are not knitted, but wet-felted like this one.

Fresh fruit

I'm making more pears and I've altered my technique. I always used to stuff them before felting. I knew that they would felt better and faster if I did them hollow (the fabric can move around and agitate better) and yet I resisted trying it this way. I was attached to the idea that it was best to attach the stalk while sewing up the hole at the top, before felting. I would do this with the same wool the pear was knit from, and it would all fuse together nicely. I was worried that the gathered part at the top would look too chunky if it was sewn together after felting.

Ha. All that thinking! And yet when I tried it the other way I was very happy with the results. The felted fabric is firmer and I like it better. They are less like little fat cushions (I've worked on a slightly slimmer pear shape too) and a little more sculptural.

As a bonus, because the stuffing doesn't have to stand up to the felting process and also dry easily, I can use a wider range of things in the stuffing, including fabric and wool scraps.

Nowt could I find

My parents were visiting family in Tasmania last weekend, and Dad picked this wooden pear for me at Salamanca Place Markets. It's made from Tasmanian Huon Pine, by David Jackson.

It is perfect. I've seen wooden pears before but not one in this mini size, on the same scale as my mini felted pears. I'm sure it will be sneaking into more of my photos in future.

Exposed

Earlier this week a little birdie suggested I have a closer look at the Floriade program, and I was thrilled to find my pears featured in a print ad for the Craft ACT Shop. Until now I've only seen these ads in their own emails to members.

Hot on the heels of that discovery, a different one turned up in 'see Canberra' magazine (a glossy insert from the Canberra Times) with a picture of my pods/bowls.

Leaping into warm purple pink gaseous fumes, purple pools

I took some of the mini pears in to the Craft ACT Shop today. They will be available both individually and as sets of three. And it looks like they had some adventures not long after I left them!

What happened next

I suppose it's stating the obvious, but things do get a lot smaller with felting.

This bowl actually contains about three more pears than it did in my previous post. The dog is smaller too. I didn't felt him, it's just that he posed this time instead of his bigger sister.


Lincraft Prism (wool/soy blend)

Sean Sheep Rockbank (also a wool/soy blend)

The last scraps of a ball of Yarn Bee 'Seasoned Spice' from Spotlight (earlier seen here; the darker pink is Cleckheaton Merino Spun.

Patons Jet.

Sean Sheep Armytage.

new shop

The new Craft Act shop is opening tomorrow, with a few of my felted pears and some bowls (bigger pods, essentially) among the items for sale.



I won't be at the Gala Opening as I'm going to Sydney for the weekend, but I'm looking forward to dropping in at a quieter time to see their wares.

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mini pears

This and another set of three mini pears went out into the world as gifts on the weekend. Unlike the small pear pendant I made for my sister for Christmas, which was a felted bead (all wool), these are knitted and stuffed in the same way as the bigger pears.

When it's hot and everybody smiles I can't help myself

I like real pears too, as long as I remember to eat them before they get too soft. I had just washed this one (hence the drips of water) and a few minutes after this photo was taken, I had eaten it too.

Disappointingly, the last lot of pears, those little ones, never ripened to be edible. I did try one just in case.



New wool lines are appearing for Autumn, and I'm thinking that Cleckheaton Kaleidoscope could go some way towards filling the gap left by Sean Sheep Armytage. It has the long colour repeats and it test-felted nicely. The price is a bit steep for a cheapskate like me, so I'll be waiting til the end-of-season markdowns. I'm ridiculously patient sometimes. The Moda Vera stuff is 50% acrylic and testing shows it might felt ok, but with stitch definition still showing, I suspect.

Taking the shape of the thing in my mind

Those are inches on that ruler.

The whole pear thing started with a trip to Sydney with my sister. In a large chaotic clothes & jewellery shop in Balmain, she saw a pear pendant - I think it was enamelled - and agonised over whether it was worth the price or not. She didn't buy it. It was nearly her birthday, and later as we wanderered further up the street, I had an opportunity to sneak back and get it for her. And I didn't.

It stayed in my mind though, and a few days after that I had the idea to try a felted pear. On a much bigger scale of course, and since then the felted pears have just kept coming. I've only just remembered that at the same time I also tried to needlefelt a little pear for a pendant much like this, and it didn't work out - both the materials and the skills were lacking.

When I did that felted bead course I didn't know if I would ever use those techniques again. Well, they came into play for this year's Christmas presents. First up was this little pear pendant for that same sister, about the size of the original one that we didn't buy. It started as a standard round bead, and I started to shape it while it was still quite soft.

I wasn't sure if she would wear it - though I knew she would like it - but she does! (wear it, that is)

These pears, on the other hand, are not made of felt.

They are real pears - I found them at Choku Bai Jo, the farmers market shop at North Lyneham. And about the same size as the little pendant. I haven't tasted one yet but they have that lovely fresh pear smell.