God is telling me not to felt

Well, perhaps not. But I have this very elderly UFO. It's my oldest UFO, in fact, because I began it when I first learnt to knit squares at about the age of seven. In fact, some squares have been cast off by knitting two together, before I learnt the proper way. (It makes quite a pretty edge.)
I stopped knitting squares when I got to 100 (I was probably about 16 by this stage).
I was going to sew them together into a rug (see, even then bright colours and patchwork fascinated me!) but then I hit a snag. I hate sewing knitting together. With A Passion. I sew my jumpers together because if I don't, well, I don't actually have a jumper. And that seems a bit pointless. But I have to grit my teeth and make myself do it, so I have the jumper to wear.

OK, I thought, I'll crochet them together. But by this stage, I was a penniless young mother, and buying a whole lot of yarn just to crochet these squares together really couldn't be justified on our budget. I tried cheap yarn - oh, yuck! I tried scraps of leftover yarn from my knitting projects on the principle of the brighter the better, but no, it just wasn't right. I have dragged this bag of knitted, half-crocheted-together squares around with me through fifteen house moves.

Then I had a brilliant thought. All these squares were knitted with 100% wool yarn and hey, I could felt them! Then I'll have a whole lot of brightly coloured felt shapes to use in my textile work. Or I could sew them together on the machine and embellish them a bit. I decided to do a test felt on a couple of squares by beating them around in a little bit of hot water in a bucket until I lost interest, and then washing them with other stuff and tumble-drying them. Result, two rather startled, slightly fluffy squares, not looking anything like felt. Hmm.

OK, do it properly. All the squares into the washing machine, add hot water at the lowest level and wash. Halfway through the filling process, the washing machine died.
It's hard not to conclude that this is a Message.

Wedding wrap

Here are some more photos of the wedding wrap:









You might guess that I am pretty chuffed at how this turned out! But I am even more thrilled to have received a commission to make one in black as an evening wrap! It's on the loom at this very minute, so stay tuned for a photo once it's finished.

Some generous friends...

... sent me these lovely postcards before I went overseas. They knew I was way too busy to make any myself, but they sent me some anyway. How nice is that! The theme was Share a Cuppa, because we are nearly all a long way apart and a virtual cuppa is all we get to share. Thank you all!

This one is from Kaite, who initiated the swap: Isn't it brilliant? Thanks Kaite.

This one is from Prue, whose great love is her garden: It really makes me feel like I am sitting in her garden, sharing a lovely afternoon tea!

This one is from Rory: This one has a very garden-y feel too, doesn't it? Love those colours.

This one is from Pamela: We must all be mad gardeners, mustn't we? Pamela has even added some embroidered flowers.

Finally, this one is from Di: Isn't it elegant? And so very English - I love it!

I've finally found a moment to make some postcards in reply.
These will be wending their way to their new owners early next week.

Printing

I missed the Fibrecircle meeting this week, due to my annoying cold, but I thought I would play a little with the materials I had packed to take. The result are over on the Fibrecircle blog, if you'd like to have a look. Basically, I was printing onto fabric using a rolling pin, a brayer, some straw placemats and Fiskar's Texture Plates. My favourites, though, are the monoprints I took from the glass board I was inking from!

Now for the aaah moment...

What a fabulous day!

Kas and Jon listening to the celebrant..

Jon saying his vows...

Kas putting the ring on Jon's finger

and a happy moment during the signing of the register.

And Tim, the bridesman (left of the last shot), caught the bouquet.

"Now", he mused, "I'll just have to get a date..."

Thank you to everyone who sent good wishes for the day. They seem to have worked, the rain held off until ten minutes after the ceremony finished.

And while we're talking about the wedding..

...here's a shot of the wrap I'm weaving for Kas to wear. I'm about halfway through and it's looking great. The warp is fine baby wool, the weft is silk/mohair, so it has a little fluffiness. Very soft, very pretty...

Nest-building

Do mothers of the bride nest-build? Today I was overcome with the need to tidy out the wardrobe in the spare room. I found five bags of clothes that Vinnies will just love, including one bag that belonged to an aunt who died four years ago. OK, to be fair, under orders from the nursing home, we used to mind most of her off-season clothes, because she had no room to store them. But, yes, they could have gone to charity long since. Why this week?

I guess I feel like to should be Doing Something, but most somethings have been done and the rest have to happen this coming week. Perhaps it's a little unsettling when one's only daughter, and last child to marry, finally walks down that red carpet?

Well, psychology aside, I do have a nice clean cupboard and another little task for my ToDo list.