Category Archives: Fiber Art

09Feb 2014

Felting

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20140202-005349.jpgI’ve written about felting before. This Christmas I got some awesome felting needles and reference books on it. So my first project was the owl below and the freehand white chibi totoro and robot. I’m pretty happy with the totoro, but the robot leaves more to be desired. I may just stick to simple shapes to start.

The allure is that it’s just like sculpture. If you understand spatial relationships, then you can do it. It’s like getting some play dough. You don’t need to be consistent with your punching (you kind of do, but it’s not like knitting/purling with yarn). It’s an incredibly wide entry. You can get SUPER creative with it, but there are a lot of low hanging fruit and it’s so satisfying. It’s pretty quick if you’re dealing with a small project, that you get that satisfaction in 1-5 days.

I may start making my own designs on a wool sweater. (I should pick up cheap ones at Old Navy!)

The thing about felting is it takes no real skill (I suppose you need to be good with spatial conception) and you get results fairly quickly. It’s just so much more satisfying than knitting or crocheting.

A lot less abstract and really cathartic to stab something with needles. (I did stab my palm a couple of times (ouch), so you need to be careful.

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06Nov 2013

Exciting New World of Felting

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The other day I was visiting Vox Machina and I was introduced to the world of felting. I bought a felting needle to mend some sweaters we had that were eaten by months. I also wanted to embellish some sweaters I had.

Here is some inspiration and associated tutorials.

hearts

Small, cute, and has a video tutorial!
elbowpatch16

This is also a great way to dress up a sweater. I honestly got the needle to mend sweaters of ours.
dog

It’s a lot like sculpture.

On another maybe creepy note, didn’t Marcy from Married with Children make little animals out of her hair? Somehow I am reminded of that.

18Jan 2011

Dogbot

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I would like to introduce you to our newest addition, here at www.winglike.com. His name is Dogbot.

Jane in my office told me that I need to give him a cute name, though. So I thought, why not “Destroyer of Worlds?” and Jane said, “DOW is a perfectly cute name.” But technically, he’s Ryan’s so… it’s probably Dogbot. Just sayin’

He likes crocheted bacon, chasing and collecting dust bunnies, and new friends (does not necessarily have to be made of yarn or stuffing). He’s the Chief Operations Officer around here.

Dogbot was made by myself using Nelly Pailloux‘s “Dogbot” pattern from her Crobots: 20 amigurumi robots to make book. It’s easy to use, even for the beginner. Dogbot was fairly easy to make for someone who hardly ever crochets (but I do knit).

He was made using wool medium weight scrap yarn and a 3.25 (not the 2.77 recommended) hook. He is stuffed with high quality toy-grade polyester and lots of love.

I hope to try to make one little guy a month. (Especially since I committed to making little handmade things for 3 of my facebook friends on a meme.)

18May 2009

bow tie scarf.

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work-webcam

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. My coworkers were pretty impressed, also. My inspiration was this post from Purl Bee, and I found the pattern here, on Disdressed.. I’m thinking about about knitting one for a friend’s baby.

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At the union square market, there is a lamb table there that sells merino wool dyed in vegetable dye. The colors are varied and the yarn is very soft. For around $15 dollars a skein, it’s medium price and I like buying directly at the market near the merguez sausage. ; ) The dye job is hand done and varied in some places, which adds depth, texture, and charm. They have different weights, and for this project, I used worseted weight. They also have sports weights and undyed yarn.I decided to get a skein of autumn colored red. I ended up making the scarf a little too big and needed to go back to buy a second skein. Still, it’s floppy and quite versatile.

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The only drawback is that the yarn in that color dyed my hands bright orange. It doesn’t happen with all of their dyes, though. Right now, I am using a green sports weight and that hasn’t stained anything. Anyway, given my carrot colored hands, when I finished the scarf, I washed it gently in detergent and in cold water. Although when I blocked, I pulled width wise and not length wise, the length around the neck became a bit long. I knitted it to be exact, so I might need to go and dunk it again in HOT water.

Otherwise, it’s soft, light, and stays in place (since the bow goes through a slot).

Next Project: Green leaves lariat & Art Card!

(Yes, the picture above is from my office webcam.)

31Oct 2008

art card project

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A friend of mine is doing an art card project, which I made a little murakami-esque flower for.

The flower, leaf piece and the border was crocheted. (the border has two layers of crochet on top) The stem and one leaf was stitched on. The whole thing is stitched onto to some thick paper. THe eyes and mouth were embroidered on.

I title it: “Life sucks in yarn, too.”