Silk Hankies

Silk Hankies (mawata) are the latest rage... but not just for feltmakers this time.
Check out this link for some mittens made by simply knitting the hankies straight from the pile!









I used to knit more than I do, but these days my knitting is usually limited to the arrival of my grandchildren...
Here's my latest effort created for young Lachlan, born on January 10th.

Now if you're not into knitting and want to stick with your felting, just check out the video on using hankies in your felting project.

Hankies are a great way to add surface texture to your wet felting project.  As the wool base shrinks beneath the silk, it draws up the silk into pebbly puckers that can be emphasized by a minute or two in a hot dryer at the very end of the felting process while the felt is still slightly damp.

Hands Blanket

A close friend in our church community is hospitalized with oesophageal cancer.  As an expression of our care and love for him, the families of our group each traced their hand-prints, which were then enlarged by approx 40%.  The paper pattern was then cut from ProFusion prefelt for each of the hands.  The hands were then placed in their relevant family groupings on a base of double-thickness ProFusion, which was then wet felted.  You can see the tiny hand print of little Grant, our newest grandson, in the top left-hand corner grouping.  He was only 6 days old at the time we traced his hand. 

  

The blanket/throw is now in Al's room at the VA hospital where he has been since September.  He recently penned a poignant letter to the fellowship group to express his thoughts.  We continue to keep him and his wife, Rita in our thoughts and prayers.