It’s that time of year when my thoughts are of trying to keep my tender plants safe and keeping my hands warm. For a couple of years now I’ve collected woollen sweaters that are past their best, some shrunk, some too bobbly and tired. Now is the right time for a new lease of life…. a pair of fingerless mitts.
Choosing a grey fair isle sweater that matched my winter coat I cut two squares out of it using the rib for the cuff and extending up the body of the sweater for the main part of the mitts. I have decided to needle felt* a design on to the fabric using my embellishing machine. This machine is used only for the purpose of needle felting, there are no sewing threads and it has 5 barbed needles. This makes needle felting quicker and I am able to make a more precise design.
The machine I use is a Husqvarna Viking ER10. The coloured yarns are dyed sheep’s wool bought off the internet.
Using the design of the fairisle as a guide I’ve needle felted the coloured yarns as if I were colouring in a book.
Here you can see the 5 needles and the safety guard. The yarn is laid on top of the grey fabric and the needles quickly mesh and needle felt the fabric.
After marking where I need the thumbs to go I have edged these in green.
Cutting the fabric down to size.
More edging along the top and a lot more needle felting all over the fabric . This firms the fabric up. Now for some hand stitching and beading.
Once this was finished I blanket stitched the seams.
And there you have it, 2 hours work and a cosy pair of mitts.
Now I really need to leave my warm workroom and finish putting those tender plants in the greenhouse….may be tomorrow……
* Needle Felting. Is a process where a barbed needle or needles are repeatedly punched into woollen materials to take on a felted appearance. As opposed to : Wet Felting.
** Wet Felting. Is a process of matting together wool fibers using moisture friction and heat.
from sewing room to potting shed 