Felted Soap Stones

What is a person to do when it is cold outside? Play around on the computer.  Clearly a one handed gif is a little wobbly but you get the picture.

As promised weeks ago I am going to share a quick little project I squeezed in, in between cleanings and house viewings.  These soap stones are not new to the crafting world but they are alot of fun to make and I love trying to replicate the felt roving strands to look as much like a beach stone as possible.

I have many little soaps I have received as gifts that I could never use up.  My dad also brought me some lovely lavender soap from the south of France on one of his cycling trips.  I have tons of the stone coloured roving around that I bought when our local knitting shop closed down.  Helana used to make them for her pet pebbles.  Combine them all and you have a little stone of soap ready to use or gift to a friend.

The oval soaps make a really authentic beach stone.  The little eggs look so cute as little pebbles.

The centre image in each photo shows how you can just wrap up the stones loosely in the roving before their hot water treatment.

1 - supplies at hand including a small felting needle (optional) soaps and roving - grey, brown and    natural
2 - loosely wrap the soap with grey first, then a few strands of the light brown and finally strips of the natural to create the veining.
3 - I ran some very hot water over my creation just to get an idea of how the placement is working
4 - all that fluffy roving attaches itself to the soap with a few dunkings.
5 - to really pack it down I put them in nylon sockettes and rubbed them
6 - I let them drain at the bottom of the kitchen sink

They make a nice little hostess gift.  I'm thinking they might look good piled on in a bowl in our new powder room.  I have about a year to plan that so I'll have to tuck these away in the pile of boxes that are amassing themselves all over the house.  

Keep warm and toasty!

Holiday Collage

Happy New Year to All    !!!!!!

Please forgive my absence.  I have come to realize that I am not so great as a multi-tasker.  Imagine a mother that can't multi-task.  Perhaps, it is just this way when I am stressed,  but I find it absolutely erodes all my creative energy.  It took a while to sell our house and because we had so many people through, just the act of cleaning and tidying was about all I could do by the end of three months!  

We managed a visit with my dad over the holidays and while my lovely girls managed to surprise me with great pjs and slippers, I pretty much just ordered up a few things that I would like to read and craft and put it under the tree for myself.  Is that bad?

First I wanted to share the 2013 sparkler art.  You may remember my favourite lov3 from last year.  Well they forgot to do it this New Year's, but that is okay.  This will have to do.  It was a very windy night and we didn't have the usual beach bonfire but I still love this record in time.

Just before we left, I had a little crafty moment I squeezed in.  Tutorial to follow in the upcoming week.

 This was gifting to myself, but also sharing so that's not too bad.  Right?  I ordered up some of Purl Soho's own super soft merino and came up with a little cable slipper that I could get a pair out of from one skein. (Each skein was about twenty dollars so I had to make them count!)  I also made a yummy long sock with an entire skein but because I only had one in the off white colour, I must wait to order up another in the spring.  I may see if I can come up with a pattern to share.  Mine are the green ones.  Helana and Ali have the hot pink :)

And to round out a holiday of colour - check out these book spines.  It almost doesn't matter if they have anything relevant on the inside - the spines are just too lovely.  However, I managed to one - not look at them (too much) when I put them under the tree - and two - have an actual look through after I surprised myself.  For some, I even read all the way through and will review in the upcoming weeks.

I hope to post more but I have to tell you we are moving in two months, to a rental for about 8 months, while we build a new house!  Instead of crafting, I may end up chronicling this journey through 2013.  

Keep you posted (hopefully) ...