Wednesday, July 09, 2008

sea anemone mania

Yes, after last year's dose of ripplemania, I'm now totally hooked on sea anemones. I've been making my hyperbolic pots for several months now (and they're selling really well) but I've also decided to make some variations.

Firstly, after I accidentally felted some pots in a 60 degree wash, rather than a 40 degree, I discovered that the smaller size as popular with customers. (Thus proving that every cloud has a silver lining). I also decided to follow up on my hunch that some colours of The Freedom Spirit yarn felted much more drastically than others. This meant getting (by my standards, at least), all serious and scientific. I crocheted 3 pots to exactly the same pattern (I usually just increase/decrease wherever and whenever I feel like it, varying the rate of shaping following my mood). I threw them into the washing machine together. And look:



three distinctly different sizes. The red pot has felted to the same degree as most of the larget pots I'd made. The lightest colour has shrunk least (sometimes I've had to give pots in this colour a second wash to get them fulled enough, but this one isn't too bad). And as for the tuquoise one: plumptious and tactile, but oh-so-tiny.


Then on to my next plan. When visiting Norfolk Yarn earlier in the year I saw some dyed Wensleydale locks and hit on the idea of some fringed anemones. I felt that a mad fringe deserved a sober background, so was delighted to discover Sirdar's Eco DK in Sew Creative. I picked out the natural brown colour and had 2 pots ready and waiting for their fringes before heading to Woolfest. Whilst there were locks aplenty for sale (Teesdale, as well as Wensleydale) I fell for the utterly gorgeous colours (and bargain price) of Willo Alpacas' bags of rainbow dyed shetland/masham cross fleece. I've still got plenty of the red left and some fabulous blues and greens to play with, so I bought more Eco Wool at Sew Creative today, in grey and in cream. It'll be particularly interesting to see how the various shades of Eco wool felt.


Finally, here's a little cluster of anemones on the table. I love arranging them en masse.


5 comments:

Gina said...

I love the fringed anemones!

Liz said...

Those are gorgeous!! I know that some manufacturers warn that pale colours may not felt as well as darker ones - something about the bleaching process stripping out some of those little hooks you need for felting - *really* interesting to see someone prove that though, and good luck with them this week!

Ambermoggie, a fragrant soul said...

Fabulous Rosie I love them:)

Probably Jane said...

Those are so pretty. I particularly like the ones with locks.

Joanna said...

Yep with Liz on that somewhere in the ether of my brains archive is the info that white and light colours doesn't felt as well as coloured, something to do with the bleaching process as I recall! Love the fringes!