All in a Day

The days continue to slid past and I feel like I am just sitting and watching.  At least Spring has come and we are getting the new green coming up. That is enough to brighten my spirits.

Golden Crocus along the sidewalk

 

 

 

And purple Crocus, too.

 

 

 

 Trees are starting to bloom and DH is starting his garden planning and planting.  All good things to enjoy and I am trying to get out more and walk in the sun. 

 Felting has been fun.  I have made some great pieces and some not so great pieces.  

Here are some roll-up pieces of Felt.

 These are the result of a few visits to learn how to use the roller felting machine.  The first ones were a bit stiff, but I will make some slippers to test them.  I was really looking for a light weight felt, not numo felt, that can be used to make a jacket or other piece of outer wear.  By the end of the testing, I have gotten the soft felt that I think will work.

Soft felt that will almost drape.

 

I also played with making "cobweb" felt for a scarf.  Some of them worked out, but the nuno felt was a flop.  I don't know if the wool was too coarse, the silk too tightly woven or a combination of both.  At any rate I will need to needle felt it to hold together.  (The is what the kit was for anyway, I just wanted to wet felt because that is what I have been doing.)

Here you can see the wool laid out on the silk scarf.

And here are all three wetted out and ready to roll up.

 The blue scarf is the nuno that did not work at all, the other two are wool roving (mixed with silk in the orange piece and with tencel in the blue/pink/gray piece).  These are the second and third versions of the roving cobweb and these worked better that the first try.




I have also been weaving some more rugs.  I have done 5 rugs that are 3' x 5' and will need to do about seven rugs that are  2' x' 3'.  I think I will have to get another order to warp yarn in so that I can finish these.


I went to the Holi Festival of Color to celebrate the coming of spring and all the new wonder that it brings.  My son got some great pictures of it and I was able to get a few also.

Here are my children enjoying the crowd.

Some of the crowd.

One of the "timed" throwings

 

We had a lot of fun, heard some good music, and plan to attend again.  This year was even larger that in last year.  Over the two day festival, they say there were about 80 thousand people and we threw a couple hundred tons of color!  
I guess this is one of the largest color festivals in the US and I am pleased that it is so close to home that I can easily attend.  The Krishna temple has regular festivals that are interesting, most of them not so big, so they are easier to enjoy.