Friday 26 February 2010

Felted mittens, and lovely mail on a bad day

The last few days I have been fighting against a flu. Yesterday I spent most of the day wrapped in a quilt and shivering, today is a little better. My personal mailman, Mr. K., had the nicest mail to make my day on Thursday:


Melanie sent me black and white wool for felting/sharing with Mr. K. for flytying, and a wide selection of Green&Black's delicious chocolate. Amazon sent me the next Arthur Ransome book, Coot Club, just when I had finished the last one I had for Christmas. And finally, for the hours of lower energy level, there was my new issue of Kodin Kuvalehti. Their chief editor commented on the big German women's magazine Brigitte's decision to start using real size , non-professional models: Kodin Kuvalehti has been using their readers as models for 16 years already! - The chocolate was a good medicine, I slept well last night and only started sneezing again after I stood up in the morning.

As I have mainly concentrated on tea, chocolate and reading in my spare time, I have not much to show. The washing machine must run every day, no matter what, and so my mittens are now ready for use. This is the before picture, the safety pin at the top is holding a plastic bag in place inside the mitten during the felting process.


 

and here are the mittens after their spin in the washing machine:

 

A closer view:

 

They remained fairly soft, but they are still a bit too large for me, just DH's size.  Mr. K. only needs warm mittens for the snow pushing, but the wool is not very durable in such use. (This is not something I would even dream of darning!) I think I will wash them once more and see if they can get a little smaller still. The thumbs are too wide and long. I don't think I will make another pair very soon; it was fun to give it a try but I prefer knowing beforehand what size I'm going to get.

7 comments:

  1. I'm sorry you're not well, bugs are such a nuisance as well as a waste of time! I hope you feel better soon. Your post looks fun- and I'm glad you continue to read Arthur Ransome- he's great for escaping from oneself!
    I hope I can find your address as you got a runner-up Jelly Baby prize for your poem yesterday, but I didn't get around to writing to you...so something else to look forward to! And I think your mittens have turned out great, they look so warm!

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  2. Did you ever try felting the sweater before cutting out the mitten? I have seen it done on TV that way and you lay the sweater out and mark the mitten and sew around it then cut it out. Just a thought.

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  3. I hope your mittens felt down a bit smaller for you. I feel the same way about felting. It is fun, but risky for something you need to fit.

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  4. So sorry you're feeling icky. Sounds like you have everything you need...tea, chocolate, a quiltl, magazines. Maybe you need some chicken noodle soup. That's my cure all. Very sweet of Melanie. Mr. K might like purple stripes!

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  5. I am so sorry to hear that you are not well Ulla..
    Take good care of yourself and I wish you a happy weekend!!

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  6. hope you recover soon Ulla. Yes the white was from our sheep. Glad that everything arrived when it was most needed.

    I like the idea of all mags using normal people especially after the news of children being harmed by feeling they have to live up to modelesque bodies which have been airbrushed of flaws.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8537734.stm

    This was interesting.

    Good luck with the mitten re-felting.

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  7. Ich hoffe, du hast dich von der Erkältung erholt. An solchen Tagen ist angenehme Post etwas besonders Schönes! Deine Fäustlinge gefallen mir! Uebrigens, nein ich habe keine eigenen Sevilla Orangen, die wachsen bei uns nicht. Aber im Winter kann man sie an einigen Orten kaufen. Meine habe ich erhalten und zum ersten Mal diese Konfitüre gemacht. Sie schmeckt lecker!
    Eine gute Woche wünsche ich dir!
    Barbara

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