Washing fleece while the sun shines!!

I have been making the most of the good weather, by washing all the fleeces I have collected over the past couple of months.

pictured is the blue faced Leicester, and the brown (or morit to be correct) shetland, which I picked up from wool fest. Also the black hebridean lambs fleece, which I found on my doorstep last week, thanks to Julie who I met on the stall weeks ago, she had promised me a fleece and here it is, I have named it Amy, 'cause it looks just like Ms Winehouses hair!!

My felted bag turned out sucessfully, it was difficult to get a decent picture, but the texture is perfect

I also finished of the crochet flower that I started off at Knit knots Knitting cafe, with thanks to Carrie-Anne.

Finally I finished Leia's jumper. This was knitted with hand spun Alpaca fleece, from Fowberry Aplacas. This particular Fleece was from Giselle, you can see her on the Fowberry website. www.fowberry-alpacas.com . The pattern was a neck down circular pattern, which meant that all the stripes matched up perfectly. It fits Leia really well , but I didn't think it was fair to make her pose in this weather!!!

Felted Wensleydale bag

I found a really simple pattern on Drops for a felted bag, I was looking for a no brainer pattern for the 6 hour journey down to my parents house in Sussex( I wasn't doing the driving by the way) Stocking stitch all the way, even in the dark. The tention exactly matched Wensleydale Aran, and was beautiful to knit up.

I've just finished sewing up the seams today, even though I've been back for almost a month!! (I must point out though that our washing machine had packed in, and we had to wait for over a week for the new one to be delivered, not very encouraging for finishing off felting projects!!)

This is how it's looking before felting

This is a close up of the stitches, showing the twisted strap.

I am just off to the (brand new)washing machine now, taking a deep breath. Watch this space!!!