Wild Card Wednesday

   Today, I'm going to talk about felt. I loooove felt. It's a fabulous media for crafting, because it's soft, relatively non-messy, colorful, and you can cut whatever shapes you want without worrying about it unraveling like other fabrics. It's also affordable and easy to find, as it's available in every craft store as well as online. I purchase my felt exclusively from an amazing Etsy seller called sweetemmajean, who has wonderful colors, high-quality material, and a very good deal.
     Felt is a fabric unlike anything that has been woven, because it isn't woven. It is created by taking advantage of a natural property of wool. Wool, you see, is covered in microscopic hooks, and when jostled together, they grab onto each other and pull tighter and tighter together, especially if they get wet and are agitated, which means they swished or scrubbed with a lot of force. This is how wool sweaters shrink in the wash- the fibers have essentially pulled much tighter together, making a dense, warm fabric. If treated properly, wool felt can even be waterproof, and the Mongols who still live a nomadic lifestyle on the steppe often use the traditional wool yurt as their home.
      Now, most of the felt that you see in the craft store isn't wool, or doesn't have much wool in it. Its a blend, usually spun polyester or rayon that has been treated with heat and chemicals and pressed into sheets.  That's why I buy the felt that I do- because sweetemmajean's felt is merino wool blended with rayon, and merino wool is very, very soft.
        There are a lot of talented Etsy sellers out there who are making fun things with felt. This adorable Sherlock doll caught my eye, as well as these amazing dala horses. I really want to own a pair of these amazing slippers, and these coasters are on my list of things to make.
       I set up a fun Pinterest board with some fun ideas of what can be made with felt. Currently, I'm making some fun teacups, cupcakes, and birds. Here's a few pictures of what I have right now.

      So, what are all of you crafting with felt? Show me your projects! Please comment and join the conversation! 

Current Events

Well, I'm in Virginia Mason hospital in Seattle, sitting on the windowsill, looking out at Lake Union and trying to remember what day of the week it is. Don't worry, it's not another suicide attempt. Remember Hawk's spinal tumor? Well, it started smoothing the spine too much, and had to come out a little sooner than expected. Actually, the neurosurgeon took one look at his xrays, cancelled all his morning appointments for the next day, and rushed us in to the hospital to prep for surgery. This was on the 31st, when a dedicated group of friends were moving our stuff from our old house to our new apartment. I had to rush home in the middle of the night, after settling Hawk in, so that I could grab my "go bag" of crafting stuff and some clean clothes- except that my clothes were all packed and I couldn't find them. So I had to run to WalMart, the one place I swore never to shop. *sigh*

On the bright side, I found an electric teakettle there, and that little device is what is holding my sanity right now. Anyway, the surgery was successful, but now they can't get his pain under control. It's been six days of him screaming in agony while doctors fuss around and do nothing, until today, when I stepped in, made the doctor pull up his med chart, and fixed it all. They had fucked it up pretty badly, taken him COMPLETELY off his main anxiety med and replaced it with a useless sleeping pill, removed most of his spasm meds, and done a bunch of other stupid stuff. So I shouted at people until it was fixed.

As for me, I've set up shop on the nice wide windowsill. It's eighteen inches wide, so I've made myself a cozy little mattress out of layered pillows wrapped tightly in a blanket, and set up my teakettle and crafting stuff too. The nurses keep asking me if I want a cot, but a) the cots are incredibly uncomfortable and the bed I've made is very nice, b) there isn't room in this tiny closet of a room for a cot, and c) I LIKE the windowsill. We have an AMAZING view, and I can perch up here in my little crafting nest. Well, when Hawk isn't hysterical and needing me to tend to him, that is.

Anyway, I, going to sign off and take a nap while I have a chance- I am getting about three hours of sleep a night.