Saturday was Easter Craft Day in Browntown! Auntie Char and I completely indulged our craft obsession (and dragged Grammy into it, too) with a craft afternoon on Saturday. We made felted Easter eggs and it was so much fun - also no calories which is perfect.
I bought the raw wool from a yarn crack dealer - oops, I meant to say from a local yarn shop in Winchester - and got the Kool-Aid at the grocery store. According to the knitting blogs (which now control my life, by the way), Kool-Aid is excellent dye for wool. Bright, lurid colors, non-toxic and, just a great permanent staining agent as moms of little kids can attest to. You can see from the pix that it certainly met the expectations and hype. Fun, fun Easter egg colors and the wool even smells like candy!
Anyway, it was quite a process - a bit more complicated than the Paas dye jobs of Easters past. I dyed the wool on Friday night while Dad googled "weird craft and knitting obsessions and mid-life crisis in women". After the wool was all dyed and dried, the house smelled like Hawaiian Punch and I talked Dad into making a felted Easter egg with me. Dying Easter eggs and setting up Paasville was always one of Dad's favorite Easter traditions as you all may remember. He accepted the change of method and material gracefully and we each felted an egg and it worked! After that successful little test I was ready for the Craft Day.
Saturday afternoon Auntie Char, Grammy and I spent the afternoon playing in warm, soapy water with colored wool and came up with more than a half dozen eggs which they took home for party favors (they even had little baskets which I forgot to photograph). This morning I got up and made what you see here. There is enough wool left for several dozen it appears so I may finish them out this week. How fun! Win, this is a wonderful craft for kids at camp. It involves a lot of water and throwing wet, soapy wool around - literally. You ought to check it out if you have never done it before.
Dad and I are planning to go the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in Ellicott City MD the first week-end in May. Can't wait for that! Lots of wool, yarn and knitting. Dad is planning on some "alternative" activities in the area, I believe.
Here is the wool in all stages: white is the undyed, raw wool; colored is the Kool-Aid dyed raw wool; and the felted Easter eggs are in the basket. By the way, that basket is one Emma made herself when she was in about third grade!
Easter Eggs all felted and drying in the basket
8 years ago
12 comments:
Wild weekend in Browntown!! Hold em back Dad, they are getting out of control!! Mom, you will be happy to know that Kim next door, since her recent layoff from J Crew(no need to feel bad for her, trust me, I believe the package she got was MORE than sufficient) is opening her own KNITTING STORE in the Highlands...You heard me right, she is starting her own business, all centered around knitting, yarn, and all that stuff...Ill be sure to get the friends and family discount for you, which she assures me we will qualify for....
For the record I did do more manly things this weekend involving tractors, cyclone raking, front end loader work (ok, mom helped with the bucket), power saws and drills too!
A visit to Atlanta is scheduled for whenever the Grand Opening of the new yarn store takes place! That will be so cool to have a "neighborhood" yarn shop! Everybody on your street will have needles in hand in no time, I am sure. An addicting activity for sure.
Dad did do a lot of yard work with the new machine as he attested to and it worked great.
Keith and I never went to to the Sheep and Wool festival in Maryland during our long sheep showing career because our sheep were not the long wool type. BUT- beware because from what I have heard for over 20 years about that festival is that you may very well return home as a SPINNING ADDICT!! I am going to pursue my clay craft stitch marker project and hopefully sell some locally to some of these knitting shops that are supplying the addicts!
Great, a Spinning Addict is exactly what is needed in addition to "knit-witt" (I say that lovengly). I'll look forward to the "yarn-porn" Mom can explain :)
OK, enough. Stop right there Dad. You've gone too far. You slay me with your witty puns ;-)
Mom, your craft project looks like a lot of fun, and the eggs are really neat. I'm sad that Paasville isn't going to make an appearance in Browntown... Maybe we will need to have one on Rupley.
Actually, with each passing day the eggs look better and more beautiful. I made a pincushion because it shapes easily and is much more versatile--after Easter comes but once a year, a pin cushion lasts forever. We had a nice time.
I have realy enjoyed the NCAA tour. I hated that George Mason finally lost a game. But it was great while it laster. However, Fla. really pulled out a rabbit on UCLA! That was so exciting and Noah is fantastic. Sigh, it's all over until next year. Did Andrew or Emma win any money on pools>?
That's right! I forgot to ask about the "bracket" thing too. GM had a great ride and it seemed that the whole world was pulling for them - a real Cinderella team. Although I did not see any play (I was playing with wool) I did see the coach's final speech to the guys in the locker room after the loss and it was enough to choke anybody up. What a cool coach he is. The complete opposite of that nut that throws chairs at his players.
Mom, you make me laugh. I can HEAR you saying "that NUT that throws chairs at his players..." Too funny. No, I didn't win the pool, even though I was in the lead for quite some time. It did make things interesting, and I had fun following the tournament. I guess now it's time to move on to baseball... not quite as exciting to watch on tv however.
Yeah, but with baseball you can get tickets to actually go to games.
Which I am planning on doing, possibly next weekend!!!
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