Free Shipping Today!

To celebrate 500 'likes' on my Facebook page, I am offering FREE shipping on all orders of patterns and kits today only, 9/21/2012. Place an order before midnight (Central Time) on my Etsy Shoppe. When ready for check out, it will prompt you 'to apply coupon', enter: MAYHEW500.

Let me know if you have troubles. I will make sure you receive the free shipping.

Thanks again for your interest and support of my woolly patterns!

Happy knitting & felting!

woolly beehive skep

The third newest pattern! They are all at the printers and will be available September 1st, 2012. I am excited to share them all with you.

This little beehive has so many possibilities. I will be showing more samples in the next few weeks after the patterns are released. Stay tuned!

The beehive pattern comes in two sizes: small and large. The small felted beehive measures about 3-1/2 inches tall and the large, about 5-inches tall.

In the olden days, beehive skeps were baskets made of grass or straw. They were used for housing a colony of bees as they produced their honeycomb. Now you can knit and felt a whimsical small or large beehive as a tribute to the hardest - the honey bee!

Speaking of honey bees, I am going to be selling the bee pins and buttons, as shown above, on my Etsy shoppe. I love these bee pins! They come from Just Another Button Company. Each pin and button is made from polymer clay with whimsical detailing. Stay tuned!

Happy knitting & felting!

a 'before' & 'after' bunny

I got this great idea to show the 'before' and 'after' photos of my little brushed bunny. Yes, that little nap riser brush makes all the difference. Who would know such a small brush can create such hairiness?

The brush fits nicely on your finger and gives you lots of control while brushing, to get into those delicate spots like around the face. The nap riser brush works great on alpaca or mohair yarns, pulling out the fibers especially after felting.

The bunny screams "touch me" again and again. And if you do and the fibers become flattened, simply brush again! That simple.

The yarn used on this little Woolly Bunny was Frog Tree's alpaca sport grey, two strands carried together. I love Frog Tree yarns! A great yarn for knitting and felting with. 

Happy knitting!

woolly matroyshka dolls

This is another new pattern still in the works. All I need to do is photograph them and they are off to the printers.

There are three sizes of dolls: large, medium and small, but I call them: Mother, Teen and Child. They appear as if to nest, but they do not. I made a decision early on to not make them nesting. That way I would have more flexibility in embellishing them if they had a solid inside.

For the cover photo I have kept the dolls fairly simple. I have felted a set of all-red dolls and plan on more elaborate needle felting scenes and motifs to go across their dresses. I will take photos of them once I have finished them.

I am shooting for the first of September as their birth date. Stay tuned.

Happy knitting!

hand-winding a center-pull ball of yarn

Click on photo to enlarge.

I found myself in a predicament a while back, needing to hand-wind a skein of yarn but definitely needing both ends for double stranding the yarn in my project. I found this link from the blog, Damp City Knits, on How to Hand-Wind a Center-Pull Ball of Yarn. It gives a great tutorial on how to hand-wind a loose hank of yarn into a ball with two available ends.

The tutorial is straight forward and easy to follow with lots of photos. Just remember to wind the ball loosely to not 'stress' the yarn and don't lose track of the inside end. The blog's author cautions that when using "some delicate or 'sticky' yarns, such as mohair or lace-weight silk yarn, it can be difficult to pull from the center, as their strands tend to stick together and tangle. In these cases, it is best to knit from the outside of the ball." Good to know!

I then tested out my new ball of yarn by knitting double stranded, pulling from both the center and the outside. It worked slick! A great reference.

Happy knitting!

needle felting trick

Unknown source

I couldn't find a direct source for this pin from Pinterest, sorry to say. I was so looking forward to whatever else this site had to offer. For all those that needle felt in the crowd, this idea is quite clever and will save you some time!

What's clever about this technique is Step 1, first tying the loose roving into a knot. This gives the ball a firm center right off the bat. Next the 'tails' are simply needle felted to the center knot.

The difference between Steps 2 and 3 is the continual needle felting: poking the ball until it is round, solid, and the desired size. Judging from the size of the above felting needle, I'm guessing the roving ball in Step 3 is about the size of your thumb nail.

The above technique is great for the addition of wool beads to whimsical jewelry creations. Or how about a unique fringe on that one-of-a-kind scarf?

I plan on using this technique especially for the little needle felted eggs in my Woolly Nest Ornament Kit. Who says this technique is limited to a ball-shape?

 Happy knitting!

favorite books of my trade

I have started using Pinterest for my pattern business in some new and interesting ways!

One such way is my Favorite Books of My Trade board above. I use this board for pinning all my favorite and resourceful books from my collection here at home. Books that continue to give me great tips and wonderful inspiration such as needle felting, embroidery and woolly design.

What I love about this board is that it contains lots of information in one quick and easy sight: the book information, the cover photo and a brief comment by me on how I use this particular book.

Check it out.

I am pinning new things on it every day!