Who Is In Your Playpen?

Jim and I are well settled into our new routine with Dad, and it is going splendidly. I am accustom to "care-giving' so it does not fatigue me in the same way it does my husband Jim. He is rising to the occasion though, and I am so proud of him ... So much so that I felt I could leave them for a few days and travel to see Pam MacGregor at http://tarveycottagestudio.com/
It was just what I needed. Over the past weeks/months, I felt as though I'd really lost my sense of "play" and knew that I needed a safe place to have that rekindled...no pressure, no expectations, just play...and we did.

I took a couple of things with me that I needed advisement on, and one of the things is the bag shown on this page. The bag project morphed on me during the felting process and went from vessel to bag, then back to vessel and finally to bag again. I was so confused and frustrated at the end of it I just wanted to toss it. But tossing it was not an option. To start with the wool had mohair in it and I do not like hairy felt...at all, so the more I fulled the felt, the hairier it became, even after shaving it. Grrrrrrrrr! Second, I had used some of the organically dyed over-spun silk I'd received from Vilte . So now I have to see this through. So I took it to Pam for help. We got it done and soon it will get the finishing touches. It has already sold, so all was not lost. What Pam and I did is what I would have done here at home, but I'd lost my "risk taking tools", my "play". After the time with Pam, it has all come back. Thank you Pam.

I'm currently embarking on re-working some of my old pattern as well as gathering new ones in my hat making efforts. It is sometimes so much easier to do the 'tried and true" than to push oneself to rethink, retool, dissemble, reassemble, try this, try that...and end up with a failure that that taught me much along the way. It is the felt road I travel. I am planning on being surprised along the way.

I love the black and blue hat, ('tried and true") and the "Tin Man" was an adaptation of a pattern that I like a good bit to. The eggplant purple hat is a pattern I received from Pam. Buttons need to be added and I am already thinking of the changes I'll make to it next time.

Robins are here, so are the Blue birds. It's way too early for Spring in Michigan, but it looks like it is coming anyway. Time waits for no one.. so I'd better get busy. Show Season will be here before i know it.

Shalom,
Suzanne