More Paints

We’re doing another virtual Needle Felt workshop in December with my husband and some of his family as part of our virtual holiday celebrations. I’ve been working on pulling it together since September? October? Anyways, we have nine of us total who will be doing it. Cecilia Ho is putting together the kits those in the US will use. But I felt that trying to get two kits to Germany with international shipping would cost me as much as just buying the fiber myself in Germany, with the added stress of hoping it arrives on time and it’s not caught up in Customs. Sure, I’d end up with MORE fiber since colors are typically sold in 100g lots, as opposed the smaller quantities Cecilia pulls together. But is that a problem?

Anyway, a little over a week ago she sent me the final picture of the color palette she’d pulled together for the image of family farm we’d chosen (my husbands mom and aunt still live on it). I compared it to what I have in my stash and identified several key gaps in what I had. I found a website, Wollinchen, that sells the Ashford Corriedale she uses. She likes it for the not-too-fine micron count and the wide range of colors. I figured it would mean I could better color match. Wollinchen had the widest range of colors, though as expected, only in 100g lots. I picked out the colors I needed plus a couple extra I felt could fill in general gaps in my color selection and earlier this week these arrived:

1.4kg of colorful fluffy goodness 🙂

Of course, I can’t leave this lying around or the cats will get into it – especially Pippin the Fiber Fiend – so I pulled out small quantities of each for now to add to my paint box. Voilà, my expanded palette:

Happily, my sprained hand and wrist are mostly recovered so I can get back to needle felting.

The Election isn’t Over

For most of us, our chance to cast our vote has past (you did vote, right?). But for those in Georgia, there is a run-off election now scheduled for January for the Senate. There are lots of ways to help support get-out-the-vote efforts and voters. If you’re looking for the chance to also snag some limited edition yarn, BzyPeach has two custom colors – Belle of Georgie Peach and Purple Apple Berry – in cotton yarn. That’s right – for the cotton lovers out there, BzyPeach is an indie dyer who specializes in cotton. Profits will go to help keep voters warm while they wait in line in January. She also has some limited edition colors to celebrate the Election results (Biden Blue, Harris Hazelnut, Abrams Autumn) and a yellow/purples She’s Voting colorway. Which I am not purchasing only because a) yarn budget already spent for 2020 and b) I don’t want to pay international shipping.

If wool is your thing, check out the Harriet Tubman Mini Collaboration kit by LadyDyeYarns which includes pattern for wrist warmers, yarn, tea and a button. Profits go to the Democratic candidates and Black Lives Matter.