I won!

This week I was lucky enough to receive as a prize this beautiful skien of yarn from Abstract Cat! I won a contest put out by the Playful Day Podcast!

This yarn is in the Playful Day colourway (it is a UK dyer that is how they spell). It is 100% BFL and a generous 400 meters. Sigh I love this colourway, I love BFL for socks, and it is so nice to get yarn in the mail.

If you get a chance (and you also like hearing about England and knitting) take a listen to Playful Day Podcast she is a very insightful woman and a joy to listen to. (No I am not just saying that because I won.)

Can I just say that I LOVE the logo for Abstract cat. I love simple line drawings and I wish that I could do them myself.

Guess what else I have considered I won? Ever since I was a little kid I have had the desire to paint a copy of Starry night by Van Gogh. One thing that was holding me back is that fact that I can not paint. The desire is there, but the talent is not. Maybe one day I will take a class. It will probably be far in the future, waiting until I have mastered Spanish enough to take a class here.

Anyhoo, I found out about a year or so ago that I CAN paint - just not with paints. I can paint with fiber, more specifically wool. This is an art form called needle-felting, and to borrow an expression from my British friends, "it does what it says on the tin"you felt the wool with a needle.

This painting is felting onto a back ground of fine woven wool used for making suits. I have not figured out a good way to "frame" these yet - but I might try a fabric boarder with mitered corners this time. I can not sew so it might be an adventure. If you put these paintings under glass the reflection of the glass takes away from the image's depth making it look more flat. (I spend a lot of time mixing colors, so I do not want to take away from that.)

I feel like I have checked off a big "to do box" on my mental list of what I want to accomplish in life by  finishing this thing. I think I might copy some Monet next.....

I will need some more felt but there are a ton of stores that carry felt (some have real wool felt) here, including a felt store on Calle Mayor I am going to have to check out soon.