APPLES ...AND LEMONS

What are these, you may ask....

And what is this hanging on my washing line?
Well, it is true that my laundry gets used for all sorts of activities that have absolutely nothing to do with keeping clothes clean and ironed. (My iron is usually too gummed up with craft glue and the like to even use it on clothes.)

The pictures above are a stage in the production of the felted apples that I have been enjoying making lately. Here are some I made for our Spring Fair last year.

These turned out pretty well, and I made more for Christmas gifts and for my stalls for the Cruise ships.

It was time to build up the supply again. Here is a bowl of them out drying on the patio - a process that can take 2 or 3 weeks. Every time I walk by I sort of squeeze them into shape.

The trouble with this batch was that some of them are "lemons". They have rather wrinkly surfaces. This happened because I did not follow my own instructions! I take a weird sort of pride in not following recipes, patterns and instructions, and much prefer to wing it! I think I am scared of appearing too anal. But sometimes it does help to produce a consistent product if you observe the basic steps!!!

For the next lot, I thought about each step more carefully, and they turned out much better.

However the colour is not so good, because I had dyed a lot of my own wool, and quite a bit of it washed out in the felting process. I plan to order some on the internet already died, from someone who knows better what they are doing around the dyepot!

Meanwhile, here is another picture of my washing line being put to an unusual use...more about this one next time!