Think of it… a lampshade you wouldn’t look half bad in if you party just a little too much during the holidays!

The lovely Miss Wool knitted lamp, with that charmingly feminine bow, is from Italian design company Doimo Decor.

Sadly, it only seems to be available in Italy at the moment.  Guess that’s another excuse for me to go to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile next year, right?

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

In honor of the day, here are a couple of wonderful, recycled Army blanket pillows I thought you might like to take a look at.

Created by Etsy seller Shop at Ten, these pillows are made from old Army blankets that are then hand felted with fun new patterns.

Here, a series of patches added to the blanket over time were surrounded with colorful, needle-felted roving, becoming a wonderful pattern of irregular squares.  What many would see as a flaw has instead become an inspired design.

You can see more of Shop at Ten’s work here.

Thanks for visiting – and don’t forget to give a Veteran a hug today.  They deserve it, and so much more!

Rachel

Created by Etsy seller Ann Tucker, of The Lavendar Tree, out of a recycled wool blanket and recycled leather scraps, this pillow was tailor made for life on a cozy sofa in front of the fireplace, don’t you think?

Cut and stitched to the pillow by hand, the leather rosettes provide just the right balance of randomness to the regimented nature of the stripes.

And if you were to get it as a gift (Christmas is on it’s way folks!), then it would come all wrapped up and ready to give in this lovely craft paper wrap, with ribbon made of recycled t-shirt strips, and a pretty felt rose to boot.  Love it!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend!

Rachel

This little stool fits into my daydream perfectly.  Created by Etsy seller Hogenbirk Knitwear, this handmade stool, with its knitted wool cover is the epitome of simple, stylish Dutch design.

Sweet, no?

Each little stool has its own “sweater”, and you can use it as a seat or a side table.

And that’s not all in the shop.

My son would love this “Frog Jelly” table runner.  The perfect thing for a hip herpatologist’s home!

You can check out more fascinating knitted felt pieces for your home or yourself in the Hogenbirk Knitwear shop.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

Harmony Art Chili Pepper Flannel

The lovely folks at Near Sea Naturals, the already notable internet source for organic fabric, have taken things to a whole new level with their new venture, American Grown-Spun-Milled.  With an inventory consisting of nothing that isn’t organically grown and then spun and manufactured in the United States, they are fulfilling a growing need for more locally based materials.  They are also continuing a long tradition of cotton and wool production in North America, as well as providing work for mills whose workload might otherwise be shipped off to China or India for cheaper manufacture.

Says Tara Bloyd, president of NearSea Naturals -

“At a time when many textile jobs and businesses are going overseas, our customers are demanding domestic, sustainable fabrics. They understand the importance of supporting the US textile industry and want to keep their business supply chains local.”

So far, their inventory is small, but enticing.   I imagine as demand increases so will the number of choices.  For now, here are some of the lovelies they have:

Thanks to my friend Harmony, of Harmony Art organic fabrics for letting me know about this great new online source!

And as always…
Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

Selina Rose has introduced a new rug to her wonderful line of wool felt creations.  Inspired by the birth of her own baby, she set out to design a playful, eco-friendly rug, suitable for a child’s nursery.

These rugs are made with environmentally friendly dyes, and are available in three bright, cheerful colors – magenta, acid green, and orange.  Simply vacuum or spot clean to keep them looking as new as the day BEFORE the baby ground Cheerios into them.  And if you love the look, but can’t quite bring yourself to put such a nice rug down for your little one to spit up on, it could always be used as a very decorative wall hanging.

You can read a previous post I wrote on Selina Rose’s fabulous felt creations here.

Pod for de vorm

Joseph Chair by Lothar Windels

Bookhou child's chair (seen on ohdeedoh)

Bless You chair. Designed by Louise Campbell. (seen on 3rings)

Felt Chairs by Tanya Aguiniga

Peacock Chair by Dror

Jumper by Bertjan Pot (seen on Dezeen)

Whew!  That’s a lot of felt!  And I’m sure I missed a few.  Do you know of a cool looking felt chair you’d like to share?  Feel free to link to it in the comments below.  Thanks!

Here is a fun take on handstichery by Etsy seller abigaildace.  I love that she has given this simple chair such personality.  There’s something about the combination of doily like embroidery, mid-century chair, and gray wool flannel that makes me think of a stylish 50′s grandma.

Can’t you just picture an impeccably dressed older woman sitting there, martini in one hand, a copy of Vogue in the other?  Heck, how about a young hipster chick?  Although then it would probably be a glass of artisan crafted beer and a copy of Dwell.  Hmmm…  Either way, this chair has a truly unique style.

Of course, you would have to go all the way to Britain to buy it, which probably won’t work out for most of you.  For those of you residing in merry old England, this chair can be yours for a mere £800.00.  Might be just the thing for your sitting room, or maybe you could give it to someone as a classy gift?  I hear there is a wedding going on there soon…

After gathering at the lovely French General for the workshop, we all carpooled over to the park where our dyeing experience would take place.

Once at the park we got a delightful and informative overview of the history of woad dyeing from Denise Lambet, who flew all the way from the South of France just to create a legion of new woad addicts dyers.  After regaling us with stories of previous woad workshop students stripping down to their skivvies in an attempt to have just ONE more garment to dunk in the vats, she proceeded to explain how the process worked, and what we would need to do to have a successful dyeing experience.  Then we got to work.

We were each provided with a bucket full of water and a stick, and told we needed to get our items thoroughly wet – NO air bubbles allowed!  Air is not your friend when you are dyeing with woad. Not only will air bubbles in your fabric block the dye from bonding with it, they also cause the woad to activate to a blue color prematurely, rendering the batch of woad weaker.

In case you didn’t look at the previous post, here is what a fresh batch of woad dye looks like.  Delicious, no?

After a brief moment of hesitancy, we all started cautiously dipping our first textiles into the woad.

Then we progressively got bolder… 

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Ahem.  OK, maybe not THAT bold.

Pretty soon we were plunging our hands in as well as our fabrics.  Thank goodness we were wearing gloves!

Well, most of us were anyway.  A few hardy souls decided to go into full on woad mode, leaving their hands a lovely shade of blue that will last them for weeks.  Badge of honor I guess.

That is some yarn being dyed.  I would love to see something made from it!

Sometimes, strange “creatures” would float to the surface of a vat.  Any guesses what that is?

As soon as you dyed something, you needed to hang it up so the initial yellowish color could oxygenate to the final lovely blue.  You could watch it happen as you ran to the line.  Pretty cool.

Here are a few of the items I dyed.  The depth of blue depended on the strength of the batch (they varied over the 6 or so vats available), the type of fiber, and the time you left it in the dye.

Soon the drying lines started to fill up, so they had to put up more line…

and more line…

until we ran out, and we started to use the rock walls.

This is one of those times when I wish I had an extreme wide angle lens, because I want to badly so show you how there was blue EVERYWHERE in sight.  It was almost 360 degrees of blue.  So beautiful!

People were dyeing everything from yarn, to lace, to small tablecloths, to these sneakers.  After lunch, I only had one item left to dye, and once I was done with that I still felt the itch.  So I did exactly what Denise Lambet predicted…

I took the clothes off my back and plopped them in!  That used to be an oatmeal colored organic cotton sweater I’m standing behind.  Now it is a gorgeous shade of dusky blue.  If there hadn’t been a little bit of a chill in the air (not to mention a few men folk around) I might have been tempted to see what else I had on to toss in a vat.

All in all, it was an amazing afternoon.   The wonderful folks at French General are hoping to offer this workshop again next year.  I’m not sure if I can wait!  That blue is so pretty, I want to dye everything in sight.  My sheets,… my curtains,… my towels,… my cat,….  Oh dear…

Hello, my name is Rachel Hulan, and I have a woad addiction.

Bet you would too!

Vintage Moroccan wedding blankets!

Made primarily of handspun wool, these blankets fit in beautifully with the current trend for natural fibers and contrasting textures, although taken on their own merit, they are truly timeless in style.

According to Table Tonic:

Moroccan Wedding Blankets are sourced high in the Atlas mountains in Berber villages. They were made for Berber brides, who would wear them as capes to keep warm as they were walking to their new husband’s house. The women in the bride’s family would work on each one for months, using hand loomed sheep’s wool and painstakingly adding round, metal sequins one by one, by hand. All that work takes a lot of time, so these precious creations were reserved for the best and most important day – the wedding.

I adore the alternating fuzzy texture and sparkly sequins, (there goes my inner magpie again).

Although most of the blankets are the natural wool color, some were dyed, or had decorative bands of woven material added for color when they were made.

So pretty.  So shiny.  So sparkly…   I really wish I could “feather my nest” with one of these!

To see the complete collection from Table Tonic, click here.