Sit and Spin

It's been a while since I've used my spinning wheel. But I'm really not a summer spinner. I don't like being surrounded by piles of wool when it's hot and humid outside (even in air conditioning).

But now that fall is slowly creeping in I've been having the urge to spin big time. So today when I woke up and it was a rainy dreary morning I pulled out the wheel out and started a new project.

I chose some deep blue merino (which is my favorite type of fiber to spin) with a little purple and even some yellow-green swirling through it. It's working up into a pretty yarn with a subtle variegation.

It was really nice to sit and spin all cozy with a pile of wool.

Ideas for Acorns

So yesterday Jan left a comment on my felted wool ball tutorial asking if I'd post how to make felted acorns. I didn't have any acorns so this morning Lucy and I went to the park to find some.

While I collected them Lucy sniffed around, and pulled on her leash whenever she saw something interesting, like oh say a squirrel- also collecting acorns (which I think resulted in me dropping more than I ended up taking home).

Nevertheless I collected a nice little pile.

It had been a long time since I'd collected acorns and on the drive home I started remembering how much fun I had crafting with them when I was a kid. That got me thinking about what else I do with them besides felting.

But first, I'll show you how to make the felted ones with the little wool balls I showed you how to make last week.

You only need acorn caps for this project. Add a little glue around the edge of the cap and attach it to a wool ball.

Pretty simple but boy do they look cute. Especially when you get a lot of them piled into a jar or bowl!

I also painted some of the acorns teal using craft paint. Once the paint was dry I sealed them with an acrylic matt finish. Bright green and teal are two of my favorite colors...

but they don't really say autumn.

I wanted something that would feel more autumnal but still match the teal, cream and brown in the living room. I have a lot of silver accents in there too, so I thought silver acorns might be nice. This time I used a sharpie paint marker, which I have to tell you was much quicker than using craft paint and a brush.

The last idea I had was to try decoupaging them. I had a tiny little oak leaf punch that I thought would be perfect! The acorns I collected were a mottled greenish brown so the first step was to paint them a deep chestnut color. Once the brown was dry I painted them with a basecoat of Mod Podge and let that dry. Then I podged the little leaves (which were punched out of a metallic copper paper) all the way around each acorn.

Finally I added another coat of Mod Podge to seal.

As much as I love bright colors I think these ones turned out to be my favorites.