A few fibery projects

Another critter made of leftovers.  The white parts are a bit of leftover acrylic yarn.  I know that because it squeaked a bit when knitting.  Also, because it wasn't in my bin of handspun yarns but in the bag of leftover bits from a cow I made last year.

He's very cute.   The original pattern has a wreath around his neck, but I'm just going to put a nice bow on him and call him done.   The pattern was a free pattern available on-line.  It's fiddly though, really, really fiddly.  The main part of the moose is fine, and so are the arms and legs.  They were all easy to knit up.  The ears and antlers though were quite fussy, small little pieces.  Nothing difficult about it, but it did take a lot of pinning to get those bits and pieces even close to the right places. 
 

I had some fleece leftover from various projects.  This was washed fleece, and most of it had been run through a drum carder.  There was some coloured stuff that I'd used to pick up extra acid dyes when I was experimenting with the old, vintage packets of Cushing's dyes.    I hand carded the bits and pieces, wound them up and layered them into big balls to make dryer balls.  I had to stop in a a dollar store after a meeting the other day to pick up a pair of nylons so I had a pair to stuff the balls into for felting.   

I stuffed a fleece ball into the toe of a stocking, tied a knot, put in another ball and tied a knot, 3 times.   I used a slip knot so that hopefully I could reuse the nylons again.   I put them into the washer, with a load of laundry, and then into the dryer.  They felted up really nicely.  The only issue I had was they were also trying to felt themselves into the stockings.   I got the first 2 out with a little effort, but had to cut the final one out as the stocking wouldn't peel off the dryer ball.  Of course once I snipped the toe of the stocking off, it was easy to peel the little bit of nylon off.   By knotting the cut end, I'll be able to reuse the nylons for another batch if necessary or I can use them to tie garden plants to supports if necessary, like that one stem of the tomato plant which doesn't want to stay confined to the tomato cage!     

Next projects on the list include having to divide and repot my snake plant (Dracaena trifasciata ).  It's been growing and growing.  I was thinking it needed repotting over the summer, but put it off.  Now it's obviously too big.  Well the one with the striped leaves is.  The more solid green one is still a baby but I'll probably repot that one at the same time. It will be a big, ol' repotting party because the spider plant and the lemon tree are also getting too big for their pots.  I may have to wait for the spring though, because I have a feeling this will be a messy job.