Even though it seems slow getting here the holiday season is really upon me and I've been feeling the need to ramp up. It is such a great season and it goes so quickly. This year I don't have the luxury of 2 weeks off so I've got to squeeze the baking and the making into evenings and weekends.
I pulled out all the partially felted and unfelted sweaters from my fabric stash and sorted through them, felted batches by colorways and went shopping for more wool sweaters in colors I don't have. Since this photo was taken I've been able to add some blues and more green and still to be felted are some patterned sweaters. The thrift stores in town have bumped up their prices on wool sweaters, though, and I'm going to have to start looking at yard sales and mid-summer when they aren't so desirable. Seems a shame to pay $7 or $8 for a wool sweater only to cut off the sleeves and shrink the dang thing.
Here's a stack of wool-blend craft felt I'm using to fill in colors I don't have and have a little more control over. I ordered most of this from felt-o-rama and April, the owner, is great to work with -she ships out immediately priority mail and her website is very user-friendly. I followed Betz White's instructions for washing the craft felt and taking some of the manufactured look out of it. The red felt is from JoAnn's and is off a bolt. Getting through that line on a Saturday in Southern California is a story of its own.
Here's all the fun stuff with which to embellish the felt things I hope to make.... and I'll post photos of the finished items although I can't post photos of the work in progress since I'm taking Betz's workshop and all the designs are hers. I thought it would be fun to learn to make new things while gearing up for the holidays and I've admired Betz's felted work for awhile now. She and Leigh Radford rock when it comes to wool felt.
I picked up a bag of lemons while we were down south specifically for this:
The making of limoncello and crema di limoncello. At the risk of losing some of my limoncello fans I'm going to post Ann Hood's recipe from an unknown magazine (Country Living?) page I tore out some time ago. It is delicious and great for gift giving.
Limoncello:
8 lemons
2 cups sugar
1 liter good vodka
Strip the zest from the lemons. Dissolve the sugar in 4 cups of water. Combine the zest and the sugar water with the vodka. Let stand for 5 days at room temp. After 5 days, strain out the zest, bottle and refrigerate.
Crema di Limoncello
5 lemons
3 cups sugar
1 liter vodka
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
Zest the lemons. Dissolve the sugar in 4 cups of water. Combine lemon zest, sugar water, vanilla and the vodka. Let steep for 5 days. Strain out the zest. Add the cream. Refrigerate.
Ummmmm.... so good.
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