Needle felted creatures from the sea and beyond, by Chrissy of “The Felted Chicken”

Chrissy lives in California and has an amazing collection of needle felted creatures indigenous to the sea. I especially love her blowfish! On Chrissy’s Flickr account and her blog she shows you her dying techniques for the blowfish. She has brought a whole new dimension to needle felting. She has a wonderful imagination and living in California near a sea, must help her develop her realistic looking sea creatures. I love her octopus, lobster and of course her awesome sushi. Take some time and visit fried chicken! You will find unexpected creations that I’m sure you will enjoy. You can find Chrissy on her The Flted Chicken blog, her ETSY shop, Flickr and on Facebook. If you are a member of Facebook you will want to become Chrissy’s fan.

Chrissy also is creating a sweet line of (re)Gift Boxes and bags “Pictured” made of a pre-felted fabric called Eco-spun. This is a synthetic felt that is made of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles.

Chrissy tell us!

I am a scenic sculptor living in West Hollywood. Right now I’m really trying to focus on my new ETSY shop.

Currently I am making many things out of felt. I love the fabric; it reminds me of craft projects I did as a child. My sculptures are 100% hand-felted wool made by Needle-felting. Needle-felting is the process of matting and compressing animal fibers into felt by stabbing a barbed needle into the fibers over and over and over and over again. It is very time-consuming, but also amazingly fulfilling. It allows me to hand sculpt fabric without having to use a sewing machine. It combines many of my favorite things – sculpting & stuffed animals – fine art & toys – innocence & craftsmanship.

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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