Bowled Over

Well did you miss me?
My dear son took my laptop to bits and found a bit had snapped off inside. It wasn't an important bit but was causing a short with the screenlight connection (or something) and when he put it back together it worked.
Isn't it amazing that Hewlett Packard who wanted to charge me £250 for a repair had not spotted that on the two occasions they had it in for repair under guarantee?
Isn't it also a shame that my son, who is a wizard with electronics and computers but hasn't got the necessary bits of paper, can't get a job doing that?
(Update a whole year later: He has a job now, doing exactly that!)

Well you can see what I've been doing..more feltmaking.
After a disastrous attempt at using an inflatable ball to felt round I tried a different way . Felting round a huge circle of plastic and then using the ball to mould it.
It was a LOT of hard work I can tell you. Trying to shrink the sides in so they were smooth and round was difficult. Its about the size of a football.

My intention was to make it large enough to be stitched into, but as I have never managed to get such a lovely edge before, I'm keeping it just as it is, there's no cutting going to be going on here.

 No, I made another one for that job.

Well. Easy. I knew how to do it so I just made another.

Bleeeuuurrrgh!

Horrible.

 I must weigh it to see how much wool I've wasted.

You may have noticed the  stone/moss/sea colours? I am trying to evoke the colours of The Burren coming down to the sea in Clare after my trip there in March.
Its my 'Peace Comes dropping Slow' bowl.Or maybe 'Wondering Aengus'
I am working to add some vaguely Celtic shapes around the edges.

The colours of the felt are just right for what I want, and I'm so pleased to have achieved it almost accidentally by using a base of white which came through with all the rubbing and rolling, and has given it a sort of smokey feel.

I had a bit of mossy green velvet to add to it.

My plan is to place a few of these around the opening.
But in a way its almost a shame to spoil the simplicity of the bowl.

I rather like its plain softness. Perhaps a little bit of handstitch on the bowl before I add the shapes will blend the elements together a bit.

Anyway its not all Celtic subtlety here and you might have spotted a more colourful piece of felt in the top picture on which I let loose my imagination. .

Such fun, and I'm not done yet.

The trouble is I am struggling with my eyes and have new glasses on order. They can't come soon enough.
There is such a lot to feast my eyes on at the moment.
From the gorgeous shades on the, as yet ,unspoiled side of the Stream that runs through the woods

To the unexpected bits of splendour in the town.

Now for an SOS.......
Do you have any unwanted Natesh Titania shade no 953, 'Lagoon'?
But it has to be the old version from about 18 months ago?
The new version is so pale as to be useless for my purposes. The old one had several distinct shades of pale turquoise, lime and greeny blue.
I'll pay money......