{"id":3716,"date":"2011-10-09T04:12:41","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T09:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/frykitty.com\/?p=3716"},"modified":"2011-10-09T04:12:41","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T09:12:41","slug":"a-month-of-spookdays-felted-pumpkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/?p=3716","title":{"rendered":"A Month of Spookdays: Felted Pumpkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Felted<\/a><\/p>\n

Him: It’s a little pumpkin family!<\/em><\/p>\n

Me: I prefer to think of it as an evil pumpkin overlord and its minions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Him: Of course you do.<\/em><\/p>\n

So I’m a little late posting. Forgive? I think these adorable little pumpykins are worth it. I had this beautiful wool\/alpaca mix from a sheep farm in Nehalem that was just begging to be felted into pumpkins. I don’t do a lot of sculptural felting (as in, this is the first time), so pumpkins were a good, simple project.<\/p>\n

For the smaller pumpkin, I didn’t use filling, but for the large (3-1\/2″) and medium pumpkins, I pulled some alpaca out of this huge bag I got for a song. Illustrations are from the making of the medium pumpkin.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-armature\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the wad of alpaca wool that became the center of the medium pumpkin. I wound it in an approximate pumpkin shape, then I started poking.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-armpoke\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once it was compressed a little and in the shape I wanted, I wrapped the armature in my colored roving.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-wrap\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then the poking, and the poking, and the poking. I go at least three rounds, compressing and shaping. I used a multi-needle tool on the ends to really smoosh them down, as they were stubborn.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-poke\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once the pumpkin was compressed and shaped, I added indentations by poking in a straight line.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-indent\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When the lines were done, I added a wisp of brown roving to accentuate, then I trimmed off the fuzzy edges and poked in what was left.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-brown\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-fuzztrim\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I gathered some variegated green roving for a stem, in a roughly stem-like shape.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-stemgather\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I poked and poked, mostly against my foam block so the small stem was easier to work with. Sides, then top, then all over again, leaving the bit of roving I was holding unfelted. This is the part of the process where I usually poke myself. When the stem is in good shape, I trim a bit off the end I’m holding, and spread it out like an octopus. I use this bottom part to attach the stem to the pumpkin.<\/p>\n

\"feltedpumpkin-stemtrim\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Voila! Pumpkin family<\/del> Evil overlord and minions!<\/p>\n

Linkies:<\/p>\n