![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCfTNBWS18HJcI0586it_7G0ZIKvNqZXJq9sjEoLzqYY-LCOjqq2pJtUIfYcAkleBFfZURHhv70ih3BPGLd4ayfr83ONsIvDkAzvKuhpJCo9yHsBVdLhsNoPPqkCJTEsFPUAca/s400/wool-sack.jpg)
I have got to the point where I need serious amounts of wool and as many colours as I find in my normal paint palette. My toy designs are cramming my head, (I even go to sleep visualising them as I drift off) and it is so frustrating to know exactly what colours I want them to be, but not to have them at my fingertips. And worse, to run out of a colour when a toy is half done. Thanks to a much needed royalty check I was able to splurge a little at Wingham Wools - hence the mysterious lump. I hadn't quite realised how big nearly 6KG (13.2 lbs) would be...like a child at Christmas I upended the sack. Out spilled dozens of wool bundles, like so many tubby, multi-coloured kittens tumbling over the floor.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVy-r1EzRblWTlPvwtjH4sFX6-nvUcwlVDMotyNlUH_hYGZL1BGG_eDo_TxR8aDH5C1xUPm7D7EWF7Yf6OITkWpD398U_RR9k4tV7S3-uyOyajNoCLaYct431-CU0ORrnaUQO/s400/wools-floor.jpg)
Being the original anal retentive I had to line them up in a vague colour chart...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNriCXcGC_K-6t6EgarUO5IJLledFSFpYP8MdKpxgBLRvHutdqr1ddioLhk5rWJrXY-xsKSuX0C3_HyDXd8DgGAzrkowizH6gi4PddmMQsI8vShoo-1Wyrq8Vg-bCRxPnogaL/s400/wools-table.jpg)
Sighs of deep satisfaction from one contented artist. My trousers have holes, my boots are falling apart, but I have enough wool to felt a menagerie of creatures. Priorities.
Found - a lovely set of 1960's toy making books -
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiREdRUqNIStnQrszmnDWkb-sAhEBf1jTXVdrqM4xNy_ZulDWkdMcFXy7zSKaFlfEl0nlwcCzZVRbg25FCOXU_G1wUzmnOWJ59hzTDVdq-ygXK9bvhubIfe3UaC7nRmZ4LCpGe8/s400/toy-books.jpg)
Some retaining the original patterns -
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIxWuDZQfvSGuOf6xdmbOaTB0YK5hGHz5wLNjhy7Boh1Sal1NByZMsZ351aVLTJQLmBX6-nYnEuP3J5eAY8E-A-FwSE3PRLfnvCcBOm-UlthjUrwMQtFlH5vxxVoGr22ZcrBl/s400/toybook-patterns.jpg)
Also found - an early 1962 Oxford University Press edition of the Pied Piper by Robert Browning, illustrated by Howard Jones...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTRCkA5G15icXuXUsKqA2lm-mb5Bct0Mo9iX_75q5RLuhLa1mEJy2KRrFYac9bIMAakxcyMoXd_FGc8O9NwGH7pnBMgHMkEcoCfrTzkPNbmqfVXjETklTysYLzo9YWxmHWjgof/s400/Pied-Piper.jpg)
Arrived - Lily Laguna, my second bird-mobile, has found the perfect home with Gifling where she is living in another artist's studio, so will feel very much at home. Thank you Gillian!
Discovered - my new site of the week, illustrations to die for, a new name to me - Jean-Baptiste Monge. If you like Brian Froud you will love, love, love this artist's work. And he keeps a blog too. It is all on French, so if, like me, your language skills are a little rusty, then the Google translation tool does a very good job - simply put the url of the page in, choose which language to change from and away you go!
(What have I been needle felting? Ahhh...this and that...)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTRCkA5G15icXuXUsKqA2lm-mb5Bct0Mo9iX_75q5RLuhLa1mEJy2KRrFYac9bIMAakxcyMoXd_FGc8O9NwGH7pnBMgHMkEcoCfrTzkPNbmqfVXjETklTysYLzo9YWxmHWjgof/s400/Pied-Piper.jpg)
Arrived - Lily Laguna, my second bird-mobile, has found the perfect home with Gifling where she is living in another artist's studio, so will feel very much at home. Thank you Gillian!
Discovered - my new site of the week, illustrations to die for, a new name to me - Jean-Baptiste Monge. If you like Brian Froud you will love, love, love this artist's work. And he keeps a blog too. It is all on French, so if, like me, your language skills are a little rusty, then the Google translation tool does a very good job - simply put the url of the page in, choose which language to change from and away you go!
(What have I been needle felting? Ahhh...this and that...)