For fun in recent months I’ve tried a couple “extracurricular” projects out of felted wool.  The first was a pair of running leggings from Resweater,  the blog of a fellow felted-wool-lover.  I made a pair for my daughter who runs — and she runs year-round in western Michigan, even when there’s snow on the ground.  Resweater blogger Kris has given us a very helpful tutorial here.

So what started out as a man’s XXL merino wool sweater is now serving in a whole new capacity as comfy, breathable leggings.  Grace says they keep her warm and dry and they don’t smell afterwards :).  Thank you for the great idea, Kris!

And then I made another practical little thing — a “draft dodger” for the chill that sneaks under the doors of older houses.  So, yeah, this also was for my Michigan-dwelling daughter.  I kept trying to think of anything BESIDE a snake that I could make out of that elongated shape, but wasn’t coming up with anything I liked.  Finally decided this would be a fun time to try my hand at felted wool flowers, and came up with this:

Now it’s a veritable garden to ease winter’s bleakness and usher in the hope of spring, right?  I used this tutorial at prettyhandygirl.com to practice making flowers.  Fun!  I sewed a flat pocket with a velcro’ed flap at one end.  It was lightweight and simple to send through the mail, and upon receiving it, my daughter filled it with dried beans from her pantry and put it to use.