Felt Frenzy by Heather Brack and Shannon Okey

If Shannon Okey (of Knitgrrl fame) and Heather Brack haven’t written the definitive primer to unraveling the alchemy behind felting, they’ve come exceptionally close. With Felt Frenzy, the two fiber enthusiasts—they live for the needle arts, and it shows—will induct you into the mysteries of shrink felting, welt felting, and needle (”dry”) felting, as well as more-advanced techniques such incorporating beads into felt, Shibori textile dyeing, and quilting felted fabrics.

Among the 26 projects are 5 devoted to recycled felt, or what the authors define as “repurposed knits (such as old sweaters) that are felted, sewn, embroidered, knitted onto, or otherwise manipulated into new items.” (One of the tips they provide: Accumulate lots of thrift-store sweaters in the spring and summer when they’re cheap. Make sure you check out the clothing tag to determine fiber content, however.)

You’ll get to tackle an embroidered felted needle case, a stained-glass sweater pillow, a camera case for your point-and-shoot, a French-press cozy, and a patchwork felted jacket.

The brief note on vegan felting—think soysilk batts, my herbivorous compatriots—was a thoughtful touch. ($21.95, paper)

This review refers to a first American paperback edition, courtesy of Interweave Publishing. Felt Frenzy can be found in stores now.

Photo by Day-Lab.com

This vintage Distlefink tray totally takes me all the way down to funkytown. I just needed to say that. ($12, Day-Lab.com)

Photo by Upside Dive

Upside Dive is a Toronto-based vintage store run by four siblings—Mike, Elisa, Angelique, and Natasha—with a shared passion for preloved goods. Their stylin’ philosophy: By enjoying and reexperiencing what’s already out there, you don’t need to “sacrifice global consciousness at the expense of consumerism.” I could get down with that.

Click on each image for details. Photos by VintageMusings at Etsy.com.

Some exquisite eye-candy to help you (and me, oh yeah) get past the midweek hump. These lusciously baroque pieces by Vancouver-based VintageMusings are reworked from vintage jewellery, which she refers to as treasures with past lives “waiting to be reimagined.”

Tip: Before you throw something away today, can you try working it into something completely unexpected?

Photo by Clio Home

Photo by Clio Home

I am mad with the love for Sarah Cihat’s Rehabilitated Dishware. Mad!

Cihat rescues used or unwanted ceramics from thrift stores and reglazes them in pop-right-atcha colors and motifs, reincarnating them into new pieces and making a “subtle statement of the importance of recycling.”

She tells the now sadly defunct Organic Style magazine: “I thought about what I wanted to put out into the world. I just didn’t want to add any more new products.” ($30 to $125, visit SarahCihat.com for retailers)

Cartoon by C. Covert Darbyshire/The New Yorker

(For Siel.)

Photo by Spare Cloth at Etsy.com

I’ve been running the feed dogs of my trusty sewing machine ragged making reusable fabric gift bags from vintage Christmas fabric I found on Etsy for about a buck per yard. They’ll be going to family members who want a waste-free Yule.

Today on the Martha Stewart 12-month calender: Make apple and pumpkin pies. Um, I ATE a slice of apple pie last night, does that count? We’ll be offsetting our way to California to celebrate the slaughter of the natives, bearing gifts of organic potatoes and squash (for our pantry overfloweth). See you on Monday, my freaky darlings.

Related article:
1. Flying the Eco-Friendly Skies

Photos by Martha Stewart Living

The November 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Living (shaddup) has a plump feature stuffed with easy projects you can make from unintentionally felted sweaters or thrifted woolen sweaters you’ve shrunk for that purpose, including mittens, stuffed animals, a patchwork blanket—even a knitting basket.

Complete instructions for the woolly gifts—get a headstart on your anticonsumerist yule holiday of choice—can be found online here.

The Craft: blog has even more sweateriffic ideas.

Photo by It’s All About Wool on Ebay.com

For those of us who lack a questing knight’s determination (or his time) when it comes to thrift-store hunting, It’s All About Wool sallies forth with its felted wool pieces gleaned from vintage and salvaged garments. Each “collection” consists of six different fabrics that have been overdyed in the same dye bath for instant chromatic accord—perfect for quilting and sewing projects. The starting bids of $15.50 and Buy Now prices of $17.50 aren’t half bad, either.

Check out Bella Lana for more options at similar prices.

A thimble, strawberry pin cushion, spool of darning cotton, and restringing nylon with “fashionable clasp,” from a flea market in Chelsea.