FIRST FELT

For those of you not familiar with Scottish culture, it is said that whatever you do on New Year's Day, you will do the rest of the year; that meant that no matter what, I needed to make time to felt since that is what I am obsessed with - it seems I can never get enough. The piece is still wet so the stitching is dark; I'll try to post another once it has dried. It consists of prefelt, mohair, wool, velvet, silk shibori ribbon, silk scraps all layered and then stitched. Once wet felted, it shrunk considerably (as it should) and it is a nice hard felt although I added a little hair conditioner as I always do to the rinse which adds a "silky" touch. Although difficult to tell from the photograph, the circles are pronounced with some actually quite "poufed". I plan to make a "thank you" pillow for someone special.

Back to the Scottish culture and the wonderful memories I had while growing up - there were other New Year's traditions too - the house had to be clean, the bills paid, the shopping finished before New Year's Eve. While Christmas was mainly for the childen, New Years celebration "Hogmaney" was for adults and indeed they did know how to have a good time singing and dancing. If the "First Foot" (the first person to walk through your door from the outside after midnight) was tall, dark and handsome, you could expect good luck the rest of the year; he had to leave a silver coin. Every year, when I hear "For Auld Lang Syne", I can't help but think about Rabbie (Robert) Burns, the Scottish poet who wrote it - I'm sure in his wildest dreams, he had no idea that it would become the traditional song of New Year sung throughout the world every year.