Experimental Stripes

A lovely neighbour of ours gave me an incredibly sweet gift a while ago: a big stack of old woolen jumpers, lovingly handknitted by his mother and worn until their elbows had worn away to nothingness and they'd shrunk so small he could no longer fit into them.

I set about washing them and shrinking them down to make felt, and have finally managed to make him a little something as a thankyou - a little lavender sachet made with two squares from the sweaters:I wanted something quite rustic looking, decorative but not "fancy" to match the homespun practical feel of the sweaters, so used some of my new embroidery thread to stitch some simple stripes into the felt. The lines left by the knitting act as fantastic guidelines for straight sewing and the wool is an absolute dream to sew through! The other side looks like this:I was a bit worried that the wool would be too thick for the lavender scent to be really apparent, but luckily the scent comes through nice and strong. This piece has already been given away, and I'm now very excited about all the other things I could make by embroidering felted wool like this (I am such a big fan of stripes).