Fiber arts news: Twiddle muffs, stash disasters, and felt kitties
Make a Twiddle Muff, it’s fun stuff
Never heard of a twiddle muff? We hadn’t either, but they’re a hit in the UK. This wonderful group in the UK grabbed our interest with their twiddle muff efforts: they knit over 400 twiddle muff thingy’s that help dementia patients keep fidgety hands occupied, while keeping their minds active. Twiddle muffs are also:
- easy and fun to make (great kids project!)
- outlet for creativity
- use up your stash
- help those with dementia
- all-around-fantastic as far as we can tell!
There are various twiddle muff knitting patterns available free: from Warrington Hospital, Knit for Peace, Devon UK’s NHS. Crochet pattern available too! We couldn’t find US organizations soliciting donations, but, let us know in the comments if you know of one.
Tail of two kitties: one is needle felted!
Needle felting continues to amaze us. The wonderful work by Hinali_Felt, a Japanese fiber artist, is pushing the boundaries of the art-imitating-life. On the left, above, the live kitty, on the right, needle-felted doppelganger. Creating true-to-life works modeled on real-live-loved kitties is her specialty, and a visit to her Instagram page will confirm her mastery, as well as give some insight into how it’s done. Her web presence is in Japanese, but the photos are illuminating.
Need help detangling?
We all know it happens. Could be a toddler, a kitty or puppy, or simply “my oh my I should have wound that before starting”: regardless you may get to the point of wondering if the yarn in question is a total tangled loss. Should you despair? Nope! We hadn’t realized that there are those who revel in the unraveled.
It turns out that some folk find sublime satisfaction in untangling stash catastrophes. You do have to log-in to Ravelry to see the Knot a Problem group, but it’s illuminating if you do… And it might just save that yarn-catastrophe from the rubbish bin! Photo: mangobadango.
