Pattern: felted Easter-nests with Pansies

lies mich auf Deutsch

March
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The snow-flakes fall in showers,

The time is absent still,

When all Spring's beauteous flowers,

When all Spring's beauteous flowers

Our hearts with joy shall fill.

With lustre false and fleeting

The sun's bright rays are thrown;

The swallow's self is cheating:

The swallow's self is cheating,

And why? He comes alone!

Can I e'er feel delighted

Alone, though Spring is near?

Yet when we are united,

Yet when we are united,

The Summer will be here.

There's only a few days until Easter. Time to get crafty :-)

This year I've decided to try something new. I've never used felting yarn before so I came up with these little bowls, just big enough to hold an egg. They turned out really cute and I wanted to share the pattern with you.

The pattern for the pansy will be up within the next few days, so stay tuned :-)

Material:

• felting yarn (Bulky, 100% animal fibre)
• 8mm hook
• felting fibre green
• felting needle
• hairy, fury yarn green
• Tennis balls
• Styrofoam

Instructions:

Needed skills: US-terms: magic circle (click here for a video tutorial), half double crochet (hdc), slip stitch (slst), chain (ch)

final measures: about 8 x 4,5cm

Round 1: do 10 hdc into a magic circle, slst to end the round

Round 2: do 2 hdc into every stitch, slst (20 hdc)

Round 3: *1 hdc, 2 hdc into one stitch* around, slst (30 hdc)

Round 4-6: 30 hdc, slst (30 hdc)

You will  get a bowl that measures about 10 x 5cm. 

There are different ways to felt your work. I decided to use the washing machine; I added 3 tennis balls and some detergent and started the usual washing program at 40°C. I set the centrifuge to 600.

Here's the result:

The bowls were still soft and you could also still see the stitches. That was the look I was going for because I think they look like little birds' nests.

Now put some green fibre into the bowl and start felting with the felting needle. Use the styrofoam as base.

Before:

After:

Using the hairy yarn make a chain that's long enough to fit around the bottom of the nest.

Sew it on between the 3rd and 4th row.

Use a thread and sew a spiral into the green filling, starting at the bottom. It should basically look like it's filled with gras.

If you like you can decorate the nest with some flowers or feathers. I made some cute pansies, again, the pattern will follow within the next few days.

until then,

hooky hugs!