Saturday, December 4, 2010

Christmas Ribbon Candy Wool Garland

I made this great felted wool garland from recycled sweaters.  As you may have heard, I love working with felted wool and have a modest (or immodest) stash of wool. 
So, anyway, I will show you how I made this garland...let's get started.   I picked an assortment of wool scraps that coordinate in some manner. I started with the multi color stripe that has two shades of green, navy, gray, red and black.  And I added some of those colors and then some others that coordinated with those...I kept going until I had 12 colors.
Using my rotary cutter, I cut 1 inch strips from each color.  I made my garland about 7 feet long, so I cut 46 strips (just a random number....depends on how thick your wool is, if it is all very thick you would need less).  I actually cut 50 strips but found four of them underneath my chair when I finished the garland.
So here they are...
I wanted to use wool yarn for this and I had this sport weight that I had bought for a bit of nothing (and I am still working on eliminating my stash and makin do with what I have), so I used it.
I found my reallllllly long needle and threaded it with a piece of yarn 2.5 times the length of the garland I wanted to make.
Then I folded the wool strips accordion-style and put the needle into the middle of the end and
pushed them onto the needle and
then down onto the yarn.  I had knotted the end of the yarn so it would keep the wool strips from falling off the other end.
I just used a random arrangement of colors, but you could repeat the colors in order too.
The yarn at the ends I looped for hanging.
Some of the pieces of felted wool had extra pieces sticking out...like here and
here.  To fix this problem I just snipped off the extra pieces that stuck out.
And here is the end result!
Very pretty, huh?  It reminds me of Christmas ribbon candy...my great grandmother used to give my family two giant tins of Christmas candy each Christmas.  One of the tins had ribbon candy and the other had those filled satin looking candies...I wonder if they still make that kind of candy?
Looks great stretched across a window or strung on the Christmas tree.
I love the dark rich colors...
but I can't wait to make one in spring colors too!


19 comments:

Kim's Treasures said...

What a great idea!

AmericKim said...

Very creative. Your tutorial is wonderful! I love the way it looks like those little Christmas candy's (can't remember what they are called - but love them!).

Chrissy said...

I just love this! You are so creative!

Unknown said...

How creative! and a great way to recycle sweaters.

millie said...

oh, neat! and pretty!
i envy your wool stash- i live in a warm climate and so when I visit the thrift store I am lucky to find ONE wool sweater in a pretty color. so i can't make this this year :( but I LOVE LOV felted wool ad so I am going to try to get more thrift store visits in next year and will save my scraps for this project next holiday season. Thanks for sharing the great idea. :) and, nice to meet your blog; I can't wait to see what else you have shared....

Michelle L. said...

Hi, Ellen - it does look like that ribbon candy! This is super super cute, love it. Nice to meet you!

Elizabeth said...

So cozy! A sweater for the tree! Great job! I would love for you to come visit me at Sew Chatty and link up to Made with Love Monday! http://sewchatty.blogspot.com/

Stephanie Lynn @Under the Table and Dreaming said...

Ellen - This is so cute! Thanks so much for linking to the party - I greatly appreciate it! I featured these today - stop by and grab a featured button if you like. Hope you have a lovely week! ~ Stephanie Lynn

Melissa said...

Very pretty wool garland - I like this version better than some I've seen.

Unknown said...

This is sooo beautiful! I love the colors and the texture it adds to your tree.. Also I love your new banner it looks great! Thanks for sharing with the Pink Hippo Party.. can't wait to see what you share next week!

Allison said...

This is a sweet wreath! I made a shabby fabric ruffle wreath last week. This one does look like ribbon candy! Would you come and put this post in my Vintage Pollyanna Tell Me Tuesday link party? I'd love to have you! http://vintagepollyanna.blogspot.com/2010/12/tell-me-tuesday-link-party-4.html

Jill said...

Like a cosy version of tinsel! Love it!
Thanks for linking up!
Have a great weekend!

Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://jembellish.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

That is really cute. Thanks for sharing.

Summer said...

What a great idea! Love it.

Aaron {the girl with the boy's name} said...

Such a clever idea...really cute!
-Aaron

Megan Gunyan said...

As always, Ellen---wonderful idea. I love the soft look of the wool. It's just beautiful!

Melissa said...

I love this!!! I need something to give my tree something fun. Great idea! Thanks for sharing over at Tuesday Tell All.

Unknown said...

very cute! I also made a garland from felted sweaters, funny how different they both are w/the same materials!

The Monko said...

this is fantastic. And something even someone as non-crafty as me could do. Thanks so much for sharing.