Re-upholstery, project one!

Once we finished tiling the floor in the dining room we needed some chairs to put around the nice Pompanoosuc Mills table.  Someone had some chairs on FREECYCLE which we picked  up.   They were disgustingly dirty so I threw towels over them so we could stand to use them. Nice sturdy wooden chairs with cushions.

Well...last week I decided to try reupholstering those chairs.  Bob bought into it, too, so I picked up a few tools at Home Depot including an electric stapler---VERY worth the money--about $30, and a glue gun from Joann to go along with the heavy tapestry fabric we previously used for a tablecloth on the table.

Blue FREECYCLE chair before.  Notice the disgusting filth...

When I went to Home Depot a really nice boy on his first night in the hardware department helped me search out a number of things.  While I was looking for some other things he kept searching for staple-puller hardware.  I had found something for about $20 which I had thrown in my cart.  When I was almost done shopping, he found me with a packet of 4 different tools for $5!  I brought those home and, wowee!  did they ever do the job.  I had no problem at all pulling out about 200 staples from the chair.

Bob helped me unscrew the long screws in the seat (four of them per chair) and got me his allen wrench bundle to use for removal of the seat back.  Once those were off I saw how truly awful the chairs were...and took the second one outside onto the porch to clean up with a putty knife.  I won't even go into how nasty they were.

While I was working on the back and seat Bob was sanding the chairs and then varnishing them.  We both finished our part of the project at about the same time and last weekend we put the chairs back together.

We have placed them in the living room side by side so they form a more or less loveseat on the north wall beside the woodstove.  I love they way they look and I love the way they feel sitting on them.  Having been successful with this project, I feel more confident that we can reupholster the two wingback chairs, one from the porch and one from the living room.  Very exciting to learn new things that are so useful.

Finished Slippers

Finally the much-looked-for slippers are finished...As soon as the peach pair is fully dried I will send them along on their trip west.  I hope they are able to be worn on the feet for whom they were knit and felted.  Somehow I think they are quite large for those feet!

Yesterday I took the purple/brown ones to Elsie's to show to our knitting group.  They were well-received by all there. I hope the little girls are as enthusiastic.  Now I just need to get them into the mail...

Felted bowls, chicks, bunnies, duck and Tulips

The last few days have been filled with knitting furiously and the felting of some of that knitting.  Nights have been bad for sleeping so I have spent the time knitting up  some cute little bunnies and chicks to cover Cadbury eggs.  Jean Greenhowe is the designer of these darling little egg covers.  Scroll down towards the bottom of her pattern webpage to find the patterns.

As I was sitting here knitting up a storm it occurred to me to make felted bowls to hold them instead of the usual Easter baskets.  This was really fun, though when the bowls came out of the washer I was concerned because they looked like disks, not at all like bowls.  Somewhere in the back of my head  I heard Elsie mention shaping her hats over bowls, so...that is what I did--shaped them over containers.

 

Felted bowls shaped over containers and watched over by the big duck.

In the background you can almost see the newspaper pots Latasha and Lana taught me how to make for starting plants.  On Saturday I picked up the potting soil but have not got it into the pots yet.  Soon!

These are the completed projects.  Perhaps I shall take close-ups.  Latasha brought me the tulips last week.  They really have cheered me up.  The mama duck is modeling a bib I made from One Skein by Leigh Radford.  The duck can be found on Ravelry.

Here is a closeup of the bunny and chick egg covers.

The bunnies were knit in garter stitch.  I made up the chicks on the Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine in stockinette stitch.  Usually I use googoo eyes glued on but because these are mostly going to young children I stitched them on so the little children won't suck them off.