Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.721

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Hi! This is Nanae from Ichiroya.
It will be one of my great winter holidays to sit or sleep warm under the kotatsu.
Kotatsu is a table with an electric heater underneath and covered by a quilt.
I usually read a book, watch TV, surf the Internet, and tear some boiled chicken etc under the kotatsu.
I tried to look for a new hobby in order to stay under kotatsu at home and I decided to knit something warm for my pet dog.
This is my story about “hobby” and “excuse” :p

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When I went to a 100 yen shop to buy some knitting wool, I saw ‘needle felting’ beside the knitting stuff. Did you know? We can start needle felting with just wool, felting needles and a cushion or pad. First, roll up a small amount of wool and stab it with the needle. When the wool is stabbed with the felting needle, it pulls the wool into itself. By stabbing the wool with the needle over and over while turning the wool, it continues to pull wool in and the wool, with its tiny scales, locks together. Continue stabbing the wool, turning results in a firm round shape. Once there is a basic shape to start with, wool is added where it is needed to form a sculpture. Oh, I see…
I didn’t follow the instruction of needle felting. I mean I didn’t read it and didn’t know how to do it at all.

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p2squared | Flickr

I started rolling some wool and stabbing it with a needle to make a budgerigar doll. I started watching a movie ‘The imitation game’ at the same time. I was concentrating on needle felting at the beginning. I have to say ‘at the beginning’.

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Pesky Librarians | Flickr

Have you seen the movie? During World War II, mathematician Alan Turing tried to crack the enigma code with help from fellow cryptanalysts.
It is based on a true story. The essentials are true, and to get so much history into a film. It is absolutely compelling and enthralling from the start to finish for me.
I’m not going to tell the details here for you, who haven’t watched yet.
Anyway, I started doing two things at the same time so I wanted to complete both of them at the same time as well! I kept stabbing in order not to get injured.

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Tada~~~~! How is it? hahaha! I feel ashamed to show it. It is unique…
Um…not good… well, u know? Because the movie was so exci…. I couldn’t concentr….. But I realized many people failed doing it at first.
Do a search on the Internet for “needle felting/fail”, and you will see many failures. We are all the same. I’m not feeling ashamed anymore!
One of my nieces thankfully liked my first work so I gave it to her.

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