Wet felted bird's nest

Dear Kate

I'm sorry it's taken until now to write.  We had friends to stay last night and I haven't managed to get around to any further crafting.  Instead, I've uploaded my images from creating my wet felted vessel on Thursday night.  I just love this one.  It reminds me of a bird's nest.   I want to fill it felted balls and eggs tomorrow and I'll post better photos then.  I can't wait to make some more vessels but I'm having trouble fitting everything in at the moment!  Don't worry, I will get back to them though and try some more shapes.  

I can't wait to see your efforts from today.  Inserting the balloon into the vessel at the last moment (to hold the shape) sounds like a great idea.  I saw an article about felting in an English Country Living (from Eve) and they used an old detergent bottle filled with warm soapy water to wet the wool fibres.  This seems like it kills two birds with one stone and could be worth trying.  I'm not sure which liquid soap though?  I'll have to read the article properly and get back to you.

I hope you'll send me some real letters this year!  Remember when I was in Ireland, we were both great at letter-writing.  You always used to send your beautiful cards with pictures of baby Archie - what a lot has changed since then.  Joe's just calling out in the background to say it's going to be 41 degrees on Tuesday - you were lucky with the cooler weather when you were over here.  I'm not looking forward to that intense heat.  Hopefully it's not too windy and we don't have to worry about fires...

No doubt we will speak tomorrow.

Lots of love always,

Lucy xoxoxo