Yesterday was an unusual Saturday for me - I went to a felt flower-making workshop. In 6 hours we made 20 felt flowers of no known species to be glued around fairy lights. The six hours weren't quite enough so I have to go back Monday to glue mine on but I'm quite happy with the results of my labours. Everybody produced something different - one idea, one teacher, five idiosyncratic outcomes. Remarkable. To be surrounded by all the colour and creativity was heady excitement enough, but it was very satisfying to feel that I had really got something to take home and enjoy, that I hadn't just made a complete mess of it as I feared I might. Unlike the last felt workshop that I did some years back this was much more gentle and manageable for a dodgy back and very dodgy lungs. Still it was quite intensive and I left with renewed respect for the mother-daughter team who make all the glorious felt hats, scarves, bags, brooches, ear-rings, wall-hangings, etc. etc. on sale. They start always from scratch - once they even died their own wool but now they have less time they buy in ready dyed hanks in colours of their own choosing. No felting machines here, no using industrial felt for bases, the process is always the same: lay out the strands of wool on bubble wrap in the chosen shape, wet, roll, insert plastic webbing (the stuff that is used by scaffolding firms to collect debris) roll some more, reverse, roll some more, soap, fidget it about with the hands, begin the fulling process by shaping, washing, drying. When I did it last time we were working on big pieces and using those bamboo window blinds rather than meshing. I couldn't manage that nowadays! The weather is wild and can be everything within the space of and hour, sun wind, rain, sleet, warm, chill. It was very pretty when I first arrived at Logie Steading - the photos don't do it justice.