My Dream Home is a Yurt

 That's right a yurt. I would love to live in a colorful felt yurt in a valley with a stream , a beautiful climbable mountain of the north side and a friendly forest to explore on the south side. The stream would run by the yurt in an westerly direction , starting where the sun rises and ending where it sets. This would be the official clubhouse for the Guild of the Forest Fern which by the way is always taking new members. The other day I was when I was feeling rather lazy with a viral infection I looked at the pile of needlepoint wool that I had found at the thrift store , in colors that were very Matte Stephenish . I started to knit a pattern of alternating squares using two colors picked randomly from the pile of yarn. I told you I was feeling lazy. I made a rectangle not knowing what it would become but I was really enjoying the pattern that arose from my needles. When I had used every possible color I stopped. I was thinking of turning this into a softie of some sort but then I remembered Matte had posted an illustration he did for a travel magazine recently . It was a picture of a yurt. That is how I decided this rectangle was going to be part of a yurt. I added a plain green knitted dome shaped section and then sewed the yurt onto a large piece of mustard yellow felt ( also found one day at the thrift store). I used matte's illustration as a guide to add the details : windows, door, entryway, supports ( this is a raised yurt incase of flooding from the stream) , antennae ( we need internet access so we can blog and post on flickr) and trees of course. The details were embroidered either with cotton embroidery floss or the same wool the yurt was knitted in. Here is a picture of it all put together and some detail views. Something about this just didn't feel right. It was too loose and I could only imagine the wind blowing through all the openings in the knitted stitches. Not to mention the fact that the definition of a yurt is that it is made of FELT!!! I thought about this for about 2 seconds and then grabbed it and headed down to the basement and immediately through it in a washing machine filled with warm water and a little soap. It was risky. I had no idea what would happen. I didn't know if the knitted section and the felt portions would shrink together of pull away from each other. After one cycle I fished it out before the spinning started and I loved what happened. The colors melted together in the yurts fabric and made it fuzzy and warm appearing. The lines of the details became less straight and almost seemed to give it a life. It started to look less like an object and more like a character. I love what happened to the smooth flat felt background . It took on a textured surface like cobblestones. My very risky experiment was a success. Here you can see for yourself. Welcome to the new official clubyurt of the Guild of the Forest Fern.

Comments

[Rane]

Margie~
I love this too! Way too cute!
Maybe I will move in too! I would
love to escape to your yurt just
to get some sewing done! It just
shows you that if you dont take
risks you might miss out on some~
thing even better thing! My 3 year old loves your rocks in the last post.
Every time we go outside he is
forever finding some new treasure.
Today I pulled out a pocket of
sand! Yes full!! I asked him why
and he said he wanted to show his
dad how much fum he had today.
*My husband always asks him hey
did you have fun today, yeah?
how much show me.* So that is
why but if that had went through
my washer I shudder to think what
would have happened! I put the
sand in a baby food jar and set
it on the table. At dinner the
baby wanted it! She had her mouth
open and leaning toward it! When
I set it away she had a fit and
did not want her dinner~ she
wanted his sand I guess! LOL~ how
funny!!
BTW.. I see the pears what is in
the other fruit? Is it fruit?
small roundish pinkish? ...thanks
lovely picks!!
Rane

[NanaBeast]

Margie, this turned out so well, FANTASTIC even! The colors are wonderful. I'm with Rane, you've gotta go out on a limb and take a risk to discover great new things.

I appreciate not only the antenna for internet connection, being up on stilts for flooding purposes and a PORCH!-but the windows for daylight! Out here in western Washington State we are getting our Fall storms and the days have been DARK. I crave daylight. So glad you're planning such delights for the Guild!

[Siri]

You're a genius, you know.
How did I miss the guild???
Thank you for the personal invite!
We have a few friends who live permanently in (not felted) yurts and there is a waldorf school (not really) nearby that is a yurt, too.
They are some of the most beautiful structures out there. So simple, clean, cozy, warm, and bright.

[bluemountainsmary]

What a cosy and comfortable place for us all to be!

[Kenners]

A yurt is my number two choice for my dreamm abode.

Number one is a straw bale round house (in the iron age style) with a living roof and nearby deciduous woodland good for mushroom collecting.

Dreams :)

[sarah]

Oh my gosh, I've been obsessed with yurts for the past couple of months. Mine would be a Summer yurt and I would plant it in the woods somewhere between Pittsburgh and Cleveland every Summer so my best friend and her family and my family could come and go all summer long. I've been imagining all the lovely ways to decorate. I would keep it very simple and everything that goes into the yurt has to be beautiful and functional. It would be our simple magical haven for the Summer. Ooh and I like your idea of the stream. I'm adding it to my vision. My favorite part of the yurt is the way it lights up at night. Like this http://www.worldtents.co.uk/images/yurt_night.jpg Thanks for posting your lovely felt yurt. (I'd love to join the guild too- from a distance)

[Your Impact Matters]

Oh my god that's just gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing it! I have a good friend who lives in a yurt...she just loves it. It was a dream of hers to move out of the city, have goats and sheep and live peacefully in the country...she did it! I'm so proud of her!

[Patricia]

I'm ready for the first guild meeting at the clubyurt!

I thought your knitted felt piece looked wonderful, but it went in a wonderful organic direction with the fulling. The texture is great, and the wool looks like a tanned skin that grasslanders might have drawn a story on. I love every detail!

[Carrie]

You are utterly inspiring! Thank you!

[mayaluna]

How am I not surprised at your yurt love? We know a family a few miles down that lived in a yurt while they built their straw bale home. They love new their home, but kept the yurt, because yurt-living is unlike anything else (so they say)... I think it mus have something to do with the magic of circular space and the connection with outside. It makes me happy every time I drive by. Your textile illustration is phenomenal...I'd move in a heartbeat. I how felting it completed it somehow. It feels like a combination of a cozy organic shelter with a hint of my other favorite funky nomadic dwelling: the airstream trailer. Can you see that? Maybe it's just me.:)

[Crafty Gardener]

I'm so glad this will be the official home of the guild ... can't wait to have meetings in there. Lovely work.

[Amy]

I am always so impressed at how organic your inspiration, designs, and processes are.

I'd categorize your blog into the "I wanna be like her when I grow up!" section of my blogroll. :D

[martina]

It turned out great! Felting is so much fun isn't it? I too have always wanted to live in a yurt!

[Molly]

Have you seen Cave of the Yellow Dog? Its a sweet story of a Mongolian family living in a yurt. Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlan8eCU-sE

Your rendition is just lovely by the way!

Molly

[Elsita :)]

Margie!
Your (our :) yurt is absolutely beautiful!!! I really love how your creative process is like experimenting in a laboratory. You take risks and then the most unexpected things happen. Your yurt experiment is a big success, CONGRATULATIONS!!!
THE CAVE OF THE YELLOW DOG as Molly mentions is supposed to be a wonderful movie, I never got to see it but Bill saw it and he said that it is one of the most beautiful pieces that he has ever seen.

Well, I have to say that your (our :) yurt is one of the most beautiful yurts that I have ever seen.
I will be moving to it very soon if you don't mind. Oh! And I will bring my whole family with me (if you don't mind)

Lots of love!
Elsita :)

[Colorfuldayz]

What a fabulous yurt ... you are amazing with what you come up with. I also am a yurt-lover, and my husband and I talk frequently about how cool it would be to live in one ... but I would want mine to a heavy duty patchwork version!

[barb jensen]

Brilliant inspiration! So glad your decided to wash it, wonderful result. Like you said it's a real character now.

[dawn]

The clubhouse is gorgeous. We vacationed in a yurt many years ago and thought it was wonderful. I'd love to have one.

[Amelia]

My dream house is also a yurt. I live in San Francisco, but my biggest longing is to live so so close to nature.

[Amelia]

My dream house is also a yurt. I live in San Francisco, but my biggest longing is to live so so close to nature.