Major Knitter

The Felted Garden Blog

My dear friend Elizabeth has officially taken the plunge.  She's bitten the bullet.  She's gone off the deep end.  What I mean to say is:  She's finally started her own blog about her passion for wet felting and the world will be a better place for it.  Please take a moment and check out her blog at The Felted Garden.  Also visit her Felted Garden shop at ooh and ahh over all her fabulous fibre-licious creations.

Speaking of felting, on Saturday, August 9th, my other dear friend Regina Moss, is teaching another of her amazing felting classes at Knitting Central.  I bet you've never thought of anything this amazing for your fibre.  I'm in awe of Regina's creativity.

How lucky am I to be surrounded by not one, but two amazing felting friends. 

Felting the Market Squares Bag

I finally decided to felt my market squares bag. 

I filled the top loading washer with hot water, some delicate detergent, added a small rug and got out my zippered pillow case and, of course, the felted bag.

I put my hand knit market squares bag into the zippered pillow case (this serves 2 purposes - it saves my washer from all that felt and lint and it also keeps lint and fuzz from the washer off my felted bag)

I VERY CAREFULLY added a large pot of boiling water to the washer and crossed my fingers.  Afterall, felting is an art and not a science.  Then I went about my business and checked back on my bag periodically.  The trick about felting is that you never know exactly how long it will take.  I checked every 5 minutes or so and the progress was pretty slow.  So I turned the knob back to the beginning of the cycle (so it wouldn't drain and I'd have to start over with more delicate detergent and more boiling hot water) and waited some more.  Sometime between doing that and getting dinner on the table I lost track of time.

Oh no!  I over-felted my bag.  It turned out great.  It just turned out much smaller than anticipated.

I shaped it on a Charles Chip tin and then mushed it to the shape I wanted.  I stretched it over the tin so that the base of my bag would be round and flat.  I hate a bag that flops over and lets the contents spill out.  This photo is of one side of my bag.  Here's the other side.

One side has more of the purple and the other has more of the green.  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out - even if it is smaller than I would like.

   

I ran out to Westport's Textile Store and picked out two different batik prints to line my bag.  I'm not sure which I like better.  I think I like the one on the right.  It doesn't have any purple - but I think the brown in the one on the left detracts from the bag.  Plus I like the concept of squares and circles. 

What do you think?

Felted Garden Scarves

My dear friend Elizabeth of The Felted Garden saw my post about the charity auction for the Jackson Recovery Center and quickly offered so many of her gorgeous hand-felted scarves for the auction.  Aren't they beautiful? 

I can't thank you enough!  These are sure to be a huge hit and raise lots of money for a great cause.  Thanks so much.

As We Enter Into The Felted Garden

I took James around to some lovely places in my very own Westport, Connecticut.  The first place I took him this morning (after the grocery store for a stock of Kool-Aid which was to dye for) was my felting friend's Felted Garden. 

Elizabeth lives in one of my favorite homes in Westport.  It's on the national historic register and played a part in the revolutionary war.  It was actually an Inn during those times.  I'm absolutely certain that felting and knitting have been going on in this house for centuries!  Elizabeth continues the fibre tradition with her beautiful felted scarves, wraps and throws.  She was busy getting ready for 3 shows in the next 5 days, so we didn't stay long.  Just enough to see her fantastic fibres.

Elizabeth showed James some of her scarves.  Here they're discussing a specific felting technique.  I particularly liked this white leafy scarf.  Rachael - this pose is for you!

Elizabeth showed us her creative laboratory

   

James quickly pointed out this lovely teensy bin of UFOs.  If only we could be so lucky to have such a manageable sized UFO stash.

It was a wonderful visit into Elizabeth's Felted Garden.  If you'd like to take a tour yourself, you can get a virtual tour by visiting Elizabeth's website here.

While We Were Felting

Jenn and I tried to get some knitting done while we were felting Big Boy

 

She worked on a regular sized felted bag with the leftover Lopi yarn and other novelty yarns. 

Jenn saw Mr. Orange lying on the coffe table and asked what was this gorgeous WIP.  I told her it was about to be frogged.  She was surprised and gave me the right amount of "Oh no!  Not this beautiful sweater WIP."  Then I tried it one for her. She had the reaction that only a true friend and knitter can have.  "RIP-IT!  RIP-IT!  Now!"  That's was my reaction, too.  So, I ripped.  Now this is what I have to show for it.

 

I decided that this orange yarn would make a gorgeous bright orange felted bag.  I thought it would be nice to make a round bottom bag or perhaps a basket.  Then I remembered that I had a round bottom felting UFO somewhere in the basement.  I went to get it and got caught up knitting that old friend.

Hmmmm.  I picked these bright, crazy colors in the days when I was felting every single hour of daylight.  I guess I decided bright was good.  I think it was better left in the UFO pile, too. 

Anyway, we ended our day of knitting and felting by commiserating in solidarity with our too big felting failures - er - I mean challenges. 

BIG BOY and SILLY STRIPES.  What shall we do?  These gi-normous bags are too big to actually carry around.  I guess we just wanted to share with you that everyone can have a felting failure.  It happens.  It's part of the game. Just the same, please send us your ideas on how to utilize our creations.  We'd really appreciate it.  Happy knitting - and felting.

Felting Friday

This morning at 8:45 a.m. Jenn from SNL came over to felt "Big Boy"  - her oversized felted knitting bag.  She was worried that it might be too big. Prior to felting, her bag was the size of a short sleeping bag.  The strap looked like a very long scarf.

We threw it in the wash with HOT water, some mild detergent and a lot of prayers.  See - we have our fingers crossed.

To help the felting process along, we boiled several large pots of water to add to the washer.

After several cycles, and continual checking on the felting process, Jenn pulled out the strap to see if it had completely felted.  It looked perfect.  The BIG BOY on the other hand, still had a long ways to go to be completely felted.

Look at the Lopi fur balls that rose to the top of the washer.  Hmmmm.  There might be enough wool here to spin into yarn and then knit up a scarf!

We left BIG BOY in the washer and kept repeating the wash cycle and adding more boiling water for several hours.  Literally.  In the meantime, Jenn used the leftover skeins of yarn to make a felted bag for herself.  Isn't this yarn gorgeous?

Time for a coffee break.  Which one of us is the innocent bystander and which one is the trouble maker?  Hmmmm.  Interesting question.  Please don't answer.

Four and a half hours later and the bag looks like it's completely felted.  It's larger than we wanted, so we try a few more cycles for good measure.  Maybe it will miraculously shrink a little bit more.

OK - Here's the BIG BOY completely felted.  Man, that's one big knitting bag.  Nothing to do but block it and figure out if we can make it smaller.

 

What shall Jenn do with her Big Boy?  Please leave your suggestions and fixes.  Maybe you'll come up with something we didn't. 

* Note - Secundogeniture thought it was a felted wastepaper basket.  I like the way he thinks!

Lest You Think I Haven't Been Knitting...

Check out the updated photo album for the Felted Frenzy I had this week.  I was busy putting the finishing touches on so many felted handbags.  I felted some, finished others and sewed the handles on all of them.  I hope you like them.  Now I just need to sell them.  If you're interested, email me and we can chat off line.

Better Flower

I found a smaller pearlized button for the center of that ill-fated felted flower.  It does look better this time around, doesn't it?  It's always good to have a tin filled with buttons.

And, on a disappointing note, I decided to felt three derbies that I knit up about 16 months ago and never got around to felting.  They turned out just fine and I shared them with my fellow knitters at SNL.  I was getting ready to share the Before/After photos with you. The Felted Derbies have been in the laundry room drying ever since Saturday morning.  I just noticed tonight that they got crushed and permanently creased as the babysitter decided to put her book bag on top of my felted creations.  UGH!!!

Analyzing Where I Went Wrong

Every once in a great while you have to admit where you went wrong.  I'm a grown up.  I can do it.  Today I'm going to walk you through my felted I-cord process and show you what went right and what went wrong.  Ready?  Fasten your seatbelt.  Here we go.

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I started by using worsted weight yarn and US size 6 dpns.  I cast on three stitches and made an I-cord that was 12-15 inches long.  Cut off the end of the yarn, leaving a tail about 8 inches long for sewing the flower.  Thread a darning needle and sew both ends together forming a loop.

Sew the loop in half creating a figure 8.

Fold one half of the figure 8 into three even "petals" - accordian style - and sew together.

Repeat for other side.

Now you have a few options.  You can either attach your flower to your [insert object to be embellished here] and be done.  Here's what I did with Gracie's Ballerina Wrap the first time around.

If you want to try to jazz it up a bit, you can add some shimmery buttons and beads.  I bought these at Knitting Central. 

Here's my attempt at embellishing my embellishment

And a close-up before felting

Followed by a picture with a side-by-side comparison of the before and after

Here is where we get to analyze the problems and think up some solutions. 

1. Button in the center is too big, too bulky, and not fancy enough for this flower
2. The petals felted together and became one amorphous blob
3. Use a better bead or button for the center - probably only 1/4 inch diameter
4. Perhaps I should knit one long I-cord and felt it before sewing it together into a flower.

I think I'm going to embellish Gracie's Ballerina Wrap as originally planned with just the simply knit, non-felted I-cord flowers.

Finish Friday

I managed to finish up the sixth, seventh and eighth I-cord flowers on my train ride home tonight.  I am a wee bit sleepy, so I think I'll wait until the morning to felt them.  ZZzzzzz.  Good night.  Sweet dreams.