Tuesday 17 February 2009

Felting Fever

Today I am wacked, as yesterday I felted. It felt like I was dashing too and from the garage, where we keep the washing machine, all day. Whilst keeping a huge stack of felting to be done in one go, feels like a way to minimise on work, it still felt pretty exhausting, probably because I have a front loading washing machine. After all the work I did yesterday, the house smells of wet wool, as the miasma rose from all the radiators over night, but today I had finished felted items ready for photography. So here are the finished/nearly finished items.

Inaugural Gloves



These gloves were huge before felting. I was very nervous about wrecking these gloves because they took so much effort to make, but after several weeks of NOT wearing them because they were too big, I decided it was worth the risk. I felted at 30 degrees for a total of about 30 minutes, inside a pillowcase, so they weren't too heavily felted and I think it worked. The gloves are less floppy, and feel much sturdier and warmer. So I believe this was a success and I have already worn them out the house, with pride.


Citron the Kitty Swap Cat

Citron has been named after the french for Lime, which is the colour of the wool. I believe that she has gallic charm about her, hence her name.



I am particularly proud of the little heart bead that I found, as a symbol for Valentine's day which is smack dab in the middle of this month.



I made the tail from Elizabeth Jarvis' Swapsie Cat pattern, and I think it goes brilliantly with this cat.



All in all I am very pleased with this little kitty and I think the felting really helped finish it off.

Chilko Slippers

These slippers are made from the Brigantia Needlework aran I got delivered recently, and they felted fabulously. They took quite a few washes, but that might have been because I started them at 30 degrees for the the more delicate items. When the delicate items were done, I upped the temperature to 40 degrees and ran it for another 20 minutes are so and they were perfect!



These slippers are a perfect fit, and the felt is gorgeously thick and springy. I will definitely be using this wool again, as it was a real bargain and the colourways it is available in are great. They also have DK weight. The yarn, before felting, is lovely to knit with, as it is soft and smooth and I would use it for un-felted projects as well. All in all, a successful project. I may add embellishments at some point, but I think it is unlikely unless I find myself being inspired with needle felting in the future.

I also felted the other project I made with my Brigantia Aran. I have christened this my Sushi Bag, you may be able to see why.



The "chopsticks" are dowels I intend to use as handles, after I have sanded them down. This is the general idea for the bag.



I just winged the pattern, as I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to produce. I only ripped it back once, when I realised I didn't have enough yarn for the shape I wanted. I may try the original idea I had in the future, but with more yarn.

I will almost definitely be adding decoration to this bag, as it is intended to be an evening bag. I have some nice silver beads and sequins to add and I may try some needle felting designs as well. I don't know when I will get round to doing it, probably not until I have an occasion coming up to use it for, but you never know, I might get inspired.

So there you go, all my felting listed for your delectation. Well almost all, I also re-felted my other slippers that had got floppy, but you don't need to see photos of them!

5 comments:

  1. oh! i love all of your felting projects! i love to felt (i must admit that i am near as scientific about the process as you are...lol). i just throw it in the wash with some baking soda and cross my fingers! lol

    the citron is so cute!!! love that expression!

    and i have to say that the red slippers are duh-vine!

    thanks for your comments on my blog! i appreciate the input!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Baking Soda???? Now I have to go and look this up because this is a new one to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love all your felted projects, especially Citron the cat! I've only tried felting once with some really old yarn I crocheted to try and make a felted flower. After 2 cycles in the washing machine, the machine was getting fluffy and my 'flower' hadn't felted at all. In fact, it was starting to look like the beginnings of a rather nice scarf!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Felting is great fun, but it can always be a bit hit and miss. It may have been that your yarn had a superwash coating, was too tightly spun or had too much non-animal fibre content. Every felter has disasters, but for every disaster there is a triumph! Have another go some time, and give me a shout if you want any tips.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh-me-oh-my! I have fallen in looooove with Citron - just oozes with adorableness!! Really like your felt slippers too; supersupercute!

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you about my blog posts. Please let me know what you think.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails