Does anyone here felt?

[hivesofactivity]

I've been knitting for ages, but I'm a relatively new felter.  Also, my felting is the rather slapdash bung-it-in-the-washing-machine-a-few-times-when-I'm-doing-a-hot-wash variety, which to my utter shock is working out quite well.

At the moment, I am knitting and felting personalised pencil cases for kids at my kidlet's school.  It's a bit of a suprise: a tough little boy I didn't know  spotted me knitting in the playground, approached me and asked me to 'knit him something', I did him a pencil case with his name knitted into it, and word spread....  It's been a good way of using up old bits of stash, and they are so easy to do.  My only problem has been trying to work out if the unlabelled yarn in my stash is all wool or not, so that it will felt properly.

So - any other knitters who felt their finished projects?

Comments

I need a knitting icon!

[starfish]

I love felting, although I haven't made more than a few bags so far. Every once in a while the urge hits me to stop making socks and knit something BIG. *g*

Re: your stash -- you might try spit-felting (ew, right?) the ends of two strands to see if it takes -- just fray them a bit, get them wet (you don't actually have to use spit, warm water will do) and then overlap them and spin them between your finger and thumb -- the friction should felt the ends together if it's wool. (Great method for joining yarn if you don't want a knot, also.)

Also, I would love to see a picture of the project, if you can manage it!

[damned_colonial]

Only one project so far -- a hat that I didn't swatch for, and came out too big. Felted (in the washing machine when I was doing a hot wash), it fits perfectly!

[usuallyhats]

I've only felted one thing - a bag, also by the "bung it in the washing machine and see what happens" method - but I'm pretty pleased with it, and I'm on the lookout for other felted things I can make since I have loads of wool left.

[houseelf]

I've felted two projects - a bag, and some slippers. I think I'd do more felting if I weren't living in an apartment. My towels are a load of laundry unto themselves, and felting something without washing something with it gets expensive fast.

Pencil cases sound like a great way to use up odds and ends.

[hivesofactivity]

I admit I've always just bunged in my to-be-felted item in with a regular load of laundry - usually towels because I wash them on hot and everything else at cool. Because they've been quite small things I've felted - a little bag, and the pencil cases - it has been easy to slip them in without overloading the machine.

[iamshadow]

I love your icon. Is it free to take, with credit, or is it a personal one?

[houseelf]

Thanks :) Go for it.

[jennetj]

I just felted my first thing: a sleeve for my new netbook. All the patterns I found were for larger laptops, so I did a swatch and kind of "guestimated" on the size (wound up being 105 stitches and 46 rows with #10 needles to go around a 10" netbook. Plus flap). Two cycles in a hot wash got it to just about the right size, and then I blocked it using a hardcover book that was close to the right size. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, especially as it was my first felting project.

[merrin]

I have not felted anything, but I did see the coolest idea in the craft store the other day. They'd taped? I think? Over part of the wool, so it only felted some of it and left the rest. Came out looking really interesting.

[hivesofactivity]

Ooooooh - if you have any links to pictures of that being done, I'd love to see them.

[merrin]

I saw it at JoAnn fabric, one of their yarn samples, I think. I'll have to go back there, because all of the google searches I'm making are giving me squat. :)

[hivesofactivity]

I tried lots of google terms, and got nothing, too - I don't know even what it would be called! Although I did remember the other way to have felted/not felted would be to knit some of the item in pure wool, and some of it in superwash or non-wool yarn, then only the pure wool bits would felt. But it would have a completely different effect from the one you are describing.

[theraveledskein]

I think what merrin is describing is usually referred to as "shibori" felting - Wikipedia tells me this is a traditional Japanese dyeing technique, but it's definitely used in knitting, too. I've never done it, but my understanding is that you tie objects to your knitting before you felt it to sort of protected the fabric and leave some areas unfelted.

[iamshadow]

I'm just about to felt things for the very first time. I've been knitting soakers (nappy covers) for a friend who's having her first baby. Does anyone have any hints or tips for me? I've made them bigger than I need to, because I know that they'll shrink, but is there anything else I should know? Is it best to make them up first, or should I sew the seams afterwards? I'm a complete novice to felting, and my mother, who's knitted for about fifty years, has never felted either, so I couldn't go to her for help like I usually do when I have a knitting question.

[hivesofactivity]

I'd say, sew them up first. Felting is very forgiving to seams, and makes them both stronger and neater. (My usual knitting seams are TERRIBLE - it's where I really fail at the knitting thing - but my botches aren't noticeable once they are felted!) If you are running them through a very hot wash a few times, take them out and block them in between, and make sure they haven't felted to themselves in the middle as well.

[iamshadow]

How do you block?

Sorry, I've knitted for a long time, but I've never done that either, and only have the vaguest idea about what it entails.

[hivesofactivity]

Well, I use the term "block" to mean "put it when wet into the shape I would like to see it assume when dry", but I suspect I am doing it wrong... I've only had one felted project go wrong, and that was a little purse that, when it was being felted in the machine, acquired a crease in it, and the next wash just kind of 'set' the crease. I then felted the creased bit by hand (a pain), and when I put it back in the wash I had a bit of hard plastic in the purse to try and keep the crease flat, and then I put another bit of plastic in it when it was drying to keep the crease flat. There's probably a better way to do it, but I've just stumbled along inventing the (offcentre) wheel on this.