felting
It's not often when I do any kind of craft that doesn't include yarn, but the seldom times when it happens, I really like it. This time the final product was successful too!
It's a long time ago when I accidentally felted Nick's sweater, I made a sweater bag out of it - here's the link to the type of sweater bag tutorial I used, I couldn't find the exact one I used.
Anyway, I had this felted tote finished, but it didn't seem sturdy enough to use, so I decide to line it. But: I have no sewing machine nor access to one. As I didn't have any plans for the bag, I took the bag with me to Finland with the plan to line it there. Now, this was LAST SEPTEMBER. I didn't line the bag then, but I left it there to wait for a better time. This time around I had good time and interest to finish the bag, and with my Mum's help it even worked! Just look at the bag!
A while back I blogged about the failed Christmas present for Nick, which felted so badly I had to throw it away. Well, I knit it, or them, again, and felted them with much caution this time - and they worked out fine this time!
They are the 8-square-slippers (in Finnish) and they are gorgeous! Plus, Nick loves them, he wears them all the time. Success!
Here are the stats:
Pattern: The 8-square-slippers, with 14 stitches and ca. 20 rows per square
Needles: 10 mm
Yarn: Novita Huopanen felting wool in white, dark blue and red
Mods: Added some Regia slide stoppers to the bottom!
***
I had been secretly working on something nice for Nick, and finally got it done and threw it into the washing machine to felt.
And did it felt! In the middle of the cycle I took it out, but it was alreade felted useless - a ball of felt rather than the object it should have been. Shit! Hours of work (and expensive 100% wool) went to the trash. I was so disappointed! Crap.
But, now I at least know that this machine is much more "efficient" than the one we had in Ireland. Blah. Now I need some tea and sympathy, and some breakfast too. Maybe then I'll cast on the present again.
Me, too, went to the Knitting and Stitching show in Dublin RDS last weekend. It was my first time there, and I had heard a lot about it.
I thought it was nice, expensive, but quite ok. Most knitters do say, though, that it was much worse this year, than ever before.
Well, I paid dearly to get in, 15 euro is a bit much I think, but there were a lot of nice exhibitions and guilds presenting their work in there. Also many sellers, even though I really didn't go there to buy stuff, but to have a nice day at a knitting fair.
There was not so much knitting there as I had thought and hoped. We'll see, if I am in Dublin next year,I might go or not.
I did meet some of the Feltmakers Ireland members on their stand, having a felting presentation. I took a look, and decided to buy the beginner pack. So on Sunday (I went to the show on Saturday) I packed out the stuff.
While Nic was on the road, I decided to knit and felt him a pair of bootees, or houseshoes, or how do you call them. See, my sister had knit and felt these bootees for me, and they are of course especially warm and comfortable on our cold floors. So Nic had asked for a pair.
While in Finland, me and my sister went hunting for the same yarn she had knit mine with, but unfortunately that wasn't available in the shops we had access to. So I decided to risk it, bought a few other sorts of felting wool and started experimenting after returning to Ireland.
After some unsuccessful / not-so-successful experiments I decided just to take the same pattern my sister had used, and work it with one of the yarns. Unfortunately, the pattern said use 5,5 mm needles. The yarn said use 8-10 mm needles!
