Foray into Felting

The first batch – brushed and embroidered.

Some of the  brushed hearts from yesterday have been strung and embellished and they are fine but I am having more fun playing around with felting.

My first rule of felting is try out a sample first.  When I threw a pile of old swatches into the washing machine I was astounded by the variation in both look and shrinkage.  With this experience as a benchmark I set about redrafting the pattern for felting and really thick yarns.

Re -drafted pattern. Pity it isn’t wool.

I drafted an instant gratification knit – only six cast on stitches.  The heart recipe is below.   Refer back to yesterday’s pattern  about how to execute the wrap and turn and don’t forget about picking up and knitting the wraps to eliminate holes.

• Cast on 6 using the backward loop method
• Foundation row: purl to last stitch, make one in last stitch (7 stitches)
• Row 1:  Make 1,  knit next 4 stitches, wrap and turn (8 stitches)
• Row 2: Purl to last stitch make 1 (9 stitches)
• Row 3: Knit 4 wrap and turn (9 stitches)
• Row 4: Purl (9 stitches)
• Row 5: Knit 2 together, knit 4 not forgetting to pick up and knit the wrap stitch, wrap and turn (8 stitches)
• Row 6: Purl 3, purl 2 together (7 stitches)
• Row 7: Knit 2 together, knit to the end – don’t forget to pick up and knit the wrap stitches. (6 stitches)
• Row 8: slip first stitch purlwise, purl to last stitch, make 1 (7 stitches)

Knit the cast on and cast off stitches together

Repeat rows 1-8 twice more then rows 1-7 once.  When casting off pick up and knit the backward loops with the cast off stitch to close the side of the heart and save sewing.  Stuff the heart lightly and close the upper edge taking care to sew over any bobbly make stitches – especially those made on knit rows.  I found it useful to stretch the upper edge before closing and worked a line of large chain stitches over the edge (8-9 stitches).  Felt at 40 degrees.  No guarantees about the felting process so work one and try.

Almost a success

Getting the needle and yarn combination right will need a bit of experimentation.  The sample here uses 10mm needles and Bella pencil roving.  However, it has felted a bit more than I would have liked and I have probably used a bit too much stuffing.  It is not far off the look I am hoping to achieve and I am feeling optimistic.

Varying degrees of success. Added silk brushes well. Make sure it is wool. Mohair and roving felt well not fond of beads.

My experiments with a mohair yarn have also shown promise and I am thinking that I might combine it with an inexpensive scratchy Aran  yarn to add bulk – then I can use my instant gratification pattern.  I really do not like the addition of the beads in my first attempt and if I were to add beads I would probably hand sew rather than knitting beads from a threaded strand.  It was tiresome threading onto a separate yarn which snagged on the mohair.  The uneven distribution of beads is in part due to the difficulty controlling both yarns.  Whilst I am not loving the beads I do like the idea of adding some hand sewn woolly embroidery before felting.  So plenty to play around with tomorrow.