Felting projects!

Make a new blog, I said... Make it a challenge, I said... I think we all know I've failed that allready...

Well, I would like to welcome my new followers! Thank you all for stopping by, I truly hope you'll stick around and enjoy what I post here. I was supposed to update my blog every day with my progress of knitting every day...but I fell out of that... I'm trying to update as often as I can remember it though.

Anyway! I am currently in a felting mood! I'm plowing my way though wool scraps I got lying around that I've saved for felting.

This started with Bård's aunt wanting one of the "nisse" gnome wine holders I made for his parents a few years ago. I had bought yarn to make one for her, but only recently started it. Yesterday (or was it the day before?), I finished it up and it now only needs felting. I used a yarn I've never tried for felting before, so it'll be fun to see the result. His body and hat is knitted while the brim of his hat and nose are crochet. I've allready stuffed his nose with stuffing and the beard is just simply tied on.

I've allready made two of these, check them out here.

But as I said, I got a bunch of wool scraps that I've saved. I got three piles of wool scraps: one for new, pure wool that I can use for felting, one for superwash treated wool that I use for ugly scrap socks, and a third pile for just random wool scraps without lable to use for whatever. The "felting" pile has grown alot and I figured I'd bust some of it out and make a few slippers...which is usually what I make with them.

I love felted slippers and I wear them every day, all year around, no matter how ugly they look. So right now, I'm working on one square pair in horrible color combinations, and I might do a different pair for Bård afterwards. I'm trying to work on several felted projects at the same time. Since I'm felting in the washing machine, I'd hate to waste both electricity and water if I can help it.

But since the wine holder needs to be felted, dry and all done by the 20th, I got a tight timeframe going on... Trying to work up the slippers as fast as I can to toss them in the washer.

Progress of the day - 7th jan

I'm not done crafting for the day, but Bård is doing some recording stuff with his American friends in the livingroom so I've moved into the bedroom with my computer and granny squares. Don't really plan on taking much more pictures so I'm gonna post what I got for now.

The Anna mittens ofcourse... Alongside the final felting of the slippers... Doesn't really have to show it off but I'm doing it anyway!

But I've been crocheting most of the day otherwise! Here's all the finished squares I got! This is not the final assemblent mind you. I only put them out like this so I could easily see how many I was missing cause I kept counting them wrong. The chair blankets will be 4x15 squares like this with a black boarder around it all. There's 7 squares missing in these pictures, I got two more ready, just needing ends weaved in so I'm really only missing 5, which I'm working on now. All of them have been started, I am alternating between them with the colors I got, it seems faster that way. So I will most likely (I'll hang myself if I don't) have all the squares ready tomorrow and I might start to connect them all! This might be fun!

The good thing about this is all the new scrap yarn ends going for my eternity blanket!

Anna's mittens - done with the felting!

Sorry for leaving the few of you whom actually are genuinely following along and reads my blog hanging, but I took a nap shortly after the washer was finished and I took the stuff out...so I kinda forgot blogging about the mittens. They turned out decent enough, so you don't have to worry about me putting a gun to my head.

As some of you might have noticed, I posted a video earlier where I checked in on the felting. That was a little over half way through the program, everything looked good in the washer, everything was going smoothly and they weren't ruined yet, so I let them go until the program was over.

When the machine stopped and I pulled them out though, they didn't turn out like I wanted to, but they're way better than I'd imagined!

Yes the diamond snowflakes are too big and placed too far up on the mittens, but the felting made them look much better than they did before!
The mittens them selfs have a kinda short in the hand and they're a bit roomy around the wrists so it will probably take a long time to get them worn in and soft...as it is will all felted knitwork. They're thick and warm and I think I have enough room inside them for a pair of gloves too.

What do you think about the result? I will have to do a little photoshoot when they're all dry and finished, so better pictures, as well as pictures on deviantART will come soon enough!

Oh! And I also felted the ugly slippers I made before Christmas that turned out too big. After the second felting they're perfect! They're thicker, smaller and I bet they'll also be warmer! Might need to make another pair to document every step on the way here so I can write the pattern down properly. It is based of a different pattern with personal changes so I can't take full credit on it.

Felting in progress - video!

Looking good so far!

 

Anna mittens - Moment of truth!

Oh my god I don't think I've ever been this scared of felting since I made that Sunny Duckworth sitting cushion...which was also the last item I ever stitched an image unto...and then felted afterwards... Now, it went well, but some places didn't get felted enough, but that's cause the stitches were too close and too many at certain parts...

So now is truly the moment of truth for the Anna mittens. I just weaved in the last end and I'm about to throw them into the washer on 40'C for felting.

I am also going to throw in my slippers which I made just before Christmas that sadly turned out a tiny bit too big... Either I will ruin both of them, one of them or they will both turn out fine... I tell you, felting is SCARY!!!!

Now, you might be interested in how to felt in the washer so why not make a little step by step how I do it and blog it for you guys? Sure! Why the heck not! On to the washer we go!

First I wet the objects I am to felt...can't really remember if it's nessesary... Don't really care about what temperature that water has at this point, but it's just what I do... I sound SOOOO professional right now! I think it was to open the fibers so that the felting would start faster?

Then I put them in the washer along side a pair of jeans, you can also use towels. This is actually an old pair of mine whom I used so much that it started to get huge holes all over the place, they have now become my "felting jeans" and that is litterally their only purpose.
It's important to put something in with the objects you are felting because it causes friction and friction is one of the things that needs to happend for the felting to actually take place. You need heat and water, usually combined also known as hot water...either 40'C (104'C) or 60'C (140'F) if you're using a washer. If you're hand felting then you can just use as warm water you can manage. You will also need motion and friction. If you just put your object in hot water and let it sit for an hour, nothing will happend to it...except for getting wet... When you're handfelting you need to rub it against something or itself to get the felting started, this is where the jeans (or towels) come into the picture if you're felting in a washer.

Then I add a splash of green soap, you can also use a soap for wool or silk fabrics for a softer felting, but I prefer green soap myself...just what i grew up with when we felted in kindergarden, school and at home...cause we actually did alot of felting.

If you're nervous about leaving the machine on, then pause it frequently and check the result. When it's felted enough for your desire, stop it and rinse out the remaining soap. If you're too scared to use the washing machine, then felt by hand. The only downside to felting by hand (besides it takes forever and it's hard) is that the thing you're felting may get uneven felted. In a machine, the result get's alot more even and prettier.

Pepsi desided to join in on the action cause he's tired of being an adult and wants to shrink down to kitten size again...

Now. When you're finished felting, let it dry, but while it dries, you can shape it. Let's say you're making a pair of slippers, you can stretch them if they're a tad too small. You can give them the shape of a foot so that they're easier and more comfortable to use for the first time. I do not recomand flatten a pair of slippers down like a pair of socks and let them dry like that. They're horrible afterwards!

Got more felting questions? Leave them down below and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability! Wish me luck! I'll blog the results as soon as they're finished!

Huge mittens are huge!

Sudden burst of energy when I hit the top of my tiredness and it turned into overtiredness! WOOH!

Anyway! I continued on the Anna mittens when I hit the overtired zone and finished the first skein. The size of them are CRAZY! All the measurements are correct so far, so they're not wrong... But these are the first felted mittens I've ever done! Compared to felted slippers, which I've made several of, they seem twice the size they should be at this point!

The little red line are where the thumb will end up being...

The pattern tells me to felt them on either 40'C or 60'C, and usually I felt on 40'C cause doing it on 60'C are pretty scary, expecially with a yarn you've never tried felting before... But seeing how big they are, I'm tempted to felt them on 60'C...but then there's the chance for them turning out WAY too small...

And as I said, this is what I could get from one skein, looks like 1/4 of a sleeve, right? Crazy time...