Sunday, October 22, 2006

Felting is Like a Box-a-Chock-lits...

...you just never know what you are going to get :) This is the seventh bag I've made using some variation on the Booga pattern and Paton's Classic Merino yarn, and they are all unique in some way.

Bag #1: realized gauge matters even more with felting, ended up with a weeny little child-sized bag
Bag #2: PCM apparently shrinks more vertically than horizontally, ended up with a very wide and very short bag
Bag #3 played with gauge and got a bag very much to my liking! Its the purple/green/gold one I use a lot in the winter.
Bag #4 for my mom - bottom came out a bit thin...
Bag #5 for my SIL, came out very thin and all misshapen. Required a good deal of forcible shaping to even ressemble a bag
Bag #6 for my kids' teacher, knitting holding two strands together - much less shrinkage and thicker, better quality bag.

Just finishing Bag #7 for my MIL, used the lessons learned in 1-6. Here it is pre-felting (doesn't Frisky look stressed out?? I think he is waiting for a new sweater;)

 

But look - after washing:

 

About 2/3 of the way around, the top edge started curling over and felted onto itself! I couldn't get it straight again, so I rolled the rest over and tried to make it look intentional.

Here's how I held the rolled edge down and kept the sides from flopping over:

 

I took the clothespins off after a couple hours so they wouldn't leave permanent indents.

Yes, that's Near East rice mix in there. And Betty Crocker Brownie mix. Anyway, it looks like it's drying up okay, so hopefully that edge will play out as a "nice finish detail" rather than a "WTF happened to that edge?"

Can't wait for SnB today - so glad I'm done with that damn I-cord. Posted by Picasa

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LOL! I love to see what people put in their felted items to get the shape!! I used a pack of diapers when I felted my purse LOL