Felting with friends: scarves, dying and more bags.
On our felting week end Maureen decided to do scarves. She wanted to try out some 50/50 merino silk that she had. She laid out the wool quite thin and rubbed it into prefelt.
Once it was prefelt she spun the water out of it and started cutting it. She made slits that she then stretched out and started fulling. You stretch and full, stretch and full and end up with great holes.
Next was into the dye pot. Although the scarf turned out great, it did not show off the silk. Usually the silk and wool take the dye a little differently, with this blend I was all one. We decided that it was because the it was to well blended.
Maureen did 2 more scarves one in the same style and one solid. Sorry the pictures of them did not turn out.
Diane hasn’t done a lot of dying so Diane and Maureen dyed some silk chiffon. The silk was twisted and dyed with several colors.
On the last afternoon I decided to make a bag for my mothers birthday.
The inside of the bag will have a red stripe. I used a combination of commercial prefelt and top. I also added some Blue Faced Lester wool to add some strength and stiffen it.
This is the outside. There is black next to the resist and the white on top. I wanted the black to migrate through the white and make a light gray. This is the finished bag. its reversible.
Diane decided she wanted a new shopping bag. She started out huge and did many layers of prefelt and wool.
Here she is fulling it
You can see it did shrink but just after this she gave up and said she will put it in the washer at home to see if she can shrink it more. At this point it is a large sturdy basket.
This is our group shot. We were very busy. You can see Maureen’s two scarves on the left.
The one on the right was one Maureen had made recently, added just the balance the picture. And finally that was the end of the weekend. We needed to go home and rest.
23 thoughts on “Felting with friends: scarves, dying and more bags.”
The way to make holes was always a mystery…thanks!
Thanks, this is a fun technique.
Scarves are beautifull and dyed chiffon looks gorgeous! I have some prefelt and need to try this “slit, stretch and full” technique. Thanks for sharing!
Dying silk is always fun. Share some pictures on the forum when you give this a try.
Beautiful work. Enjoyed seeing the process.
Thank you Judy
What a busy weekend you had 🙂 I love the scarfs and can’t wait to see the shopping bag finished!
I was tired when I got home. The shopping bag did not shrink much more. Diane’s camera is broken so I don’t have a picture. I think she is going to use it as a huge basket.
Yours is a very productive group of friends! I can see why you look forward to your felting weekends. One question: When you use pre felt yardage to add sturdiness to a large object, how many layers of merino roving would it replace? Thanks for sharing the fun!
Thank you, we do have fun. I would say the thicker prefelt that Maureen carries would replace 2 good layers or 4 thin ones. She used to have some thin prefelt but you always had to double it up.
Everything is beautiful! What a fun weekend and so productive. It’s nice you all work on individual projects and can watch the progress. The lacy look is something I’ve been wanting to try. I haven’t seen 50/50 white merino silk. I have a bunch of multicolor, but I’d bet that would work. Your Mom is going to love her new bag. Thanks for sharing!
We did manage to do a lot didn’t we. No wonder i was tired. The merino silk I have the sik in ins blobs and not really blended in. so it shows more in contrast with the wool. I have some nice died wool with white silk, it would work well. Not sure if its Ashford or Ashland Bay. My mom loved her bag, she has her knitting in it.
I love the ‘slits in the prefelt’ scarves. They turned out beautifully. It’s cool that you made your bag reversible, great idea!
Thanks Ruth. The scarves are beautiful. I am going to have to give one a try. I am not sure witch way I like the bag best. I was really glad I put the red stripes, I really think it makes the bag pop.
Everything turned out really great! I love the green silk 🙂
I’ve had prefelt sat on my shelf for a couple of years, I should get it out and use it inside bags.
Thanks Zed It’s a fast easy way to get more wool in one place. Zed you could try a scarf too. Depending on the direction of the slits you can make a scarf width in to a shawl or a short piece into a long one.
Just read your above response, Ann, and wonder what you mean by varying the slits to lengthen or widen a scarf? Above photo shows slits going many ways, so if you make only horizontal slits the scarf becomes a shawl? And vertical slits will lengthen the scarf? Have you ever made one like that? Intriguing idea!
It’s like expanded steel or the lattice crust on a pie. The shawl above the slits run more or less along the length. When you pull it sideways to get the holes to open up it gets wider. it depends on how many slits and how close together they are. The shawl about grew between 1/3 and 1/2. Try it with a piece of paper or scrap felt.
Got it! As soon as you mentioned paper I remembered the cut-outs we made as children–strings of snowflakes, dolls, etc. which would expand depending on the kind and number of cuts.
What a wonderful way to make a creative gathering with friends. This “full, stretch and full” technique on the scarf gives fantastic results. How many layers of wool did she start with? I assume the felt becomes thinner and thinner if you pull it apart.
Thank you. she did 2 layers in this case but she also does it with prefelt you buy. Things even out. The fulling shrinks and thickens and the holes and stretching make it bigger.
The holey scarf is very pretty as is the dyed chiffon. I hope your mum liked her lovely bag!
Thanks Lyn. y
Yes she really liked it.