I took up Lyn’s challenge to crochet a wool bowl then felt it. I got as far as making a small bowl. I haven’t had time to felt it yet, but will show you the results when I do. It’s a little floppy now, but should be firmer after felting.
Then I’ve continued to try new stitches. Here is the Box stitch which is alike on both sides.
The Crocodile Scale stitch was a bit of a challenge but definitely has interesting dimension. It looks like little tongues or leaves, too.
Of course, I had to try a hexagon, this one has a flower center.
Spring is finally here in the Midwest, so I couldn’t resist the Tulip stitch. Here it is in one color.
Then I tried another Tulip stitch and learned how to change colors. It looks entirely different. I decided to finish it with the same stitching as the bottom.
Here is the back.
The front really looks like like mini tulips.
My sister Carol’s ewe Dusty recently had a new lamb. 13 lbs. 12 oz!
Happy Spring! (For those of you that are experiencing it now.)
I know I’ve been a little crochet sample crazy lately. But I have actually made some crochet beanies.
On April 11, our newest Grandson Ken arrived about 8 weeks early. So, I was inspired to make some little hats.
Not knowing what size his head was, I made several different ones. And of course, I had to make a couple for my Granddaughter Lisa. I didn’t know her size either, but as it turned out a couple fit her.
Unfortunately, because he was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) they would not allow him to wear anything from outside.
The first one I made was blue. It entailed crocheting in the round and using a couple of different stitches.
Then I made a green one with basically one stitch.
I figured if it was too big the bottom could be folded up.
Then I made a bigger lightweight yellow which is Lisa’s favorite color at the moment.
I thought these last two might fit Lisa so I put a flower on each.
Without upturned brim.
So, I shipped them all off. And here is the real model.
Ken came home this week. I don’t know if they have tried the hats yet, but here is our new bundle of joy. Fortunately, now all the tubes are gone, but he really looks happy.
Here you can see the size differences. It will be interesting to see which one, if any fit him.
I have a bin full of yarn. A lot of it I’ve either dyed or picked up at garage sales or thrift stores. A majority of it isn’t wool based. So I thought it would be fun to make something using a variety of these yarns and see how they felted.
It started out to be a pillow cover, but later when I started to lay it out I changed my mind. Originally, I had a swerving design in mind. But thought there was too much empty space and the design would probably distort the whole thing. I used two batts of merino and a prefelt over that as a base.
I added more yarns and moved them apart so they’d have room to create their own design.
Here are the yarns I used, not necessarily in this order. Some I used more than once.
From left to right:
Synthetic ladder yarn
Synthetic ladder yarn second color
Decorative synthetic flag yarn
Mohair/metallic
Bamboo
Acrylic yarn
Wool Boucle
Merino slub yarn
Hand dyed thick and thin yarn
Worsted wool
Novelty yarn with nylon, tactel, cotton and lame
Merino slub yarn
Wool roving sold as yarn
Wool/metallic
Peruvian wool
Thick and thin wool yarn commercial
Mohair/metallic novelty yarn
I had some “Riot Eyelash Yarn” I decided to use as an edging. Which I sewed on using a zigzag stitch after it was felted. It is aptly named.
Here it is laid on a white background to show the eyelash edging.
A few closeups:
Strangely enough the only one I had to fix after felting was the multicolored acrylic yarn which I’ve used before without a problem. I had to needle felt it down. The Peruvian wool also had a few places to tack down, but I think it was because it was so tightly wound the merino prefelt couldn’t grab it as well. Even the ladder yarn and synthetics seemed to be fairly firm in place.
Here it is on it’s new home a glass coffee table.
Its fairly dark here and it seems I got a bit of glare from the flash. What are you working on in the New Year?
This isn’t as exotic as sampling Swedish wools, but it was a lesson in the benefits of sampling.
A while ago I had showed you a pile of scarves, blouses and remnants I had purchased to try nuno felting.
While they all passed the “blow” test or looked or felt like they would felt well, there were a couple of big surprises.
When I make samples, I usually use prefelt and small samples of each of the fabrics on the same piece. This way they are all felted the same way in the same amount of time in the same way.
Here is a picture of a couple of them before felting. The upper left was an open cotton weave, the upper right was a scarf of unknown origin. The lower left was a remnant that was sparkly with some embroidery and the lower right was part of a silk blouse.
This isn’t a very clear picture below, but the second from the left was the one scarf I purchased I thought was perfect for nuno and was looking forward to using it on something special. To the left of that on top was a scarf that felt like it had some lycra in it below was a piece of lace and sequin on some type of mesh. The third from the left was an organza with sparkle.
Boy was I mistaken. After all the others were felted I continued to work on the flower and sparkly pieces, but they wouldn’t felt. I was really glad I didn’t invest in a big project to use the flower scarf. I even tried it on another piece of felt. You probably recognize the purple on the left that I used for my jewelry roll. The scarf on the right also felted nicely. I even used some wisps of wool on top of the flowers, but they clumped together and there were only a couple of threads on the flower piece that caught.
Here’s a closeup of the right one.
The other samples turned out nicely. The blue green and red were silk and the gold a polyester organza.
The one on the right below was a burnout fabric which surprised me it felted so well. On the left a silver gray polyester organza.
The blue on the left was a piece of lycra which didn’t do well either, but I wasn’t surprised at that. Above that was a piece of acrylic yarn that felted nicely.
The blouse felted very nicely and I’m sure I’ll use that for a special project in the future.
I was also surprised at the sequin and mesh. I thought that also had a lycra base. I loved how the mystery blue scarf turned out. It has a shine and felt like a polyester with something else. It has a very nice texture.
My favorite was the brightly colored scarf. Now, I wish I had yards of it instead only part of a scarf.
I don’t always do samples, but if I want to use something for an important project I’ve learned its best to take the time to do it.
Now I know what to expect when I use these fabrics and which ones not to use for felting. Although a couple of them might work with coarser wools. But that’s for another time.
The front really looks like like mini tulips.
