felting – Awkward Soul Designs

In my previous post I mention working on some felted project. This is the result, yay! The pattern is by Bonnie Smith, and you can find it Here (Raverly link) or http://www.alifecrocheted.com/ A very similar pattern, but in knitting form, can be found at http://www.frenchpressknits.blogspot.com/

Awhile back I saw the knitted pattern and threw a spaz because it was for knitting. I can knit quite decently – I can cable, make a sock, stuff toys, fair isle, but now it strains my wrist, and I prefer crochet. Finally, when this pattern emerged in crochet form, I was fucking pumped! I love ballet flats because they are cute and comfy.

I had to pull out the first slipper and start again >__< as I fail at reading a pattern. I kept seeing double crochet instead of decrease half double (A big deal) as well as my stitches being way out. With that said, one must be somewhat alert while crocheting this masterpiece!

The slipper came in 2 pieces – if you actually follow the pattern the first time (unlike me) the hardest part is choosing what to accent the slippers with! Pre-felted form they don’t look impressive and are massive in size. I hand felted the slippers in the sink, which was very easy, and they shrank at least 20% and became dense, thick and snuggly! <3

In the end, this is a really cute pattern and I know what I’m going to be making in the fall for Christmas presents! I know my sis would want one in pink……. @__@

I’ve never felted before.

It seems felting got popular a buncha years back and I didn’t jump on the bandwagon because:

I was too poor and only bought cotton or acrylic.
I’ve never owned a laundry machine, and not gonna pay $2 a load to attempt to felt.
I mostly make amigurumi, scarves and other small projects.. usually not felted (that or I don’t look at the felted patterns).
I again don’t buy wool as amigurumi works up great with a cheap, stiff acrylic yarn
Felting seemed scary – if you screw up, theres no going back! OMG O__O

I came across this wonderful pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/felted-crochet-slippers (Raverly link) in crochet form and HAD TO MAKE. I do have felting happy wool (Yarn Addiction + a close out sale on discontinued Bernat Lana) and been buying wool at Dressew’s $2 a ball deal (Vancouver, Canada – best craft/fabric store ever).

With that said, I got the mats, the mad skillz and bought the pattern… shit I should felt the swatch, eh? And screw $2 a load in the washer in my apartment building.

I HATE doing swatches. Crocheting up a square to check my gauge sucks. I NEVER get near the right gauge, I crochet tight – worse as a beginner – you couldn’t fold my dishcloths! I find crocheting the square, pulling it, doing it again to be a chore. Luckly with amigurumi, gauge isn’t too important when you know how tight you crochet and the yarn you are using.

So I torture myself and make this:

As you can see, I needed a bottle of Vex so I wouldn’t get pissed off I am wasting nice wool yarn. In retrospect, I shoulda made it a triangle so I’d get a cool pirate patch out of the deal. At least I did it in half-double crochet stitches, I like that stitch.

Screwing the coin washing machine – I’m doing this by hand. I’m crazy, I’m cheap and I’m bored with yarn, a pattern I wanna attempt, and a couple bottles of Hard pink lemonaide.

So, Felting by hand =

Put project in warm or hot water with a bit of dish soap (as per about.com)
Swish around your project, re-creating agitation – the action creating the fibers to join together.
Continue to shake/wave/swish your project until it has shrunk/become dense enough to the desired effect. Ensure you are checking your work frequently to prevent over felting.
Remove excess water, then block.

So what happened to me – I went stupid and added way too much soap, creating a bubbly mess that looked like a super bubble bath.

This pic was after I scooped most of the bubbles out after a few swishes. I grabbed my bottle of Vex and a novel to kill the time and shook the swatch in the hot water. For a swatch this small, it took only minutes, however bigger stuff I suggest you bring something to do (or drink *wink*). Again, the excess of soap bit me in the ass and I rinsed out the soapy swatch.

The result: