Picture Yourself - Felting Your Knitting

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Picture Yourself Felting Your Knitting Sarah E. White Publisher and General Manager, Course Technology PTR: Stacy L. Hiquet Associate Director of Marketing: Sarah Panella Manager of Editorial Services: Heather Talbot Marketing Manager: Jordan Casey

© 2008 Sarah E. White ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Acquisitions Editor: Megan Belanger Project Editor: Kate Shoup

For product information and technology assistance, contact us at

Technical Reviewer: Rita Greenfeder PTR Editorial Services Coordinator: Erin Johnson Copy Editor: Kate Shoup Interior Layout: Shawn Morningstar Cover Designer: Mike Tanamachi

Cengage Learning Customer and Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706 For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to [email protected]

Indexer: Sharon Hilgenberg Proofreader: Sara Gullion Library of Congress Control Number: 2007939364 ISBN-13: 978-1-59863-485-3 ISBN-10: 1-59863-485-2 eISBN-10: 1-59863-665-0 Course Technology 25 Thomson Place Boston, MA 02210 USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: international.cengage.com/region Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. For your lifelong learning solutions, visit courseptr.com Visit our corporate website at cengage.com

Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 10 09 08

Acknowledgments

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hanks go first to my grandmother

and mother, who together taught me how to knit, and all the other crafty ladies in my life who instilled in me from an early age a love for things handmade. It was their influence that led me to believe that living a creative life—as well as making a living through my creativity—was possible. Thanks also to my father, my in-laws, and all my friends who didn’t press when I didn’t answer questions about how the book was going. While writing this book often felt like a solitary affair, no one works alone. Thank you, Megan Belanger, for having the idea that became this book, and for believing that I could do it. Kate Shoup and Rita Greenfeder were wise and thoughtful editors, and I hope I was gracious in accepting their help. Everyone I worked with at Cengage was supportive, helpful, and understanding. Thank you for your skill, your creativity, and your passion for publishing. Having worked in publishing for several years before writing this book, I understand everything I put you through in ways that most authors don’t, and truly appreciate everything you did for me and for this book.

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Thank you to the readers of About Knitting, who consistently remind me that people are still interested in the ancient art of knitting, even in these modern days. You are always challenging me to stretch and try new things, and I have learned more from you than you can imagine. Most importantly, however, I thank my husband, Nick, whose support is what made the writing of this book possible. From cooking dinner almost nightly to give me more knitting time to allowing me to quit my workaday job and pursue my dream of freelance writing, he has been my moral, physical, and technological support throughout this book and our marriage. Maybe someday you’ll write a book and I can return the favor. Sarah E. White December 2007

About the Author arah E. White is a freelance writer and editor living in Arkansas. She learned to knit at an early age

S

and is the Guide to Knitting at About.com. There, she writes about all aspects of the craft. In addition to knitting, she enjoys sewing, beading, making candles, and paper crafts. This is her first book.

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Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapter 1

Introduction to Felting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What Is Felting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A Brief History of Knitting and Felting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Why Are Knitting and Felting So Popular? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Don’t Be Afraid of Felting! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 2

How Felting Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Why Animal Fiber Felts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Choosing Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Felting Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A Knitting Refresher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Casting On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Knit Stitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Purl Stitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Increasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Decreasing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Binding Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Weaving in Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter 3

Felting by Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 How to Felt by Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Supplies for Felting by Hand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Felted Coasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 One-Color Coasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Two-Color Coasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Narrow-Stripe Coasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Checkerboard Coasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Two-Color Horizontal Stripe Coasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Color-Block Coasters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Getting Ready to Felt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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Table of Contents

Steps for Felting by Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 The Felting Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 When Is It Done? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Knitting Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Knitting Stripes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Knitting Multiple Stripes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Stranded Knitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Color-Block Knitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Chapter 4

Felting by Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 How to Felt by Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Supplies for Machine Felting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Knitting the Variegated Scarf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Felting the Scarves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Getting Ready to Felt by Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 The Felting Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Knitting Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Starting a New Ball of Yarn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Unleash the Felting Magic!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Chapter 5

Felting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Tips for Choosing Yarn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Hand-Felting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Machine-Felting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Caring for Felted Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Choosing Projects for Felting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Chapter 6

Felting Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Felted Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Fibonacci Striped Belt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

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Striped Envelope Purse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Multi-colored Placemat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Felted Pillow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Dresser Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Funky Vegas Tote Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Felted Baby Blanket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Felted Fish Cat Toy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Felted Bucket Hat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Gauge and Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Knitting Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Mattress Stitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Picking Up Stitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

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Table of Contents Chapter 7

Needle Felting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 What Is Needle Felting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Needle-Felting Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Basic Needle-Felting Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Other Needle-Felting Practice Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Needle-Felting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Needle-Felting Embellished Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Monogrammed Gift Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Chapter 8

Other Ways to Felt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 About Wet Felting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Making a Felted Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Wet-Felted Clutch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 A Felted Flower. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Other Ideas for Wet Felting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Felting Sweaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 The Easiest Bag Ever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Felted Computer Sleeve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Felted Wine Bag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 More Sweater-Felting Ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Chapter 9

Design Your Own Felting Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Why Design Your Own Patterns? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 The Importance of Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Making and Felting a Gauge Swatch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Doing the Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 How to Write Your Own Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Messenger Bag Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Chapter 10

Knitting Resources and Swatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Knitting Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Learning to Knit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Helpful Knitting Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Knit and Felted Swatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

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Chapter 11

Yarn Suppliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Berroco, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Caron International. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Green Mountain Spinnery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Knit Picks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Lion Brand Yarn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Lorna’s Laces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Louet North America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Muench Yarns (GGH, Muench) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Naturally Hand Knit Yarns (JJ’s, Naturally) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Noro Yarn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Patons Yarn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Peace Fleece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Plymouth Yarn Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Prism Yarn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Schaefer Yarn Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Skacel Collection, Inc. (Skacel, Zitron) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Southwest Trading Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Valley Yarn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Webs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

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Introduction

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elcome to the world of

felting your knitting! Knitting itself is a wonderful craft that provides all sorts of opportunities for creating just about anything you can imagine out of yarn, but adding felting to your knitting brings a whole new aspect to the craft. Purposely shrinking your knitting to make a firm fabric is really magical. You’ll learn as you read this book that it is possible to control felting to some extent, but even after all the felting I’ve done over the years, I’m still happily surprised when I pull a piece of felted knitting out of the washer and it looks exactly how I imagined it would. I learned to knit when I was a child. My grandmother and mother both taught me how to knit and cross stitch (grandma tried to teach me how to crochet as well, but it just didn’t take), and I have aunts who quilt, paint, and cross stitch, among other crafts. I feel like I was surrounded by crafts when I was growing up, which was great. Now, when I’m not knitting and felting, I also enjoy sewing, beading, making candles, and paper crafts. Even though I’ve been knitting for a long time, it wasn’t too long ago that I started felting my knitting. Frankly I was a little scared of felting. I didn’t like the idea of spending hours knitting a project and then throwing it in the washing machine, not knowing exactly what was going to happen while the project was in the wash. The first felting project I made was a bowl of my own design. I was completely petrified when I dropped it in the washing machine. But when it came out fine, I was hooked on felting.

I know from firsthand experience that felting can be scary. But I also know that once you have a couple of projects under your belt, you’ll feel a lot more confident, and be bold about venturing out and trying new felting projects. This book is designed to help you gain that confidence so that after you’ve worked through a few patterns you’ll be ready to design your own felting projects or knit from larger or more complicated patterns without stress. Even if you’re relatively new to knitting, this book will show you how you can knit and felt projects with ease. It starts out very slowly with simple squares that are felted by hand, moving on to scarves, belts, bags, pillows, a blanket, a hat and other projects that will inspire you to try new knitting techniques and give you more confidence to felt projects. You’ll even learn how to write your own pattern for a knitting and felting project. The back of the book is full of before-and-after pictures of knit and felted swatches so you can see what a particular yarn is going to look like felted before you even go to your local yarn store. This should be a big help in avoiding disappointment with your felting projects, since yarns often look quite different once they are felted compared to plain knitting. I hope this book will serve as a guide to some of the things you can do with felting, and will provide you with fun and easy projects to try to give you the confidence to venture out on your own to knit and felt whatever your heart desires. Happy felting!

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Felted swatches spill out of a felted bowl.

Knit and felted swatches show the changes brought about by felting.

1 Introduction to Felting icture yourself knitting fun felted accessories

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for your home, your pets, your family, and yourself. Envision yourself combining the basic skills of knitting with animal fibers, hot water, and a little agitation to make perfectly shrunken knitted items that are as functional as they are beautiful. Finally, see yourself taking felting even farther by using the techniques of needle felting, wet felting, and shrinking already knit items to make new and improved pieces. Felting your knitting is a fun and easy way to expand your knitting skills, even if you are a new knitter. Felting knitting uses all the same skills as conventional knitting, but adds a watery twist that transforms what might look like a misshapen, too-huge object into a perfect knit project. In this chapter, you will learn what felting is, a little of the history and vocabulary, and why it is such a popular choice for knitters everywhere. Let’s get started, shall we?

What Is Felting? efore learning about how to felt

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knitted projects, you first must understand what felting is. In the simplest terms, felting is the deliberate shrinking of a knitted item to create a firmer, thicker, smaller fabric than the one you started out with. If you’ve ever accidentally washed a wool sweater and had it come out a few sizes too small, you’ve seen felting in action. You can felt with any animal fiber—even human hair—but the most popular choice for felting projects is good old wool. If you’re worried about making wearable objects with wool, don’t. Wool doesn’t have to be scratchy and uncomfortable to work with. There are many well-made wool yarns that won’t remind you of the horrible sweaters you might have worn as a kid.

Some people are actually allergic to wool, or at least highly sensitive to it. It’s often not the fiber itself but the lanolin—a natural substance in wool that’s frequently used in lotions and other products and is meant to soften skin—that causes the problem. That said, some people are sensitive to the naturally barbed shape of wool fibers, something in the wool such as animal dander, or even a chemical used to process or dye the wool. Although wool allergies are considered rare, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Don’t make any piece featured in this book as a gift for someone unless you know he or she isn’t allergic or sensitive to wool. 2

Many different kinds of yarns can be felted.

Felting can be a little intimidating at first because so much of the process seems out of your control. As you work your way through this book, however, you’ll begin to realize that felting isn’t completely uncontrollable; you just need to pay attention and not abandon your work to the wiles of the washing machine while you go on to the next thing. The projects in this book are designed to give new felters—even those who are also new knitters— confidence to ultimately design and felt their own projects. Even with a lot of experience, there is an element of magic in felting, as well as the feeling of surprise when you pull your project out of the wash and it looks completely different from when it went in.

Introduction to Felting

Chapter 1

A Brief History of Knitting and Felting here are many theories as to where

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and when knitting originated, but most sources place the advent of knitting in the Middle East. One of the oldest known knitted artifacts is a pair of socks that was found in Egypt and dates back to 1100. There’s also evidence of a knitting tradition in Asia and India that may be even older than that. Sailors brought knitting to Europe from the Middle East as they traveled for trade. Knitting gave the men something to do on long journeys, as well as providing them with a means of mending their fishing nets when out at sea. In time, men in Europe established the first knitting guilds, and began knitting more complicated and intricate pieces. Hand-knit silk stockings and gloves took thousands of man-hours to knit and came with huge price tags. It’s not known exactly when felting became an important craft, but it was probably discovered soon after knitting was developed, with non-knit felting techniques being even older. The nomadic tribes of Asia used felted objects as protection from the elements as they dominated the world. Today, all sorts of animal fibers can be used to felt projects at home; felting is also a popular look in fashion, from boiled-wool coats to funky felted bags.

More and more knitters are combining basic and advanced knitting techniques with felting and creating wonderful home accessories, handbags, blankets, and much more—all with the same basic yarn and needles that other knitters use.

Roving is used in both needle felting and wet felting.

Felting is a wonderful choice for all sorts of projects because it makes a fabric that is more durable, warmer, thicker, and more structured than the same project would be if knit in wool that wasn’t felted. If you want to knit a bowl that will stand up on its own or a wrap that will keep you warm through the chill of winter, felting is a wonderful method to use.

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Why Are Knitting and Felting So Popular? ccording to the Craft Yarn

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Council of America’s statistics from 2005, about 53 million American women knew how to knit or crochet. That’s one in three women —a number that doesn’t even include the men who take part in these crafts! Additionally, more and more young people are taking part in these needle arts. The 2005 numbers showed that the number of 25- to 34-year-olds who knitted or crocheted had increased by 150 percent since 2002, while the number of crafters under the age of 18 had grown 100 percent. One can only assume that these numbers have grown in the time since that survey was published. All these young knitters have driven the development of cutting-edge yarns made of all sorts of wonderful materials, as well as more interesting patterns that consider the world of fashion. As a result, knitters are provided with products they want to make and will be proud to have in their homes. The resurgence that knitting has enjoyed over the last several years has been attributed to many different things. Some say that the spike in knitting began after September 11, 2001, when people began spending more time at home and doing activities that made them feel cozy and safe. Another theory is that young women sought a connection to the crafts that were formerly considered exclusively a woman’s domain but that are no longer regularly passed from mother or grandmother to child or grandchild. Crafting something for yourself is also a way to take back a bit of what we’ve lost through the mass production of cheap and uninteresting products. 4

Felting Versus Fulling It’s worth mentioning that what knitters call felting and what some other crafters call felting are actually two different things. If you want to be precise, what knitters do when they shrink a knitted fabric is properly called fulling. In contrast, using pieces of wool fiber sometimes referred to as roving along with water to make a fabric is true felting. There’s also a technique known as needle felting, in which sharp needles are used to shape the roving and force it to stick together, often fusing to a fabric underneath the needle-felted object. Most knitters still call what they do felting, and this book sticks with that convention to make it easier to talk about all of these different techniques. The first chapters of this book deal with felting knitting, while Chapter 7, “Needle Felting,” looks at felting with needles and Chapter 8, “Other Ways to Felt,” covers wet felting.

Introduction to Felting Knitting is a great way to multitask, because it can be worked on while in meetings, while watching television, or when at your child’s soccer game. Moreover, in addition to being a great way to reduce stress, knitting offers a wonderful way to show your love for friends and family by giving them gifts you made with your own hands. You can even knit for charity and share your craft with people in need around the world. It’s something fun to do with friends and to share with your children—boys and girls. The trend of felting knitting began a few years after the knitting craze, and with good reason. Knitters who are now comfortable with all the basics of knitting are looking for new ways to use their skills, and felting has been a huge part of fashion for the last few years. Yarn companies and knitwear designers have come up with all sorts of new ways to use felting, and you’ll discover a few uses for the craft in this book that you might never have thought of before.

Chapter 1

Crafting as a Feminist Statement One really interesting thing about the resurgence of crafts—from knitting to beading to candle making—is its connection to the modern feminist movement. Once regarded as a symbol of the oppression of women, who were expected to stay home and craft, knitting and other crafts have been embraced by the younger generation of feminists as a great way of taking control of their own lives and connecting to a past in which women’s handiwork was celebrated. There are tons of Web sites devoted to feminist crafting and/or knitting. Here are just a few: • http://www.craftivism.com/ • http://www.knithappens.com/ • http://www.getcrafty.com/ • http://www.knitty.com/

A project on the needles.

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Don’t Be Afraid of Felting!

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lot of people out there are

accomplished knitters, but are afraid of felting their knitting. It’s easy to understand the fear associated with felting—it can feel like you’ve surrendered any control you might have had over your project as soon as you put it in the washing machine or dunk it in a sink full of hot water. After all, every washing machine is different, and every yarn is different. Even different colors of the same yarn can felt at different rates. So to some extent, you are surrendering to the will of the yarn each time you make a project. But to me, that’s a big part of the fun.

I’m here to tell you that, yes, felting can be scary. The first time I felted a project—a felted bowl—I checked the machine every two minutes for fear that I was going to shrink the project beyond all recognition or usefulness. But I can also tell you that the more you felt, the less scary it becomes. You will begin to see that you can, to a certain extent, control what’s happening to your piece— even if you can’t see what’s going on inside your washing machine.

A woman works on her knitting project. Copyright Niels Laan, istockphoto.com. 6

Introduction to Felting For new knitters or new felters who are reluctant to spend a lot of time knitting a project only to potentially ruin it during the felting process, most of the patterns in this book involve little commitment knit-wise. And even in the unlikely event that you “ruin” them, you’ll likely be able to find some use for them. In fact, the only way to really mess up felting is to leave your piece in the washing machine for too long and you end up with a piece that’s smaller than you intended. Although this isn’t ideal, you can often find another use for a piece; an over-felted throw could become a wrap for a young girl, while a dresser tray that shrunk too much might serve as a business-card holder.

Chapter 1

Felting is more of an art than a science, but the techniques and projects presented in this book will give you the confidence to try it. You can work through this book step by step, completing all the projects in order, letting the different knitting and felting skills build on each other; alternatively, you can choose a few patterns to play with and use Chapter 3, “Felting by Hand,” Chapter 4, “Felting by Machine,” and Chapter 5, “Felting Tips,” to help make your projects a success. Once you feel comfortable with the process, you might even want to try writing your own pattern for a felted knitting project. If you do, there are instructions for this process in Chapter 9, “Your Own Felting Patterns.”

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Alpacas are raised on farms for their fur. Copyright Mike Dabell, istockphoto.com.

Australian merino sheep wait to be sheared. Copyright Steve Lovegrove, istockphoto.com.

2 How Felting Works efore you start shrinking your knitting,

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it’s best to have a good idea of the hows and whys of felting. This chapter takes a look at how felting works, explores why animal fiber felts, and goes through a quick overview of the knitting skills you’ll need to complete the projects presented in the rest of the book.

Why Animal Fiber Felts he key component of felted

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knitting is a knit object that has been constructed of animal fiber. Other fibers are nice for other kinds of knitting projects, but they won’t felt. That’s because animal hair—whether it comes from a sheep or a cat or some other hirsute creature—has a special structure that allows felting to happen. Specifically, animal hair is basically made up of two different parts: the cuticle and the cortex, which itself can be described as being made of the paracortex and the ortocortex. All these names aren’t important; what you need to know is that the cuticle, or outside part of an animal hair, is made up of overlapping scales or cells that look sort of like the shingles on a roof or the leaves of an artichoke. These little scales actually repel water and are part of the reason that wool is such a great fiber, both for moisture resistance and durability. Such fiber can be felted because the scales of the cuticle stand up when submersed in water. Combined with agitation—either by hand or with the help of your washing machine—the scales stick together like Velcro, and you get felt. Hot water is particularly helpful for facilitating this process. This is why wool sweaters and other items made of animal fiber that you don’t want to felt should be washed in cool water with no agitation. Even a little bit of heat or agitation can cause the scales to fuse, which is not what you want if your favorite wool sweater is already the right size for you.

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When you go looking for wool to felt, make sure you aren’t buying a product called superwash wool. This wool has been treated either with a chemical bath that removes the edges of the scales or with a coating that prevents the scales from sticking to each other. No matter which method is used, the result is a machine-washable wool that will not felt. It’s great for some applications—particularly children’s clothing—but it’s no good for felting.

Regular wool and superwash wool look the same, but superwash wool won’t felt.

How Felting Works Although wool is the most popular choice for felting, it is not the only choice. All animal fibers felt, including the following:

 Angora  Alpaca

Chapter 2

Of course, many of these animal fibers are much too expensive to be used for felting. Because felting projects must be knit bigger than you need the finished product to be, they tend to use a lot more yarn than conventionally knit projects. And who would want to waste cashmere on a felting project?

 Camel  Cashmere  Llama  Mohair  Possum fur  Rabbit fur  Yak

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Choosing Fibers s mentioned, all animal fibers

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can be felted, but wool and wool blends are the most popular because they are also the most economical. (While I’m on the subject, let me add that felting as a whole is a very economical craft because, other than the yarn, most of the materials you’ll need to be successful at felting are already in your house—especially if you’re planning to use your washing machine to felt items.) All the yarns featured in the patterns in this book are good choices. When choosing a yarn to work with for felting knitting, make sure that the yarn is 80 or 90 percent animal fiber. Yarns that include non-animal fibers can be used for felting, but they will not felt as evenly as yarns that are completely animal fiber. That’s because the part of the yarn that isn’t animal fiber won’t shrink. Of course incorporating fiber that won’t felt into a felting project can lead to some very interesting results, as when you combine a feltable fiber with something like a novelty yarn or eyelash yarn that will not felt. When combining yarns or using a yarn that’s not completely made of wool or another animal fiber, it is especially important to make a swatch and test how the yarn will perform when felted. I’ll talk much more about swatches in Chapter 9, “Your Own Felting Patterns.” In addition to understanding the fiber content of your yarn, you should also look at the ball band to see what size needles are suggested for working with the yarn. Because you will be felting the knitted item, you should go two or three needle sizes higher than the number suggested on the ball band because, as mentioned earlier, the space between the stitches improves the friction and makes the felting a little easier. 12

This swatch of Moda Dea Gleam, a 42 percent nylon, 35 percent kid mohair, 18 percent acrylic, and 5 percent polyester yarn, shows the effects of felting a yarn without a lot of animal fiber content.

Tip Be sure to check out the appendix at the back of the book; it includes many more yarns that are good choices for felting, along with swatches so you can see how they look before and after the felting process. These will be useful for choosing your own yarn to work with, whether you’re using patterns in this book or your own designs.

How Felting Works

Chapter 2

The Felting Process he specifics of how to felt knit-

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ted objects are covered in much more detail in the next two chapters. In the meantime, however, it is good to know how felting works in a general sense before you subject a piece of knitting to the process. Felting happens when heat and agitation combine to fuse the scales of the wool cuticle, although simply agitating the fiber will eventually felt the fiber as well. Indeed, it is thought that some of the first felting was accomplished when fabric was placed under a horse’s saddle. The long hours of riding caused the scales to rub against each other and fuse. These days, however, most people add hot water to the mix and get their results much faster. Hot water in the sink or a washtub and a little time is all you really need to felt anything, although using a washing machine does speed the process.

Many people think you need a washing machine to make the felting process work, but felting has been around much longer than electricity and indoor plumbing. You really can do it without the help of a machine.

Another thing that helps felting go quicker is having some space between the stitches in your knit project. The fiber needs room to open up so that the scales can fuse, and that’s a lot easier to accomplish when the yarn isn’t all bunched together like it would be if you knit with the needle size suggested on the ball band. Don’t worry—everything will shrink right up into a firm fabric once you add that water and agitation.

Tip Typically, you can find the suggested needle size either in written form or on a little chart on the band surrounding the yarn. For example, it might say something like “five stitches per inch on size 5 U.S. needles,” or there could be a graphic of a grid, typically with a number along the bottom, a second number on the side, and a third number, often accompanied by a drawing of knitting needles, in the center. The number on the bottom is how many stitches make up four inches or 10 centimeters, while the number on the side is the number of rows over the same measurement. The number in the middle tells you what size needles were used.

The main ingredient for success in felting, after choosing the right kind of fiber to work with, is patience. Felting does take time; it doesn’t always happen as quickly as we would like. But it’s a very fun—even magical—process that is always entertaining in its way. 13

A Knitting Refresher

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his book is designed for knitters

of all skill levels, including beginners, who would like to learn how to felt their knitting projects. The following pages provide a quick overview of the basics of casting on, knitting, purling, increasing, decreasing, and binding off that you will need throughout this book. When new skills are needed in the patterns that are not mentioned in this section, they will be taught with the pattern itself. In this way the patterns build on each other; as a result, working through this book will not only give you a good education in how to felt, but in how to knit as well.

There are two basic styles of knitting, known as the English style (sometimes also called “throwing,” or right-handed knitting) and the Continental method (or German, left-handed, or picking). Both styles get you to the same place; they are just different techniques. Most knitters learn one style and stick with it for life, with English style being the most popular style in the United States. Because I think English style is easier to learn, the following instructions use that method. If you’d like to learn Continental knitting there are many Web sites that can teach you. Check out the “Knitting Resources” section at the back of the book for more information.

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Casting On Before you can begin knitting, you must put some stitches on your knitting needle, which is known as casting on. There are many ways to cast on, but my two favorites for new knitters are the knit cast on and long-tail cast on methods. No matter which method you use, you start by making a slip knot in the yarn. Here’s how: 1. Form a loop in the yarn with the tail end of the yarn in the back. 2. Feed the yarn piece that’s on the ball side up through the loop and pull. 3. Slide your knitting needle through the loop and pull tightly enough that the loop will stay on the needle, but not so tightly that you can’t get the other knitting needle into the loop. The tail end should be in the front and the ball end in the back when the loop is on your needle; this counts as the first stitch.

How Felting Works

Chapter 2

3. Loop the working yarn over the tip of the right needle counterclockwise, pulling the yarn down so that it’s touching the loop.

Knit Cast On Here’s how to perform the knit cast on method: 1. Hold the needle with the loop on it in your left hand and the empty needle in your right. The ball end of the yarn, also known as the working yarn, should be at the back of the needle. 2. Slide the right needle through the loop from front to back.

4. Use the tip of your left index finger to gently guide the right needle back out of the loop on the left needle, keeping the loop of the working yarn on the right needle.

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5. Pull the needles apart gently. Use the tip of the left needle to put the loop on the right needle onto the left needle, going from front to back. This is known as slipping knitwise.

Long-Tail Cast On Before forming the slip knot for the long-tail cast on, you need to measure what’s known as a long tail, which will be used along with the ball end of the yarn to form the stitches. A good rule of thumb is to allow half an inch for each stitch you need to cast on. A less scientific way to measure is to wrap your yarn around the needle once for each stitch you need to cast on. You’ll have way more than enough this way. Once you have determined the length of your long tail, form the slip knot as described previously. For this cast-on method you only need the needle the slip knot is on. Put it in your right hand. Then do the following:

6. You now have two stitches on the left needle. Continue in this manner until you have cast on as many stitches as the pattern calls for.

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How Felting Works

Chapter 2

1. Loop the tail-end yarn around the thumb of your left hand and loop the ball end over your index finger and between your index and middle fingers.

3. Bring the needle over the ball-end yarn and bring the point back down under the yarn from behind.

2. Put the tip of the needle under the front piece of yarn.

4. Slip the needle back through the loop on your thumb.

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5. Pull tight to form the stitch. Repeat the above steps until you have cast on as many stitches as you need.

2. Loop the working yarn around the right needle counterclockwise, being careful not to pull too tightly.

The Knit Stitch If you’re comfortable with the knit cast on method, you’ll be able to form the knit stitch quickly, because it is basically the same maneuver. Here’s how it’s done: 1. Using the needle with the stitches in your left hand, the empty needle in your right hand, and the working yarn at the back of the needle, slip the right needle through the top loop on the left needle, from front to back.

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3. Push the right needle back through the loop so that the tip of the right needle is in front.

How Felting Works 4. Slip the loop off the left needle. You have just knit one stitch.

Chapter 2

The Purl Stitch Purling is the exact opposite of knitting; combing these two stitches on alternate rows makes a pattern known as stockinette stitch.

5. Continue in this manner until all the stitches in the row are knit. 6. To start the next row, simply turn the work over and put the needle with the stitches on it back in your left hand and the empty needle in your right hand. Knitting every stitch in every row produces a pattern known as the garter stitch.

Stockinette stitch.

To make the purl stitch, do the following: 1. Begin with the needle with the stitches on it in your left hand and the empty needle in your right hand. This time, the working yarn should be at the front of the work instead of the back. 2. Put the right needle through the first loop on the left needle from back to front.

Garter stitch. 19

3. Wrap the working yarn around the right needle counterclockwise, taking care not to pull too tightly.

5. Slip the stitch off the left needle. You have just purled one stitch. Continue in this manner to the end of the row.

4. Push the needle back through the loop so that the right needle is now in the back. Stockinette stitch is a great basic pattern stitch that is used in most of the projects in this book. The only trouble with stockinette stitch is that it tends to curl. That’s because the knit stitches and the purl stitches are slightly different sizes, and this creates tension in the work. Once the piece is felted, though, it will be nice and flat.

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How Felting Works

Increasing There are many different ways to increase the number of stitches after casting on. Increasing and decreasing are both useful for changing the shape of a knit object. One of the most basic methods of increasing used in this book is known as knitting in the front and back of a stitch, sometimes abbreviated kfb. Here’s how it works:

Chapter 2

2. Keep the loop on the left needle and perform the knit stitch again, this time in the part of the stitch behind the left needle, known as the back loop.

1. Form the knit stitch as usual, going as far as sliding the needle back out of the loop so that the right needle is in front.

3. Once you have completed the steps of the knit stitch in the back loop, slide the loop off the left needle. You now have two stitches where you used to have one.

Working one stitch in from the edge when increasing and decreasing makes for a smoother looking edge of your work.

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Decreasing Just as there are several ways to add stitches, there are many ways to take stitches away, also known as decreasing. One of the easiest methods is known as knitting two together, sometimes abbreviated k2tog. The knit two together is formed just like a regular knit stitch, but instead of going through one loop at a time, you knit through two loops at once. Here’s how it works:

2. Complete the knit stitch as normal. When you slide the stitch off, you have one stitch where you used to have two.

1. Put the needle through the bottom loop first, then the top loop of the two stitches. Now really, it’s one loop for each of the two stitches.

Binding Off Once your knitting is complete you have to take the stitches off the needle and close up your knitting so that your work won’t unravel. The method for doing this is known as binding off, sometimes also called casting off. Here’s how it works: 1. Begin by knitting the first two stitches of the row.

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How Felting Works 2. Slide the tip of the left needle through the loop of the first stitch you cast on, in the same knitwise manner learned in the knit cast on.

3. Lift the loop up over the top of the right needle and slide it off the tip of the left needle. There is now one stitch on the right needle.

Chapter 2

4. Knit another stitch and continue binding off in this same manner until only one knit stitch remains.

5. Cut your yarn, slide the loop off the needle, and use a crochet hook to guide the end of the yarn through the loop. When you cut the yarn, leave six inches or so to work with for weaving in the ends (see the next section).

6. Pull tight and you’re done!

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Weaving in Ends There’s one more vital step that must be done before you can felt your knitting project: weaving in the loose ends. Weaving in ends is important for any knitting project to keep it from unraveling, but it’s particularly key to success with felting because the agitation you use to felt can also cause the loose ends to unravel the stitches, and then fuse your work into a big mess with holes where you might not have wanted them. Weaving in ends is very easy. Here’s how it’s done: 1. Thread your yarn onto a yarn needle, which is a blunt needle with a large eye. Use a needle threader if you need to. 2. Use the needle to weave the yarn under the loops of stitches, taking care that the yarn doesn’t show on the front side. You can also do this with a crochet hook. Make sure your threads are all secure before you start felting.

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Now that you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to get knitting and felting. Check out the next chapter for a very easy knitting and felting project that will teach you all about felting by hand while making a great set of felted coasters you can keep or give as a quick housewarming gift with a bottle of wine.

How Felting Works

Chapter 2

If your ends aren’t secure when you felt, they could loosen and leave you with a mess.

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A stack of felted coasters, ready to give as a gift.

Hand-felted coasters.

3 Felting by Hand earning how to felt should be a hands-on

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experience. In this chapter, you’ll get your feet wet by looking at how to felt by hand—and why you would want to. You’ll also use basic knitting and felting skills to make a set of felted coasters suitable for gift giving or keeping for yourself.

How to Felt by Hand elting by hand should be the first step in any felter’s education. After all, no matter where you live, chances are you have a sink or a bucket and can get some hot water—which is really all you need to make felt happen.

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Of course, felting in your sink is a slower process than felting with the help of your washing machine. When you’re first learning how to felt, however, that’s a good thing. That’s because felting by hand enables you to really see what is happening during the felting process and get a good feel for when your felt is ready. This removes a lot of the mystery of felting.

Supplies for Felting by Hand All you really need to felt by hand is a receptacle for holding water (such as a sink, bathtub, bucket, or washtub), your hands, and some time. That said, the process will work a little faster and be a little more comfortable if you also have the following:

 A little bit of liquid dish soap or laundry soap. The fewer chemicals and dyes in the soap, the better. Just a squirt will help the fiber open up and make felting a little easier.

 A bowl with some cold water in it. Cold Besides, knowing how to felt by hand is helpful because it allows you to felt small projects in the sink that would get lost in your washing machine. You can also felt swatches by hand if you need a general idea of what a yarn is going to do but don’t want to fill the washing machine with water.

water shocks the fiber after it’s been in the hot water, and is helpful in speeding along the hand-felting process.

 Rubber gloves. Just plain old gloves like you might use to wash the dishes are fine. The gloves protect your hands from the hot water and add some roughness that will make your hand-agitation more effective.

 A towel. You’ll put your felted item on this to dry. You’ll also pin felted items onto the towel when blocking.

 Rust-free safety pins or straight pins for blocking.

 A yardstick, ruler, or measuring stick is a big help in ensuring your finished piece is the size it should be.

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Felting by Hand

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The basic supplies for felting by hand.

There are a few other items that can prove useful when you felt by hand, such as an old-fashioned washboard (to provide even more friction for the fibers), or a product known as a felting stone, which has bumps on it to help rough up the fibers. But neither of these is absolutely necessary. You should be able to complete the project in this chapter just fine using things you already have on hand.

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Felted Coasters his easy felting project will guide

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you through the basics of knitting and felting a project—in this case, a set of large coasters that are perfect for any glass or mug you have around. They would be a wonderful quick-to-knit gift for someone moving into a new house or apartment. Just throw in a bottle of wine (or the placemats from Chapter 6, “Felting Patterns”) and you’ll have the perfect gift in no time. This pattern offers a bunch of variations to get your creative juices flowing and to give newer knitters access to a bunch of different techniques. From plain, one-color coasters to two- and threecolor horizontal and vertical stripes to concentric squares, these coasters use all of the basic colorwork methods of knitting. You can make a set of identical coasters or knit one of each pattern for a set that goes together but doesn’t exactly match. Alternatively, take your favorite colors and these basic guidelines to come up with your own coaster designs.

If you aren’t familiar with some of the techniques used in this project, flip to the back of the chapter. There you’ll find tips on how to change colors, on knitting stripes, about stranded color-work, and about intarsia.

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In the meantime, let’s get to the pattern. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

 Three skeins of Patons Classic Wool Merino, or any medium-weight, 100 percent wool yarn, each a different color. My colors are Dark Gray Mix (00225), Bottle Green (00220), and Royal Purple (00212). Each coaster takes about 25 yards, so this will be enough yarn to complete several sets. In the patterns that follow, these will be referred to as color A, color B, and color C, respectively.

 One pair size 10 U.S. needles.  One pair of scissors.  One crochet hook.  One yarn needle.  Supplies for hand felting (refer to the section “Supplies for Felting by Hand”). Each coaster measures about six inches square before felting and about five inches square after felting. The gauge is four stitches and five and a quarter rows per inch in stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl one row).

Felting by Hand

One-Color Coasters

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2. Knit in stockinette stitch, knitting one row and purling one row, until the piece measures six inches. This should take about 32 rows.

If you use the long-tail cast-on method, the cast-on edge counts as a row of knit stitches. If you use another cast-on method, it doesn’t count as a row.

For a basic one-color coaster, choose the color you want to work with first. Then do the following:

3. Bind off.

1. Cast on 24 stitches using your favorite caston method.

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4. Cut the thread, leaving a tail of about six inches.

Tip If desired, repeat this pattern with each of your other two colors, for a total of three coasters.

Two-Color Coasters Now that you’ve gotten the basic pattern down, try one that’s knit half in one color and half another. Choose any two colors you like.

5. Weave in the ends.

6. Felt using the procedure in the section “Steps for Felting by Hand” later in this chapter.

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Felting by Hand 1. Cast on 24 stitches in your first color, using your favorite cast-on method. 2. Knit in stockinette stitch until the piece measures three inches, which should take about 16 rows.

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Narrow-Stripe Coasters Combine all three colors to make alternating stripes on a coaster. Before you begin, decide on the order in which you want the colors to appear.

3. On the next knit row, cut your color A yarn, leaving a tail of about six inches. Begin to knit with your color B. 4. Continue in stockinette stitch in the second color until the whole piece measures six inches.

Tip Changing colors on the right (or knit) side of stockinette stitch gives you a clean break between colors on what will be the front of your work.

5. Bind off. 6. Cut the thread, leaving a tail of about six inches. 7. Weave in the ends, making sure to weave the end of each color within the knit stitches of that color. 8. Felt using the procedure in the section “Steps for Felting by Hand” later in this chapter.

1. Cast on 24 stitches in your color A. 2. Knit four rows in stockinette stitch.

Tip

3. Begin knitting with color B on the next knit row, and work in stockinette stitch for four rows.

If desired, combine other colors to make more two-colored coasters.

4. Change to color C and knit four rows in stockinette stitch.

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5. Go back to color A and work in stockinette stitch for an additional four rows. 6. Continue in this manner, changing colors every four rows, until the piece measures six inches. You’ll end with color B. 7. Bind off. 8. Cut the thread, leaving a tail of about six inches. 9. Weave in the ends. 10. Felt using the procedure in the section “Steps for Felting by Hand” later in this chapter.

Tip If desired, try changing the order of the stripes to change the look of the coaster.

Tip You don’t have to make all the stripes the same width if you don’t want to. Try casting on and knitting two rows in one color, then four in the second color, and six in the third. Or come up with your own stripe design.

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Checkerboard Coasters This fun variation teaches you another way to knit with color, known as stranded knitting. The color you aren’t working with is looped across the back and carried to the place you need it to be. This easy checkerboard pattern will get you really comfortable with stranded knitting. Note that it makes a slightly thicker coaster than the others because it has those strands of yarn on the back.

Felting by Hand 1. Cast on 24 stitches in your color A. If you used the long-tail cast on, purl one row. Otherwise, knit one row and purl one row. 2. On your next knit row, knit two in color A and two in color B, continuing in this manner across the row. You will end with color B. Loosely carry the yarn across the back to get to the next place you need it.

Tip It’s a good idea to pick up the new color of yarn from underneath the first color, making a little twist in the yarns on the back. This helps the strands on the back stay a little more organized, and is absolutely essential in intarsia knitting to hold the different pieces of the work together.

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Tip You can change this pattern by changing the colors, or come up with your own simple pattern to try.

Two-Color Horizontal Stripe Coasters The two-color horizontal striped coaster looks pretty much like the two-color vertical stripe coaster after felting, but it uses a completely different technique—namely, a basic form of intarsia, or color-block knitting. With this technique, the two pieces of knitting would be completely separate if not for the twist in the knitting made by picking up the new yarn from underneath the old yarn.

3. Purl across in the same manner, beginning with color B and ending with color A. 4. Now knit two in color B and two in color A across the row. Repeat, matching the same colors on the purl row. 5. Continue in this manner, alternating color blocks every two rows, until the piece measures almost six inches. 6. Work two rows in stockinette stitch in color B and bind off. 7. Cut each thread, leaving a tail of about six inches. 8. Weave in the ends. 9. Felt using the procedure in the section “Steps for Felting by Hand” later in this chapter.

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1. Cast on 12 stitches in color A and 12 stitches in color B. 2. Knit in stockinette stitch until the piece measures about six inches. Be sure to pick up the new color yarn from below the old color to make a twist down the center of the coaster that will hold it together. 3. Bind off color A stitches and the first color B stitch in color A and the remaining color B stitches in color B.

Tip If you bind off stitch for stitch in the same color the stitches were worked in, you’ll get a jog in the colors when you pull the last stitch in color A over the first stitch in color B. To avoid this, knit the last stitch that was worked in color A in color B just on the bindoff row. When you pull it over the other color B stitches, the bound-off edge colors will align with the rest of the work.

4. Cut each thread, leaving a tail of about six inches. 5. Weave in the ends. 6. Felt using the procedure in the section “Steps for Felting by Hand” later in this chapter.

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Color-Block Coasters Finally, you’ll work on a coaster that involves a color rectangle within a square within a square. This pattern also uses intarsia. Instead of working with yarn directly from the ball, for this project you’ll need small balls of each color. First, however, you must decide which color you want on the outside, which in the middle, and which on the inside. You’ll need just one ball of the inside yarn, but two balls of each of the two other yarns. Each ball should be about the size of a ping-pong ball or a little larger.

Felting by Hand

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1. Cast on 24 stitches in your color A. 2. Knit in stockinette stitch for four rows. 3. On the next knit row, knit four stitches in your color A, 16 stitches in color B, then use your second ball of the first color to knit the last four stitches in color A. 4. Continue in stockinette stitch in same colors for three more rows. 5. On the next knit row, knit four stitches in color A, four stitches in your color B, and eight stitches in color C. Join the second ball of color B and knit four stitches, then knit four stitches in color A.

Tip Again, try knitting this pattern changing the order of the color blocks.

This coaster may end up a little longer than your other ones, but it should felt down to size just fine.

6. Continue in stockinette stitch in same colors for 15 more rows. 7. On the next knit row, knit in color A for four stitches, color B for 16 stitches, and color A for four stitches. You can go back to knitting from just one ball for the second color. 8. Continue in stockinette stitch in same colors for three more rows. 9. On next knit row, knit across in color A. Continue in stockinette stitch for three more rows. 10. Bind off. 11. Cut the thread, leaving a tail of about six inches. 12. Weave in the ends. 13. Felt using the procedure in the section “Steps for Felting by Hand” later in this chapter.

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Steps for Felting by Hand ow that you have a collection

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of coasters knit and the ends woven in, it’s time to try felting out for yourself. You’ll want to felt each coaster one at a time because you can really only agitate one at a time. Besides, working with one at a time enables you to focus on getting them to shrink the same amount.

Getting Ready to Felt Before you begin felting the coasters, you’ll want to do the following: 1. Clear everything off the countertop that isn’t related to felting. It can get a little wet. 2. Fill a bowl with cold water. Keep it handy for shocking your project.

3. Fill the sink with hot water. If your sink takes a long time to heat up, use the bathtub or shower to fill a bucket with hot water. You can felt directly in the bucket if you want, but I prefer working in the sink for very small projects like these coasters because it uses less water. 38

4. Grab a towel and spread it out on the countertop. Also set out your straight pins or safety pins and a ruler, tape measure, or yardstick.

5. Choose the piece you want to felt first and put on your rubber gloves.

Felting by Hand

The Felting Process To felt the coasters, do the following:

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4. Put the piece in the cold water and slosh it around for a few seconds. Wring it out a little and put it back in the hot water.

1. Plunge the piece you want to felt into the hot water. Slosh it around, rubbing it against the bottom of the sink or bucket.

2. Use your hands to rub the piece against itself, and use the textured part of your rubber gloves to rub the edges of the piece.

5. Continue agitating and shocking the piece every couple of minutes until you’ve been at the process for about five minutes. 6. Wring the piece out well and lay it out on your towel, stretching it so it’s relatively square. 7. Measure the piece. You’re looking for a piece that is about five inches square. Don’t worry if you find you’ve lost a lot more height than you have width; there will be plenty of stretch in the project to make it square later.

3. After a couple minutes of felting, pull the piece out of the water and wring out the excess water. You may notice that the knitting has opened up and the piece actually looks bigger than when it started. Don’t panic; this is normal.

If you notice any parts of the piece that aren’t felting well, pay special attention to them when you go back in the hot water.

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8. Once the piece is about five inches square (it may end up a little smaller), pin the piece to the towel, stretching and squishing gently as needed to make sure it is the right size and all the sides are square.

When Is It Done? The biggest question people have about felting— whether by hand or by machine—is when is the felting done? For the vast majority of projects in this book, the answer to that question is: whenever you want it to be. The standard for when felting is complete is usually measured as when the stitches “lose definition,” meaning you can no longer see individual stitches—although you may still be able to see the bumps of a purl row or the wavy Vs of a knit row.

9. Allow the piece to dry completely before removing it from the towel.

This coaster is the right size, but a lot of stitch definition remains.

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Felting by Hand If you are more interested in felting to a particular size, as with these coasters or the hat project in Chapter 6, you need to measure your work as it is felting and pay less attention to the way the stitches look. Because you want your set of coasters to all be basically the same size, hitting that five-inch mark is more important than the way the felting looks. That said, if your piece comes out a little smaller than suggested, that’s no problem, as long as all of the coasters you plan to use or give as a gift together end up the same size. Coming out square is more important than hitting a perfect five inches. If one comes out larger than the others but still looks finished, you can trim it down to size.

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Tip You might want to try knitting and felting one coaster before you knit the others. This will let you see how the finished product is going to look and how much felting it is going to take to get results you are happy with. If you decide at this point you want a bigger or smaller coaster, you can always add or subtract rows and stitches to get the result you want.

In any case, your coasters should look very solid when finished. When you pull on the work, you should not be able to see any holes. Some of the stitches, particularly around the edges, may still be somewhat well defined, but as long as the work is solid and it measures around five inches you can call it done.

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Knitting Skills

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his section provides tips for knitting with different colors, which will help you successfully complete this project.

Knitting Stripes To knit the two-color coaster, just knit the first half in your first color. When you’re ready to start with the second color, cut the yarn for the first color, leaving about six inches to weave in later, and start knitting with the second color, again leaving a tail of about six inches.

Knitting Multiple Stripes The multiple stripes of the three-color horizontal coaster are produced in much the same way as in the two-color coaster. Just knit the first stripe, drop that yarn, and start knitting with the next color. When you need the third color, drop the second thread and begin with the third.

The first stitch will feel really loose. You’ll want to pull both ends after knitting the stitch to tighten it back up. If you’re still having trouble, you can tie a loose knot in the two ends to hold the work together while knitting, but untie this knot when you’re done before weaving in the loose ends.

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Because you’ll use each yarn color multiple times on this project, you don’t want to cut the yarn between stripes or you’ll end up with a bunch of little ends to have to weave in. Instead, you can carry the colors you aren’t working with up the side of the project as you go. Each time you get to the right side of the project, just make sure your working yarn is coming up from under the yarns you aren’t working with. This will hook those yarns to the side of the work.

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Once felted, you’ll still be able to see all the colors up the side, but they won’t be noticeable on the front of the coaster. If you know that will bother you, go ahead and snip the strands as you go and weave in the ends as usual.

The different colors of yarn running up the side of the coaster are barely visible after felting.

Stranded Knitting The checkerboard coaster was made through a process known as stranded knitting—so called because the colors you aren’t working with are loosely stranded across the back of the work so that you can pick them up again when you need them. To start knitting with two colors, as in this pattern, knit the first two stitches with your color A and the second two with your color B. Now you’re ready to knit with color A again. To do this, loosely carry the yarn across the back of the work, making sure not to pull too tightly as you knit the next two stitches. This takes a little practice. Knitting too tightly will make your work ripple. If you make sure that the stitches you are carrying the yarn behind are stretched out on the needle, it will be easier to knit more loosely.

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Continue in this manner across the row. The pictures show this on the purl side because it’s much easier to see what’s going on from this side. After felting, the strands will produce another layer of felt, making this a super-thick coaster.

You may find that your checkerboard coaster comes out a little narrower than the others. As long as it’s not rippling, this should be fine. As the fibers relax, it will stretch out to the same size as the other projects. Just pin it to the proper size; when it dries, it will look just like the others.

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Color-Block Knitting The final technique used in the coaster project is intarsia, in which blocks of color are knit with separate strands of yarn rather than carrying the yarn on the back of the work. This is the method used for both the two-color vertical stripes and the color block coaster. Intarsia is the preferred method for working blocks of color such as a large picture on the front of a sweater, and it’s really easy to do. Start by making small balls of each color you’re working with—in the case of the color-block coaster, that’s two each of colors A and B, and one for color C. The first part of the project is worked just with color A. When you get to the part where you need color B, drop color A and start knitting with color B. When you get to the point in the row where you pick up color A again, start working with your second ball of yarn.

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The key to success with intarsia is to always pick up the next color from underneath the strand of the previous color. This twists the yarn together and holds the different individually knit pieces into one cohesive whole. When this project is felted, you may be able to see these twists, but they will only show on the back side.

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Scarves before and after felting.

4 Felting by Machine achine felting is much more common

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than hand felting, and it is the easiest way to felt larger projects. This chapter will take you through the basics of felting with the help of your washing machine and let you practice on a quick-to-knit scarf.

How to Felt by Machine ost people find machine felting a lot easier than hand felting because it doesn’t involve a lot of hands-on work. Rather, machine felting uses the agitating power of the washing machine—along with hot water—to make felt much more quickly than could be done by hand. It is the ideal method for felting large projects such as scarves, belts, blankets, and purses.

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Convenience is a major factor for people who choose felting by machine over felting by hand, but there is room for both techniques in your felting repertoire. You will find yourself using both hand felting and machine felting as you work through the projects in this book and as you go on to design your own felted projects. You may even find that you’ll use both techniques on the same project. For example, sometimes the ends of a scarf or belt don’t felt the same amount as the middle of the project when felted by machine; selectively hand-felting a section will even out the project.

Supplies for Machine Felting Very few supplies are needed for machine felting, and the biggest one you probably already own.

 A washing machine. A top-loading machine is best, but if you have a front-loader, that will work, too.

 A large pillowcase cover that zips closed. You can buy one of these at your favorite discount store for around $5. You can also use a sheet; just pin up the sides so it makes a closed pocket.

 Old towels or jeans. Some people like to add old towels or jeans to the washing machine when felting, as these items add to the level of agitation. If you choose to go this route, make sure the items you add are old enough that they won’t contribute fuzz or dye to your project.

 A bit of laundry detergent or wool wash. As with felting by hand, machine felting is aided by the use of a little soap, which helps open up the fibers. This is optional, however; most projects will felt just fine without it.

 Long tongs, a stick, or something to help you pull your project out of the water. You’ll need to check your project as it is felting, which means there will still be hot water in your washing machine when you pull it out. Tongs help you pull your project out of the water without scalding yourself. Rubber gloves help, too. 48

Felting by Machine

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 Towels. Cover the top of the dryer with dry towels so you can lay out your project and gauge how much more felting needs to be done. You can also use towels under your project to pin your project to after it is felted.

 Straight pins. These are to help you shape your project to the proper size.

Why A Pillowcase? Felting knitting releases a lot of fiber from the felting object, as you probably learned when you felted by hand. The volume of fiber that comes off a larger project felted by machine is much more than what comes off a small project felted by hand. Putting your project in a pillowcase before felting keeps all those loose fibers in the bag, meaning they don’t go down the drain and clog up your machine. Indeed, I’ve heard of felters who have endured expensive washing-machine repairs because of fiber gunking up the works. If you don’t have a zip-top pillowcase, you could fish all the loose fibers out of the machine before letting the water drain— but my advice is to save yourself some trouble, invest a few bucks in a pillowcase, and use it every time you felt. You’ll be glad you did. Whatever method you choose, do all you can to keep the fiber out of your machine’s parts.

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Knitting the Variegated Scarf variegated scarf is really quick and easy to knit and is a good project for learning about machine felting. They’re so simple to knit, you might decide you need one in every color. Or you might choose to make them as gifts for all your friends to show off your newfound knitting and felting skills. The yarn, Caron Felt-It, is widely available at craft stores nationwide. I’ve knit the scarf up in two different colors, but I’ll leave it to you to determine which colorway (that’s a fancy knitting word for the series of colors in variegated yarn) is “masculine” and which is “feminine.”

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The only new skill in this project is starting a new ball of yarn in the middle of a project. If you’re not sure how to do this, there are two methods at the end of this chapter.

If you’re new to knitting, you might not know that most yarn is labeled with a number, known as the dye lot, that indicates which balls of yarn came from the same batch. The colors from different dye lots might be slightly different. When you’re working on a project that requires more than one ball of the same color of yarn, check to make sure they all come from the same dye lot. Using balls from different dye lots in the same project has led to much disappointment!

Here’s what you’ll need to complete the project:

 Three skeins of Caron Felt-It Yarn. The predominantly blue and green scarf is in color 003, Wildflowers, while the beige scarf is color 001, Adobe.

 One pair size 11 U.S. needles  A pair of scissors  A crochet hook  A yarn needle  Supplies for machine felting (see the preceding section)

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Skeins from the same dye lot ensure color success.

Felting by Machine The scarf measures 8 inches wide and 6 feet (72 inches) long before felting. In four inches, there are 13 stitches and 15 rows. After felting, it is 5 inches wide and 50 inches long. To knit the scarf, follow these steps:

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3. Bind off. Cut the yarn, leaving a tail of about six inches.

1. Cast on 25 stitches.

4. Weave in the ends.

2. Knit in stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl one row) until the piece measures 72 inches, joining in new yarn when necessary. (As mentioned, you’ll find two methods for joining in new yarn at the end of this chapter.)

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Felting the Scarves

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fter you’ve finished your

knitting and have securely woven in your ends, it’s time to get your machine ready and make magic happen.

2. Gather your materials, including the zippered pillowcase, the scarf, your tongs, soap, pins, and towels or jeans, if you are using them.

Getting Ready to Felt by Machine Before you use your washing machine to felt, do the following: 1. Clear off your dryer or some other work space near your washing machine, laying out towels to help keep your work space dry.

3. Place the scarf in the pillowcase and zip the pillowcase shut.

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Felting by Machine 4. Set your washing machine on the lowest water level, the hottest water, and the shortest wash cycle. Let it fill with water and add a teaspoon or so of liquid soap.

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2. Set a timer for five minutes.

3. If you can stop your washing machine while it is agitating, stop it when the timer goes off. 4. Use your tongs to lift the pillowcase out of the water.

The Felting Process When the washing machine begins to agitate, do the following: 1. Put the pillowcase in the machine and close the lid.

5. Unzip the pillowcase and extract your project to see how the felting is progressing. 6. Odds are good you will need more time; if so, place the project back in the pillowcase, zip the case again, and restart the machine.

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7. Continue checking the progress every minute or so, resetting the agitation as necessary. Do not allow the machine to drain during this process.

9. Lay the project out on towels and use straight pins to hold the sides of the project straight as it dries. A yardstick or measuring tape may help to ensure the finished project is square.

8. In time, you will see that the stitches are disappearing and the fabric is becoming firm. When you think it is ready, pull it out, and squeeze as much water as you can out of the project and into the washing machine. Note that my beige scarf felted for eight minutes, while the blue one felted for five.

Tip Some felters say you can allow the machine to drain and spin with the project still in it, but I always remove my projects before draining the machine. Spinning your project in the machine may cause it to become misshapen, making more work for you when you pin down the sides. I just squeeze all the water I can out of the project and back into the machine and let towels take care of the rest.

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10. Allow the project to dry without moving it. 11. Unpin and enjoy!

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Knitting Skills

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here are several different ways

to join a new ball of yarn to your knitting project. While simply leaving a tail is the easiest method, joining the two balls together before knitting with the second ball means you’ll only have two tails to weave in on your whole project.

Starting a New Ball of Yarn

Because you are working with animal fibers, however, you have available another method for joining a new ball of yarn. Because wool felts, you can simply felt the end of one ball of yarn to the beginning of another and you’ll get a firm, seamless join. It takes a little work but is well worth the effort. 1. Begin by separating the end of the first ball of yarn and the beginning of the next ball of yarn into two sections, or plys. The yarn may naturally unravel a bit, or you may need to coax it.

The most basic method of joining a new ball of yarn to a project is simply dropping the old yarn when you have about 6 inches left and picking up and knitting with the new yarn, again leaving a tail of about 6 inches. Some people prefer to do this along an edge of the knitting because the edge offers lots of places to weave in ends, but you can join a new ball of yarn wherever you are when you are about to run out of yarn.

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2. Using a bit of water, dampen one ply from the old yarn and one from the new. Using your fingers, rub the plies together until they begin to stick.

3. Repeat the process with the second set of plies.

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4. Finally, rub both sections of yarn together until the join closes completely. Allow the yarn to dry before knitting with it.

Some people call this kind of join, where you felt the ends of the balls together, a spit join because you can use spit instead of water from the sink to do the felting. It’s up to you, but I prefer plain old water.

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Unleash the Felting Magic! ongratulations! You've felted your

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first project in the washing machine. Was it scary? Were you excited to see the results? Now that you're over the hurdle of finishing your first felted knitting project, you can begin to see all the possibilities for projects to felt and knit.

From blankets to bags, belts to pillows, felted flowers to cat toys and more, you can make just about any project you can imagine through felting your knitting. The rest of this book will show you some of your options and give you the confidence to go your own way and felt your own knits. If you can imagine it, you can felt it!

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5 Felting Tips ow that you know how to felt, and have completed both a machine-felted and a hand-felted project, it’s time to move beyond the basics with some felting tips that will help you gain confidence in the craft. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to choose the right yarn and the best projects, as well as discover tips to make your felting a little easier.

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Tips for Choosing Yarn

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he basis of every felting project is

the yarn. Indeed, the success of your project will be determined in large part by whether the right yarn was chosen for the project. I’ve already talked a little bit about choosing the right yarn; you know that the more animal fiber in a yarn, the more thorough the felting will be. You also know not to choose superwash wool, since it will not felt. But there are some other things you should keep in mind when picking yarn for your projects:

 Did you know that white and very lightcolored yarns are difficult to felt? That’s because the bleaches and other chemicals used to make the wool white also strip away some of the properties that make the fiber felt. So for best results, choose colors rather than whites.

 So-called heathered yarns, which combine different colors of fiber, tend to felt more slowly than pure, solidcolored yarns—but your patience will be rewarded with lovely results.

 Those projects that aren’t made with 100-percent animal fiber will take longer to felt—and might not result in a nice, fully felted final project. Of course, there may be times when that’s the look you’re going for; if not, however, steer clear of these types of yarn.

 Just as every type of yarn felts differently, it’s also true that every color of yarn felts differently—even when the yarn comes from the same manufacturer. That’s because the different animals those different colors of yarn came from might have slightly different hair, which then makes yarn that felts at a different rate. You’re beginning to see why even when you have experience felting, it’s always a surprise when you open the machine and see what’s happened!

 If you’re choosing yarn for your own felting project, remember to knit your gauge swatch (see Chapter 9, “Your Own Felting Patterns”) on knitting needles that are two or three sizes larger than the ball band calls for. This allows the knitted item to felt more easily.

Light-colored yarns can be more difficult to felt.

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Felting Tips

Chapter 5

 If you want to swap out a yarn used in a

 Don’t be afraid to try different yarns to

published pattern with one of your own choosing, make sure you use a yarn with the same fiber content as the original. If the pattern calls for a 50/50 alpaca and wool blend, try to find something similar instead of using, say, a 100percent wool yarn in its place. Again, different animal fibers felt differently, so the odds of getting a finished project that looks like the one in the book will be greatly improved if you use the same kind of fiber.

see how they felt. Just make sure you knit and felt a gauge swatch before you invest time in making a large project with a particular yarn in case you don’t like the felted look as much as you like the yarn itself. Also remember that a project will shrink by about one-third when you felt it, so buy more yarn than you think you’ll need to compensate for shrinkage.

Different compositions of yarn can felt differently.

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Hand-Felting Tips Here are some tips to consider when felting by hand:

 The biggest tip for hand felting is to give yourself plenty of time and be patient. Although you can break up felting a project into a couple of different sessions, it is best if you can do all the shrinking at once.

 If you’re felting a very large project by hand, use a good, old-fashioned washtub or bucket and washboard. You can buy metal or glass washboards from many knitting-supply companies. The texture of the washboard provides more roughness and agitation than your hands alone could, helping speed the process.

 If you’re having trouble getting a piece to felt evenly using just your hands, try working with a felting stone. Hold the stone in one hand and hold the project in place with the other. Then just scrub the project as if you were trying to get a stain out.

 If your arms get tired while felting an object by hand, fill a bucket with water and agitate for a while with your feet. Bonus: Your arms get a rest while your work felts, and you get a foot soak!

 Use tools to aid your agitation. Wooden spoons, potato mashers, even a stick from the yard or a broom handle can be used to help work your felting. 62

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Machine-Felting Tips Machine felting is less labor-intensive than hand felting, but it’s also more difficult to control. Here are a few tips to help:

 The key to machine felting is to keep an eye on your project while it is in the machine. When it’s almost done, you’ll want to check it every minute or so to make sure it doesn’t go beyond what your idea of “properly felted” is.

 Many people like to add something to the machine along with the felting project to help it felt a little faster. While this isn’t a necessity, it does help move larger projects along in a more timely fashion. If you don’t have a pair of jeans you’d like to subject to hot water, try a pair of dollar-store flip-flops, or even a couple of clean tennis balls.

 Some narrow, long items, such as belts, purse handles, or I-cord straps, can get tangled during the felting process. Make sure each time you stop to check the progress of your project that these pieces aren’t tangled in knots or felting together. You can also try felting these items by hand.

 If you are working on a project in which the pieces are not all sewn together before felting (as with the cat toy in Chapter 6, “Felting Patterns”), felt all the pieces at the same time. This will make it easier to get all the pieces felted to the same size or level of felting.

 Some people have more trouble deciding when a felted project is finished when using a washing machine to felt than when felting by hand. Again, the decision to stop felting is completely personal. Generally, it’s a good idea to pull items like scarves, blankets, and pillows from the machine when they are still a little soft—which means they might still have some stitch definition left. It’s more important for these items to be comfortable to use and to drape nicely than it is to have them fully felted.

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Felting with a Front Loader More and more people these days have front-loading washing machines instead of the traditional top loaders. These machines are a good choice for the environment because they use less water than the top-loading machines. For felters, however, a front loader may cause problems because it does not have a center agitator, which speeds along the felting process considerably. It isn’t impossible to felt in a front-loading washing machine, but you may find that it takes a lot longer to get good results than the estimates for felting given with the patterns in this book. Also, because you can’t stop a front loader during its cycle, you will have to run the machine to the end before you can see how your project is progressing. Because of this, you might want to try felting with warm water instead of the hottest water your machine can offer. You lose a lot of control this way, but it’s probably still better than trying to felt a blanket by hand!

The stitches are more visible on the blue scarf, but both are “done.”

 If you need something to felt to an exact size, such as a hat, pull the item when it is the size specified by the pattern (or, in the case of a hat, when it fits the head it was designed for). It is difficult to make a fully felted item stretch to a larger size; typically, there comes a time when you just have to accept that you over felted an item.

 If you want to try fixing a project that got too small in the wash, get it wet and stretch it as hard as you can. You really can’t be too rough here. Then do whatever is required to make the piece hold the desired shape. For example, use a bowl to shape a hat, pin the project down if you need it to lie flat, or fill it with books if it’s a bag. When the project dries, it should be the right size— although, as mentioned, there may be some projects that have simply been overfelted and cannot be made as large as you’d like.

 There is no way to unfelt a felted Front-end loader. Copyright Luke Daniek, istockphoto.com.

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project, so if you’ve gone way beyond the size you wanted, find someone else to give the project to or another purpose for it.

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Caring for Felted Items nce you have felted your item

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and the project is dry, you’ll want to take some special steps to care for it:

 If you notice that the item is a little shaggy, you can trim any excess fiber with a small pair of scissors or a sweater shaver. You can also do this if your project starts to look a little ragged after you’ve worn or used it a few times.

Using Wool Wash Several products on the market are designed for the care of woolen items. Some of the brands include Eucalan, Kookaburra, Soak Wash, and Meadows. These products are all specially formulated to gently remove odors and dirt from wool and animal fiber knitwear, and some can even be used without rinsing, eliminating a step in the washing process. These products are a great choice for caring for your knitted wool sweaters, socks, scarves, and other garments, as well as your felted items. Just follow the instructions on the package to determine how much to use when cleaning items. These products should be available at your local yarn store, or you can find them at many online knitting shops on the Internet.

 Felted items should be laundered just like any other wool item: by hand, in cool water, with as little agitation as possible. Just because the fibers of your project are already fused doesn’t mean it can’t shrink more. Take as much care with your felted items as you would with sweaters or socks that you don’t want to felt, and you’ll be able to continue to use these items for many years to come. 65

Choosing Projects for Felting s a new felter, it is a good

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idea to stick with published projects like the ones in this book that have been tested and should give you a result you can be happy with. You can always alter a pattern by changing the color, adding a stripe, or applying an embellishment later through needle felting or wet felting (see Chapters 7, “Needle Felting,” and 8, “Other Ways to Felt”). After you have successfully completed a few projects from patterns, you can begin to venture out on your own, designing original felting patterns. Whether you’re looking for home décor, accessories, items for your cats, or pieces for a new baby in your life, you’ll find felting projects that are as beautiful as they are durable and practical. Once you get started, you’re sure to be a felter for life!

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6 Felting Patterns T

his chapter includes 10 patterns to show

you the wide variety of things that can be made with felted knitting. From a cool felted rose to a simple striped belt, from a handy dresser tray to a darling baby blanket, there are tons of things even new knitters can make and felt. Let’s get started!

Felted Rose his simple felted rose is made

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just by knitting a long, narrow strip of fabric, then rolling it up into a rosette shape and felting it in the washing machine. You can make these larger or smaller to get different effects to wear on your jacket, use as home décor, or decorate a gift bag.

Materials  One skein Valley Yarns Northampton in Dahlia or desired color (one skein is enough for tons of flowers)

 One pair size 9 knitting needles  Yarn needle

Gauge and Measurements Before felting, the gauge of the knitted strip is 4.5 stitches and 5.5 rows per inch. Gauge is not critical with this project, however. The unfelted project is just over 3 inches wide and 24 inches long. The pictured flower is about 3 inches tall and 8 inches around, but your size will vary depending on how you fold and stitch your rosette.

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Instructions

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3. Bind off and cut the yarn, leaving a long tail. Weave in the cast-on end.

1. Cast on 15 stitches.

4. Fold and roll the knit strip into a rosette shape. Using the long tail you left on the bind-off side, sew the rose into the shape you want. 2. Work in stockinette stitch for 24 inches, or to your desired length.

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5. Felt by machine or by hand to desired level of felting. Mine took 15 minutes.

Make It Your Own Change the color and size of the flower or add leaves as shown by casting on 3 stitches in your favorite green yarn (I used Northampton in color 09, Lizard Green). Knit one row. Increase in the next row by knitting into the front and back of the first and last stitch. Continue increasing every other row until you have 15 stitches. Knit straight for 3 inches, then begin decreasing by knitting 2 stitches together at the beginning and end of every other row until 3 stitches remain. Knit one row, then bind off. Felt about 15 minutes, then fold in half and pin to dry. You can also knit flowers in this way. Just make several of these “petals” and stitch them together after felting.

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Felting Patterns

Chapter 6

Fibonacci Striped Belt nother simple knit strip, the Fibonacci belt, is a little more interesting to knit because it involves two colors knit in the very fancy sounding Fibonacci color sequence. All this means is that the color changes happen according to the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, which is a sequence of numbers in which the next number is the sum of the first two numbers. (We’re only using part of it, which goes like this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.)

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Materials  One skein each of Plymouth Galway in two colors of your choice. Mine are color 44, a bright red, and color 66, which is black. You’ll barely make a dent in these skeins with this project.

 One pair size 11 knitting needles  Two D-rings or another belt closure of your choice

 Sewing machine or needle and thread

Gauge and Measurements Gauge is 3 stitches and 3.5 rows per inch. Before felting, project is about 3 inches wide and 50 inches long. After felting, it is 2 inches wide and 37.5 inches long. If you need a longer belt, knit more stripes.

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Instructions

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3. Repeat the sequence twice more, for a total of three repetitions of the stripe pattern.

1. Choose the order you want to use your colors in, and cast on 10 stitches in color A.

4. Bind off and weave in the ends.

2. Work in stockinette stitch, beginning with color A. Knit one row in color A, one in color B, two in color A, three in color B, five in color A, eight in color B, 13 in color A, and 21 in color B.

5. Felt as much as you wish, or until the width of the belt is about 2 inches. Pin the project down so that the sides are all straight (and the stripes are even as well) and allow to dry.

Felting Patterns 6. Attach your D-rings or other belt closure using a sewing machine or needle and thread. If your belt is too long for you, feel free to trim away some of the fabric. You can put your rings on either end of the belt as you like.

Chapter 6

Working with Two Colors Don’t cut the yarn each time you change colors on this project. That will just lead to a bunch of ends you have to weave in, and it will drive you crazy. Instead, leave the yarn you’re not working with hanging at the side. Each time you come to that side of the work, catch that yarn with your working yarn by picking up the working yarn from underneath the other yarn, and it will be carried up the work.

Make it your own: You can make stripe patterns just about any way you like, or try knitting a solid belt instead. Knitting and felting belts is a great way to accessorize, and they’re so quick to knit you can make one to go with all of your favorite outfits.

Sometimes you will need the next color of yarn to be on the opposite side from where you last worked with it. When this happens you can “carry” the yarn you’re not working with along the back of the work by picking up your working yarn from below the other yarn every couple of stitches. Then you can just drop the color you were working with and pick up the new color where you need it.

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Striped Envelope Purse his adorable envelope purse

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would be a great purse for a little girl or for an adult who just has a little bit of stuff to carry for a night on the town. This colorful bag is sure to bring a smile to your face, and it’s also really easy and quick to knit.

Materials  Two skeins Plymouth Boku, color 15  One pair size 10 circular knitting needles, any cable length16 inches or longer

 Yarn needle

If you prefer, you can use straight needles for knitting the bag and a circular needle or two double-pointed needles for knitting the handle. The pictures show the whole project done with circular needles.

Gauge and Measurements Gauge is 3 stitches and 4 rows per inch. Before felting, bag is 9 inches wide and 11 inches tall with a 5-inch flap. The strap is 40 inches. After felting, it is 6 inches wide, 8 inches tall, and has a 4.5-inch flap and a 37-inch strap.

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Instructions 1. Cast on 30 stitches.

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4. Fold so that the bag is 11 inches deep with a 5-inch flap and sew the sides using the mattress stitch (see the end of this chapter) or your preferred finishing method.

2. Work in stockinette stitch for 27 inches. 3. Bind off and weave in the ends. 5. Make the strap using the circular or doublepointed needles. Cast on 5 stitches and knit an I-cord (see sidebar) that measures 40 inches. Bind off.

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6. Use the tails of the cord or another piece of yarn to sew the strap into the bag.

7. Felt by machine until you like how felted the project looks. Mine took 25 minutes. If necessary, pin the sides straight and allow to dry.

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This is a really easy project that can be made bigger if you’d like a larger purse. Or you can make it from a different kind of yarn that doesn’t have the striping effect. If you don’t like the I-cord strap, try knitting a flat stockinette strap or using purchased bag handles.

Making an I-cord I-cord, also known as “idiot cord,” is a simple way to make a tube of knitting. Cast on the desired number of stitches (in this case 5) onto a circular or double-pointed needle. Knit the stitches, then push the knitting to the other end of the needle and knit again, pulling the working yarn up from the bottom along the back of the work. As you go, pull down gently on the cord every few rows and it will close up on itself like magic. I-cords are a great choice for straps, but they can also be used as embellishments by knitting a cord, shaping it, and sewing it down in a circle, a flower shape, or even as a monogram.

Felting Patterns

Chapter 6

Multi-colored Placemat ou can’t help but smile when you look at this adorable placemat. It’s the perfect project to make and use in the dead of winter, when you need a splash of color to brighten up your days. The best part is you can make a bunch from a single skein of each color, so you can easily decorate your table (or a friend’s) in no time.

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Materials  One skein each of five different colors of Lion Wool (mine are colors 140, Rose; 125, Cocoa; 178, Dark Teal; 139, Pearl Gray; and 132, Lemongrass). For the color you use most, one placemat will take about 30 yards, meaning you should be able to make about five placemats with one skein of each color.

 One pair size 10.5 U.S. needles. A circular needle with a 24- or 36-inch cable is easier, although this project is knit flat, but you can use either kind.

Gauge and Measurements Before felting, gauge is 3.5 stitches and 4.5 rows per inch. The placemat is about 19 inches square before felting and is 12 inches tall and 14.5 inches wide after felting.

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Instructions 1. Decide the order you would like your colors to be in. Cast on 70 stitches in your first color.

3. Continue in this manner for two more full color-repeats, repeating four, six, and eight rows as you go. End with four rows in your first color and bind off.

4. Felt to desired size. Mine took 10 minutes. Pin the sides straight and allow to dry.

2. Work in stockinette stitch for four rows in the first color, six in the second, eight in the third, four in the fourth, and six in the fifth.

Change the number of colors and the width of the stripes to suit your fancy. For best results, always change colors on the knit side so the stripes will be nice and crisp. You can also change the shape of the placemat or even make a really long version of the same project and use it as a table runner.

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Felting Patterns

Chapter 6

Felted Pillow felted pillow is a great addition to any room’s décor. Making pillows is a lot of fun, and it allows you to get customized shapes and sizes of pillows that you can’t find in the shops. This cute little pillow is further customized with the addition of a funky button to keep the pillowcase removable so it can be cleaned.

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Materials  Three skeins Noro Kureyon, color 182  One pair size 9 U.S. knitting needles, straight or circular

 Yarn needle  Enough cotton fabric of any color to make a pillow form for your pillowcase

 Fiber batting  Sewing machine  One 2-inch button

Gauge and Measurements Before felting, gauge is 4.5 stitches and 5 rows per inch. The finished project before felting is 11 inches wide and 11.5 inches tall with a 5-inch flap. After felting, it is 9 inches wide and 8 inches tall with a 4-inch flap.

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Instructions

3. Bind off 45 stitches.

1. Cast on 90 stitches.

4. Continue to work in stockinette stitch another 5 inches. Bind off and weave in ends. 2. Work in stockinette stitch for 12 inches.

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5. Sew up the bottom and side, leaving a 5-inch flap.

7. Use the fabric and batting to make a pillow form the size and shape of your pillow.

6. Felt until the fabric is firm. Mine took 25 minutes. Shape if necessary and allow to dry.

8. Insert the pillow form and decide where your buttonhole needs to be.

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9. Cut the felt to make a buttonhole, or use your sewing machine to make a buttonhole and then cut it open.

10. Sew on the button.

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Now that you have the basics down, you can make pillows of any size and from any yarn to match your décor. Try making your own stripes as in the placemat pattern rather than using a striping yarn. If you don’t like doing a lot of sewing up of your knitting, you can work the first part of this project in the round. Start with a circular needle and join the work in the round at the beginning. When you bind off your 45 stitches, just knit the other 45 stitches flat, still using your circular needles. You’ll have one less side to sew up!

Felting Patterns

Chapter 6

Dresser Tray

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dresser tray (also known as a valet

tray) is a nice addition to any dresser top. It’s a pretty place for your daily necessities to land, such as your keys, wallet, favorite piece of jewelry, or anything else small you might need to grab and go. It also introduces you to the technique of picking up stitches, which you can learn more about at the end of this chapter.

Materials  One skein Berroco Peruvia in color 7122, Avocado

 One pair size 13 U.S. straight needles (optional)

 One size 13 U.S. circular needle with 36-inch cable

 Stitch marker

Gauge and Measurements Gauge before felting is 3 stitches and 4 rows per inch. The project is 15 inches wide, 12 inches long, and has 3-inch sides before felting. After felting, it is 11 inches long, 6 inches wide, and has sides that are about 1.5 inches.

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Instructions 1. Cast on 50 stitches with your straight needle, if you are using one.

2. Work flat in stockinette stitch for 12 inches, ending on a purl side.

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3. Switch to your circular needle. Knit across the row, then pick up and knit one stitch for every other row along each side and one stitch for every other stitch across the bottom of the work. Your number of stitches will vary depending on how many rows it took you to get 12 inches, but I got 119 stitches.

4. Join in the round, being careful not to twist the work. Place a stitch marker.

Felting Patterns 5. Knit in the round for 4 inches.

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7. Felt as needed to make a firm fabric. Mine took 10 minutes. If necessary, place objects in and around the tray to help the sides stay up. Allow the tray to dry.

6. Bind off and weave in the ends.

This simple project is a great jumping-off point for other projects using the same technique. For instance, if you knit a few more inches after picking up the stitches, you’d have a bowl after felting instead of a tray. The same technique is used on the next pattern, a funky felted tote bag.

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Funky Vegas Tote Bag nitting and felting accessories

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is a lot of fun because it gives you a chance to play with colors you might not otherwise have considered. This bag is a great example. I don’t normally like orange that much, but I can’t get enough of this cute bag. I want to carry it everywhere!

Materials  Three skeins Southwest Trading Company Vegas (from the Vickie Howell collection) in color 421, Viva Las, or color of your choice

 One skein Vegas in color 420, Martini, or color of your choice

 One pair size 10 U.S. straight needles  One pair size 10 U.S. circular needles, 24 or 36-inch cable

 Stitch marker  Sewing machine or needle and thread  Purchased bag handles, optional

Gauge and Measurements Before felting, gauge is about 4 stitches and 4.5 rows per inch. This yarn varies greatly in thickness, so gauge is not critical. The base of the bag is 7 inches wide and 16 inches long before felting, while the bag itself is 16 inches tall. After felting, the bag is 10.5 inches wide and 9.5 inches tall without the handles.

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Felting Patterns

Instructions 1. Cast on 25 stitches on straight needles.

Chapter 6

3. Begin knitting with the circular needle. Knit across the row, then pick up and knit one stitch for every other row on each side and one stitch for every other stitch across the bottom. Your number of stitches may vary depending on the number of rows you have knit, but I ended up with 131 stitches.

2. Work in stockinette stitch for 16 inches, ending on a purl row. 4. Join in the round, place a stitch marker, and knit for 16 inches.

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5. Bind off and weave in the ends.

The bag includes a pocket knit from a contrasting color of yarn using a technique known as bias garter stitch. As you work through this, remember that every row is knit. 1. Cast on 3 stitches.

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2. Increase by knitting into the front and back of the first stitch on each row until you have 40 stitches.

3. Decrease at the beginning of each row by knitting 2 stitches together until you have 3 stitches.

Felting Patterns 4. Bind off. You should have a square of about 7 inches. Weave in ends.

5. Felt the bag and the pocket (and handles, if desired) until the fabric is firm. Mine took 10 minutes. Shape as necessary, pinning the pocket square, and allow it to dry. 6. Sew the pocket onto the front of the bag using a sewing machine or needle and thread.

Chapter 6

7. Attach handles.

If desired you can also knit handles out of the contrasting yarn. Cast on 8 stitches and knit in garter stitch until you have 20 inches. Bind off and make another the same way. For best results, felt the handles by hand so they don’t get too mashed up in the washing machine.

If you don’t like the look of contrasting colors, knit the pocket in the same color as the bag. You should have enough yarn to do both. Or knit stripes into the bag. Choose funky store-bought handles to give your bag a different look.

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Felted Baby Blanket felted baby blanket might not

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sound very cozy, but this is one of those projects that shouldn’t be felted very hard. That way it will keep its softness. This blanket will be a warm comfort for baby and parents as well as a fun place to play when the child is a little older. This is by far the largest and most time-consuming project in the book, but it will yield great rewards in the form of a cherished and useful heirloom. Just remember to tuck in a note with the blanket if you’re giving it away to let the new parents know how to care for it.

Materials  Three skeins each of three different colors of Plymouth Yarns Baby Alpaca Grande (mine are colors 567, a dusty pink; 2630, yellow; and 1830, a bright lavender)

If you’re going for more of a baby-boy look, try colors 1310, a minty green; 3317, baby blue; and 401, a soft gray.

 One pair size 13 U.S. needles  Yarn needle

Gauge and Measurements Before felting, the gauge is 2.5 stitches and 3.5 rows per inch. The blanket is 54 inches tall and about 52 inches wide before felting. The finished blanket is 48 inches wide and 31 inches tall, so the width as it was knit should be considered the height when using the blanket.

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Instructions

Chapter 6

3. Knit a second panel beginning with your second color, then your third, then your first.

1. Choose the order in which you would like your colors to appear. Cast on 42 stitches in your first color.

4. For the final panel, begin with color three, then work with color one, then color two.

2. Work in stockinette stitch with your first color for 18 inches, then in your second color for 18 inches, then in your third color for 18 inches. Bind off.

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5. Sew the panels together in the order they were knit, or in any pattern you like.

6. Felt lightly so that the fabric is still somewhat flexible. You may see more stitch definition than you did on other projects. Mine took 12 minutes.

For best results, don’t felt this using a zippered pillowcase. It probably won’t fit anyway. Just remember to do a good job cleaning the loose fiber out of your washing machine when you’re finished!

7. Lay the blanket flat, straightening and pinning the sides as necessary. Allow it to dry.

Now that you aren’t afraid of knitting big projects to felt, you can make lap-sized blankets for anyone you want. You probably don’t want to make something much bigger before felting than this project, however, as it can be difficult to get large projects to felt evenly.

Choose your recipient’s (or your own) favorite three colors and knit blocks, or knit each section in a different solid color to make chunky stripes.

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Felting Patterns

Chapter 6

Felted Fish Cat Toy have two of the biggest, happiest

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housecats, Louis and Mr. Bean. Louis is about 20 pounds, while Bean is a sleek 16. I couldn’t contemplate a felting book without a treat for my boys, so I came up with this goldfish-shaped cat toy. If your cats aren’t as big as mine, you can use the same shape but make a smaller fish. This project is knit in garter stitch to make all the increasing and decreasing a little easier. If you don’t have a cat, make a fish toy for a little person in your life—just stuff it with fiber batting instead of catnip!

Materials  One skein Lion Wool in color 133, Pumpkin (less than half a skein is needed for this project)

 One pair size 10.5 U.S. knitting needles  Sewing machine or needle and thread  Catnip

Gauge and Measurements Before felting, the gauge is 5.5 stitches and 6 rows per inch, and the finished fish is 9.5 inches long and 6 inches tall. After felting, it is about 8 inches long and 4 inches tall. Gauge is not critical with this project.

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Instructions

3. Continue in this manner, increasing 2 stitches every other row, until you have 21 stitches.

1. Cast on 7 stitches. Knit one row.

2. On the next row, increase by knitting into the front and back of the first and last stitch.

4. Knit straight for 17 rows.

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Felting Patterns 5. Begin to decrease by knitting 2 stitches together at the beginning and end of every other row until 5 stitches remain.

Chapter 6

7. Increase by knitting into the front and back of the first and last stitch every row until there are 15 stitches, then every other row until there are 21 stitches.

8. Knit 3 rows. Bind off.

6. Knit 3 rows.

9. Knit another fish in the same manner. Weave in ends.

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10. Felt until the fabric is nice and firm. Then pin it down and allow it to dry. If your pieces don’t come out exactly the same, trim the larger one to the shape of the smaller one.

11. Sew up the body by hand or machine and fill with catnip. I used almost two whole bags of catnip just in the body.

12. Sew the tail, leaving the end open, and add more catnip, if desired. Then sew the tail closed. Alternatively, you could leave the tail free of catnip and leave the pieces of tail floppy.

You can make cat toys in any simple shape by increasing and decreasing. It’s great to have a visual guide to the shape you’re trying to create as you knit, such as a simple drawing or a cookie cutter. If you’re looking for an easier way to make shapes, knit a swatch, felt it, and cut out your desired shapes. Then sew them together as before.

If your cat is anything like my Mr. Bean, you might want to limit his time with this toy in one sitting. Bean obsessively licks anything with catnip in it, which means it’s likely he’s swallowing wool fibers. For the sake of his system, I take it away from him after a couple minutes of licking.

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Felted Bucket Hat bucket hat may be the most

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practical thing you can wear when it’s wet outside. A felted wool hat is sure to keep you warm and keep the rain off you. It’s stylish and quick to knit, too. Although this may seem like the most complicated pattern in the book, it’s really not that difficult. The only thing to keep in mind is that this needs to fit a head when all is said and done, so paying attention while felting is critical.

Materials  Two skeins Louet Riverstone Bulky in color of your choice (I used color 56, Navy)

 One pair size 13 circular needles, 24-inch cable

 One set size 13 double-pointed needles  Stitch marker  Yarn needle  Bowl or head form the same size as the head you want your hat to fit

Only a little bit of the second skein is needed for this project. If you want a hat that’s slightly smaller, you can get away with just one skein.

Gauge and Measurements Before felting, the gauge is 3 stitches and 3.5 rows per inch. The hat is 26 inches around at the brim and 15 inches tall before felting. After felting, size will vary depending on how much you felt it, but mine is 24 inches around at the brim and 6 inches tall, which will fit an average-sized woman. It has a brim that is an inch deep. 99

Instructions 1. Cast on 80 stitches and join in the round, being careful not to twist stitches.

3. On the next round, *knit 14, knit 2 together. Repeat from * around. You’ll have 75 stitches left.

4. Knit for 11 inches. The piece will measure 14 inches from the beginning.

2. Knit for 3 inches.

5. On the next round, *knit 3, knit 2 together. Repeat from * around.

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Felting Patterns 6. Knit the next round. 7. *Knit 2, knit 2 together. Repeat from * around.

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15. Felt as necessary to get to desired size. Mine took 12 minutes. Use a bowl, a head mold, or another round object to mold the hat and allow it to dry.

8. Knit the next round. 9. *Knit 1, knit 2 together. Repeat from * around. 10. Knit the next round. 11. *Knit 2 together. Repeat from * around. 12. *Knit 2 together. Repeat from * around, ending by knitting 1 stitch. 13. Cut the yarn and thread a yarn needle. Slip the remaining stitches onto the needle and pull tight.

14. Weave in the ends.

This basic hat pattern is very adaptable. Make it slightly larger (or felt it for less time) to make a man’s hat, or make it smaller for a child’s hat. Take off the brim and you’ve got a sleek flapper-style hat. You can even knit a hat that’s longer than you need and shape it after felting to have a rolled brim. Hats are a lot of fun and pretty quick to knit, so they are a great way to experiment with different colors, types of yarn, and techniques. Because who doesn’t need more hats?

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Knitting Skills

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f you aren’t familiar with how to knit the mattress stitch or pick up and knit stitches, these quick primers will get you started.

Mattress Stitch Mattress stitch is a relatively easy and versatile way to sew two pieces of stockinette stitch together. It’s used in the pillow project, as well as the baby blanket. Once you’ve completed either of these projects, you’ll be a mattress stitch master! 1. Start with the pieces you want to seam together right-side up and butting against each other. Thread a yarn needle with the yarn you are working with or another light wool yarn. In this example, we’re working with the tail end of the working yarn, but if you’re starting with yarn that’s not attached to the work, tie a knot and fasten the yarn to your knitting.

2. Decide where you want to sew. Some people work in the stitch right on the edge of the work, but I find it’s easier to work one stitch in from the edge. Pull the work slightly horizontally and you’ll see a little ladder of yarn between the stitches. Slide your needle up under the first ladder from the bottom and back up over the top.

3. Pull the yarn through and do the same thing on the other side. Continue in this manner for a few stitches; then give the work a gentle tug in the direction you’re sewing. The yarn you’re knitting with will disappear and it will look like you have one continuous piece of knitting.

Don’t pull the work too tightly as you go or you may end up with puckers. Smooth the work out as you stitch and you’ll get a nice, smooth, professional looking seam.

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2. Work it as you would a knit stitch. Continue in this manner until you have the number of stitches the pattern specifies.

Picking Up Stitches Knitting patterns often require picking up stitches to add knitting that goes in a different direction. You’ll often see stitches picked up to knit a collar or button band on a sweater, or to add sides to a project as in the dresser tray and tote bag projects in this book. Picking up stitches is not too difficult once you get the hang of it. If you’ve already learned the mattress stitch, it will be really easy for you. 1. Decide where you want to work. You can pick up stitches right from the edge of the work or go in one stitch. This is a good way to hide a messy edge. To pick up stitches vertically, stretch the knitting slightly and slide the ladder of yarn between the stitches onto your needle.

3. To pick up stitches along a cast-on or boundoff edge, simply pick up one or both parts of the “V” of the stitch. Work like a knit stitch in the same way.

4. When you’ve picked up and knit the number of stitches you need, continue to work them as you would regularly cast-on stitches.

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7 Needle Felting eedle felting is great fun, and is a wonderful way to embellish felted knits or even make three-dimensional home-décor objects or toys. It’s amazing what you can do with a little time, a little wool, and a bunch of needles! You’ll learn all about the wide world of needle felting in this chapter.

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What Is Needle Felting? eedle felting fuses fiber together, much like felting knitting does. But instead of using water and agitation to meld the fibers together, needle felting uses one or several needles. Poking needles through layers of wool fiber twists the fibers together and makes a solid piece of felt. Using needle felting to fuse fiber to a felted knit piece or to other fiber usually does not significantly change the size of the felted object, but the pieces do flatten together as you use the needle-felting tool.

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A free-form felted flower made of layers of needle felting.

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Needle Felting

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Needle-Felting Tools here are several options available

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for felting needles, but for beginners I recommend a basic needle-felting tool made up of several needles enclosed in a plastic shell. This tool has a safety lock so the needles won’t pop out of the sleeve when you don’t want them to. When the tool is unlocked, pressure must be exerted on the sleeve for the needles to be exposed. Needle felting with this tool is much easier and less scary than with some of the other options on the market.

Other tools you will need for needle felting include the following:

 A foam mat or thick-bristled brush on which to work the felting

 A collection of wool fiber pieces to make your designs

 Different objects to help you felt a specific shape, such as cookie cutters and stencils, if desired

 Scissors

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Basic Needle-Felting Projects or the purposes of practicing

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the needle-felting technique, let’s practice on a solid-colored felted coaster from Chapter 3, “Felting by Hand.” Alternatively, you can use any felted swatch you have handy.

2. Unwind the ball of fiber you want to use and spread it out.

First, felt a rectangle onto the center of the coaster like so: 1. Place the coaster on your foam block or brush.

3. Cut off a piece of fiber that’s about the length that you’d like the width of your rectangle to be. Separate into two pieces, just as if you were untwisting a plied yarn.

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Needle Felting 4. Place the pieces of wool on your coaster where you want them to be fused.

5. Begin needle felting by unlocking your needle-felting tool and gently pressing the needles into the wool. I like to start at the top and work down.

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6. If necessary, move your coaster so that you can needle felt the edges of the rectangle without pushing the tool through the edge of the brush or foam.

7. The project is complete when the wool is thoroughly fused to the coaster. Trim the loose fiber around the edges if desired. (I chose to keep my rectangle somewhat translucent, but you can add more fiber and felt it again if you’d like a more opaque look.)

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Other Needle-Felting Practice Ideas Using this same basic technique and other coasters or swatches, you can hone your needle-felting skills without experimenting on a big project that you wouldn’t want to mess up. In fact, even if you have experience with needle felting, I’d still suggest trying an idea out on a swatch before you felt your finished project so you know you like the look. First, try a more complicated shape with the help of a cookie cutter. Cookie cutters are inexpensive and come in a wide variety of shapes. You can needle felt with a cookie cutter directly onto the knit and felted piece, or you can felt the shape first to make sure it comes out the way you want and attach it to the finished piece, as illustrated here. Just place the cutter, fill it with fiber, and felt as described previously. Make sure you keep your tool away from the edges of the cutter, as you might hit it and dull your needles. When you’ve got the middle part of your design felted, lift the cutter and felt around the edges. This is a great way to add a cute little embellishment to a basic bag, scarf, or any other felted gift. When you go shopping for needle-felting tools, you may see both foam blocks and stiff-bristled brushes, or you may only have one option where you shop. Both options are good, as long as the foam piece is thick enough that your needles can’t go all the way through it. I prefer the brush because it is just so tall and I know I don’t have to worry about the needles going all the way through. I also think it’s a little easier to work with. Try both options and see which one you prefer.

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Next, try working with a stencil. The idea is the same as working with a cookie cutter, but you have to be a little more careful because the stencil won’t hold the wool in place the way a cookie cutter does. This technique is shown on the monogrammed gift bag project later in this chapter. While it’s difficult to get really detailed using this technique, the stencil will help you form the letter. When using a stencil, you can keep the spaces between the parts of the design or just felt it so the design is whole, which is a lot easier to do.

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Finally, you can try your hand at needle felting without a felted knit swatch as your base. Just put some wool down on your brush or foam block and needle felt until it is somewhat firm. Then keep adding layers, either freehand or with the help of a cookie cutter, stencil, or other implement. These needle-felted patches can then be added to a felted knit piece later, or you can use them as gift tags, embellishments for greeting cards, or in tons of other crafty ways.

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Once you’ve gotten comfortable with all these options, you can try needle felting a three-dimensional object. Start with a ball of wool and carefully insert the needles all around until it holds together. You can make pumpkins, small animals, and all sorts of other objects using this method. You can also simply needle felt a ball shape and use it as a bobble for the end of a zipper pull or as a toggle to close a bag. You could even make jewelry out of these felted jewels. Let your imagination run wild!

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Needle-Felting Tips eedle felting is not for children

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(or absent-minded grownups). The needles involved are very sharp, and it’s easy to hurt yourself if you’re not paying attention. For that reason, needle felting should not be done if you’re distracted, angry at your significant other or your children, or while watching television. That said, using a needle-felting tool does cut down on the potential for injuries. As mentioned previously, a plastic tool with a cover over the needles is ideal because it only allows the needles to be exposed when pressure is exerted on the sleeve. You don’t have to use a lot of pressure to make needle felting work. Just use a gentle, straight up and down motion. Guiding the needles through the work at an angle, particularly when using a stiff brush as your base, can dull the needles. Also, make sure you’re not pushing the needles in so far that you’re going all the way through your foam block. If you’re using a thin piece of foam, make sure you’re working on a surface that has additional protection should the needles make it all the way through the foam. Needle felting is great compared to other kinds of felting because it happens really quickly. After just a few punches, you will begin to see your fiber coming together. As in other types of felting, it’s up to you when you want to call your project complete. You can fuse the fibers as firmly or as loosely as you want, and make the layers as thick or as thin as you like.

If you’re felting directly onto a finished knit and felted piece (as with the projects at the end of this chapter), you may decide you like the look of light felting that allows you to see the fabric underneath. On the other hand, if you’re felting a freeform object, you’ll need to make it a little firmer. Experimentation is the best teacher when it comes to needle felting. Once you start playing with fiber in this way, you’ll want to keep throwing colors and shapes together just to see what happens— which will in turn give you new ideas for how to use needle felting in your knit felted projects and any other crafts you might enjoy.

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Needle Felting Embellished Bag t’s time to try your needle felting

1. Cast on 28 stitches.

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skills on a finished knit and felted project. This bag is very quick and easy to knit, and you can embellish it with any kind of needle-felted doodad you like. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

 Two skeins Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky. I used color 37, Mistletoe

 One pair size 13 US needles  Scissors  Yarn needle  Materials for machine felting (see Chapter 4)

 Materials for needle felting (see above) Before felting, the bag will measure 12 inches tall, 9.25 inches wide, and 5 inches deep, not counting the handles, which are also 12 inches long. After felting, it’s 8 inches tall without the handles, 9 inches wide, and 4 inches deep. Your gauge should be about three stitches and four rows per inch before felting. The front, bottom, and back are knit in one piece, and then the sides are knit and sewn on, as are the handles.

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2. Work in stockinette stitch for 12 inches.

Needle Felting 3. Purl one row on the knit side.

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6. Work in stockinette stitch another 12 inches.

4. Continue in stockinette stitch as before for 5 inches.

7. Bind off and weave in the ends.

5. Purl one row on the knit side.

The two purl rows on the knit side are known as turning rows. These rows make natural fold lines in your knitting, which will make it easy for you to see where to sew in the side panels.

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Now that the body is done, you can knit the sides:

3. Bind off and weave in the ends.

1. Cast on 14 stitches.

2. Work in stockinette stitch for 12 inches.

4. Knit a second side panel the same as the first. 5. Stitch the side panels to the bag using mattress stitch or your favorite seaming method.

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2. Work in stockinette stitch for 12 inches. To make sure your front, back, and side panels line up properly for sewing together, count the number of rows it took you to make 12 inches (it took me 42) on the front before knitting the back. Use the same number of rows on the back and on each side panel. (If you aren’t sure how to count rows, look at the fabric on the knit side of the work. Each V counts as a row.)

Finally, knit two handles to finish off the project. 1. Cast on 8 stitches.

3. Bind off and weave in the ends.

4. Knit a second handle the same as the first, making sure they are the same number of rows.

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5. Sew the handles to the top of the bag. I worked into the first stitch (not the cast on edge) on the inside of the bag and spaced the handles two inches from the side panel seam on each side.

Now that your knitting is done, felt by machine (or by hand, if necessary). My bag agitated for 12 minutes, but your experience may be different. After you extract it from the machine, stuff the bag with towels, old T-shirts, or other objects to help it keep its shape as it dries. If you have a big dictionary, it would be perfect for this use. Allow the bag to dry completely before moving on to the needlefelting stage.

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1. Choose the motif that you would like to felt onto your bag. I went with a classic heart, because it’s cute and an easy shape to felt. I used plain brown wool from my local crafts store.

2. Gather your supplies for needle felting and position your foam block or brush inside the bag where you want the felted design to be if you choose to felt directly onto the bag. Otherwise, felt your shape first, then position it onto the bag.

Needle Felting 3. Position the cookie cutter or stencil (if you are using one) on the brush or foam and add your fiber.

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4. Once your felted piece is somewhat firm, remove it from the brush or foam. Place the block or brush inside the bag and position the shape where you want it to be. I chose the lower-right corner of the front of the bag. Continue to needle felt until the piece is firmly attached.

5. Enjoy your bag!

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Monogrammed Gift Bag ometimes it’s fun when the

1. Cast on 60 stitches.

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container in which a gift is presented is part of the gift. That’s the idea behind this colorful felted gift bag, which can also be monogrammed with the recipient’s initial using needle felting. Here’s what you’ll need for this project:

 Two skeins Knit Picks Cadena. I used color 23783, Cranberry and 24101, Heath, but you can make the bag all one color if you like.

 One size 15 US circular needle, 24 or 36 inches

 Scissors  Supplies for machine or hand felting  Supplies for needle felting The finished bag is 10 inches tall and about 18 inches around after felting. It’s the perfect size for a couple of CDs or DVDs, a small book, or other little goodies. When knitting, your gauge should be 2.5 stitches and 3 rows per inch.

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2. Join in the round, being careful not to twist stitches. Place a marker one stitch in from the end of the round, if desired.

Needle Felting 3. Knit in your first color for 7 inches. Because you’re knitting in the round, knitting every round produces stockinette stitch.

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5. On the next round, * knit 8, knit 2 together. Continue from * around, ending with 54 stitches.

6. Knit the next round.

4. Join the second color and knit with it for 7 inches.

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7. *Knit 7, knit 2 together. Repeat from * around. Continue in this manner, decreasing one stitch earlier each time every other round, until you knit the round that is knit 5, knit two together. Then begin to decrease on every row until you are down to knit 2 together every stitch, which leaves you 6 stitches.

10. Attach your needle-felted monogram, either by felting the letter first and then attaching it or by felting it directly onto the bag.

11. Fill your bag with goodies and gift away! 8. Cut yarn and thread on a yarn needle. Slip the stitches onto the needle and pull tight. Weave in the ends. 9. Felt by machine or by hand.

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A pile of old sweaters can be transformed into cool felted crafts.

8 Other Ways to Felt W

e’ve covered the basics of felting

knitted items and needle felting for embellishment, but there are two other kinds of felting you can also add to your repertoire: wet felting and felting finished sweaters. This chapter looks at those two techniques, working through a few basic patterns and discussing ideas for other projects you can try with these methods.

About Wet Felting et felting uses the same basic raw materials as needle felting: wool roving or batting. But instead of making a small decorative item, wet felting can be used to make larger items such as clutches, scarves, and wraps. With the right mold, you can even make a hat or slippers using wet-felting techniques.

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Making a Felted Ball To make a felted ball, you will need the following:

 A large handful of wool fiber, any color or multiple colors

 Rubber gloves  A sink or bowl full of hot water

Because you started out learning about felting by hand, you already know the basics of wet felting. The easiest thing you can do with wet felting is make a felted ball. A string of these can be used for a funky felted bracelet or necklace, or you can use them as buttons or closures, on the end of ties, or as an embellishment along the bottom of a knitted or felted item.

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Other Ways to Felt 1. Take your wool fiber and squish it into a ball shape. Dunk the fiber in the water, making sure the ball gets wet all the way through.

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3. Plunge the ball back into the water from time to time to help with the felting, or do your agitating under water.

4. When the ball holds together and is sphere shaped, put it aside to dry. 2. Use the rubber gloves for friction and roll the ball between your hands, as if you were making a ball out of dough.

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Wet-Felted Clutch Once you’ve mastered simple felted balls, you can move on to making sheets of felted fiber. These sheets are fun for a lot of different projects, but we’re going to make a small clutch out of ours.

2. Cut or tear the wool fiber and begin to lay it out in a rectangle shape. My dimensions were about 12 inches square.

To begin you will need the following:

 1.35 ounces (38 grams) of wool fiber in one or several colors (I used two bundles from Peace Fleece in blue and green and some extra plain blue and green purchased at my local craft store.)

 One long piece of bubble wrap with small bubbles and a smaller piece with big bubbles

 A cup for delivering hot, soapy water from your sink

 A towel 1. Lay out your towel with a sheet of bubble wrap on top.

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3. Apply a second layer, laying it perpendicular to the first. Don’t worry about completely covering the bottom layer or if your layers aren’t completely uniform.

Other Ways to Felt 4. Repeat step 3 to add more layers. The more layers you use, the firmer the finished fabric will be.

5. When you’ve placed all the fiber you want, wet down the fiber with the hot, soapy water.

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6. Roll the project up in the bubble wrap and press and roll it gently on the counter to agitate. You don’t have to use a lot of pressure. Don’t worry if the edges of the piece aren’t getting felted—we’re going to trim it in the end.

7. From time to time, turn the project over and change the direction of your rubbing so that the piece will become thoroughly felted. Add more water if you need to. Depending on the size and thickness of your project, this can take between 20 minutes and an hour, though this project will be much closer to 20 minutes.

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8. After you have felted in this manner for a while, you may begin to see bubble shapes forming in your felt. To remedy this situation, unroll your project and gently rub the piece of bigger-bubbled wrap along the surface of the fabric. This will smooth out the surface and allow you to spot-felt any areas that aren’t felting.

9. Once the felt has smoothed into a firm fabric, remove the bubble wrap and lay the felt on the towel (or on another dry towel) to dry.

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To make this project into a clutch, simply trim the edges square, fold it as you like, and sew the side seams by hand or machine. I left the edge that became the bottom of the flap raw because I like the look of the green peeking through. Add a snap if you like, or close with a brooch as pictured. Use this project to hold short knitting needles or other necessities in your knitting bag if you don’t need a bag for a night out on the town.

Other Ways to Felt

A Felted Flower Of course, wet felting can also be used to make accessories for felted knitting projects. The process starts with making another felted sheet and then cutting out whatever shape you like. In this case, we’ll use pink fiber to make a flower that could be pinned or needle felted onto another project.

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

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1. Prepare your work area as before and stack your fiber perpendicularly. The flower does not need to be as big as the clutch, so you can make your felt pile smaller. Mine was about 10 inches wide and 6 inches long and made of three layers. I used about half of it to make two flowers.

2. Felt the fiber as described in the section “Wet-Felted Clutch.”

 14 ounces pink fiber, or colors of your choice. Mine is from Peace Fleece, and is mostly pink with flecks of orange and purple.

 A large piece of bubble wrap with small bubbles and a small piece with large bubbles

 A cup or two of warm, soapy water  A towel  Paper and pen, if desired to draw out petal shapes, or a cookie cutter

 Scissors  Needle-felting supplies (optional)  Needle, thread, and bead (optional) 131

3. Allow it to dry completely before proceeding.

4. Cut out your petals. Use a cookie cutter if you want a whole flower shape, cut out individual petals freeform, or use a drawn template.

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5. To finish the flower, needle-felt the tips of the flowers together in the middle, or simply sew them together. Add a pretty bead sewn to the middle for extra pizzazz, and add a safety pin to the back so you can wear it or pin it to another project.

Other Ways to Felt

Other Ideas for Wet Felting The idea of making wet-felted sheets can be expanded. For example, you could make much larger sheets to create items such as a scarf or a wrap. For this kind of project, you probably won’t have a big enough piece of bubble wrap lying around to make the project work. In that case, you can buy a bamboo or wooden roll-up blind, cut off the hardware, and use that as the base of your roll. Since the wool can get caught in the bamboo, throwing a layer of fabric, such as a curtain sheer, on top of the bamboo and another on top of the felt keeps everything from sticking. Using seethrough fabric is helpful because it enables you to see what’s going on with your project without uncovering it. And instead of doing this on the sink, you’ll want to use the bathtub, if you have one, or maybe the bathroom floor if you don’t.

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Smaller-sized felted sheets are interesting for home-décor items. I made one in brown and orange and wrapped it around a votive candle for a fun Halloween look. You can also make cutouts from the sheets as we did with the flower to make home-décor items, or create items that you could then needle-felt to other felted objects. All these crafts are connected!

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Felting Sweaters nother fun way to use felt is to

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deliberately shrink a wool sweater and use the felt for projects. You might have an old wool sweater in your closet that you don’t wear but would like to get more use out of, or you can always visit thrift stores to find wool garments. eBay is another great place to look for wool sweaters that are inexpensive—but be warned: You don’t always know what you’re getting. Sometimes a sweater will be advertised as wool when it is really a wool blend. For someone buying a sweater to wear, that might not be a big deal—but a sweater that’s not 100-percent wool (or other animal fiber) just won’t felt properly.

It’s a good idea to go for larger sweaters so that you have big pieces of felted fabric to work with, but smaller sweaters can be used for smaller projects. You can also cut out squares from sweaters of all different sizes and use them in a patchwork manner for a project. No matter the size of the sweater to start with, here’s how you go from sweater to felted fabric. Here are the supplies you’ll need:

 Sweaters for felting (I like to do several at a time if I have several of the same basic color scheme.)

 Washing machine (It is not recommended to try to felt sweaters by hand, though they would felt eventually.)

 Laundry detergent or wool wash  Zippered pillowcase (optional) I call the zippered pillowcase “optional” because every time I have tried to use one, the agitating action of the washing machine has managed to unzip the thing—meaning that by the end of the cycle, the sweaters are out in the basin anyway.

This sweater includes some nylon, so although it got fuzzy in the wash, it never really felted.

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As with other machine felting, set your machine to the hottest water, the lowest water level, and the longest agitation cycle. As the machine fills, put in a small amount of detergent or wool wash and your sweaters. Then close the lid and walk away. Let the sweaters go a full cycle; you won’t really know how far a sweater is going to shrink otherwise. You can always go for a second round if you don’t like the results the first time.

Other Ways to Felt

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1. Turn the sweater inside out and cut straight across the sweater, through both layers, or through one layer at a time if needed, just below the armholes (or to your desired length). Because my sweater had ridges that were still visible after felting, I just cut along a stripe, but you may need to mark a straight line with a yardstick and a dressmaker’s pencil.

Felted sweaters ready for crafting.

The felted pieces you come up with can be used in the same way you would use any heavy fabric, but I really love using them as bags. This first project is one I call “The Easiest Bag Ever.”

The Easiest Bag Ever 2. Pin the top (now the bottom) edges together. Here’s what you’ll need for your easiest bag:

 One medium-sized women’s or small men’s sweater, felted

 Scissors  Sewing machine (easiest method) or needle and thread

 Purse handles (optional) This bag is so easy because you’re keeping the side seams as they were on the sweater. My sweater had a bit of a flare to it, but that looks fine on my bag as well. I used the bottom of the sweater as the top of my bag so that the widest part would be at the top, but it’s your bag, so make yours however you like.

3. Using your sewing machine or needle and thread, sew this seam. I left a quarter-inch seam allowance and used a medium-length straight stitch on my machine. If desired, you can also go back and zigzag the edge. 135

4. Turn the bag right side out and marvel at your coolness.

Felted Computer Sleeve Another really easy felted sweater project is to make a sleeve or little bag for your laptop computer. This isn’t quite as simple as The Easiest Bag Ever, but it’s still a quick and easy project. Here’s what you’ll need:

 A large or extra-large men’s or women’s sweater, felted

 Yardstick and/or measuring tape  Fabric marker or dressmaker’s pencil  Scissors  Sewing machine or needle and thread  Laptop computer to aid in measuring

5. Use leftover bits of sweater to make loops to attach your purse handles. Alternatively, use leftover pieces of sweater to make handles. These were 10 inches long and two inches wide, folded in half and sewn, and then turned right side out.

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1. To start this project, cut any flare or ribbing from the bottom of the sweater.

Other Ways to Felt 2. Cut off the arms, turn your sweater inside out, and follow the side seams to cut the front and back apart from each other.

3. Measure your computer so you know how big a piece of fabric you need. My computer is about 13 inches wide and 10 inches deep, so I cut my fabric pieces so they were 14 inches wide and 15 inches tall.

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4. If your sweater has stripes or patterns, try to keep them lined up around the bag. Sew the side seams and the bottom seam, leaving a quarter-inch seam allowance.

5. Turn the bag right side out. Slide the computer into the bag and see how it looks. You’ll notice the bag is much taller than the computer.

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6. Decide where you would want handles to be in order to pick up the bag and cut a slit in each layer of the bag so that they line up. Mine are 3 inches long and an inch and a half from the top of the bag. Alternatively, you could trim the bag shorter and make handles as described in the preceding project.

I envisioned this bag as a way to keep my computer protected in a bigger bag, but you can also carry your computer around in this bag alone.

Felted Wine Bag This is another one of those “the bag is part of the gift” gifts, and you’ll be looking for excuses to give people wine (or olive oil, vinegar, or anything that comes in a bottle) so you can make more of these bags.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

 A small or medium sized men’s or women’s sweater, felted

 Yardstick or measuring tape  Fabric marker or dressmaker’s pencil  Bottle of wine  Scissors  Sewing machine or needle and thread  Straight pins

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Other Ways to Felt 1. Cut the sweater front from the body of the sweater along the side seams and as close to the neckline as you can.

Chapter 8

3. Make sure your fabric will fit around your wine bottle. Trim if necessary, or add more fabric from the back or from another sweater if needed. Then fold your fabric in half, long sides together, and sew, leaving a scant seam allowance so your bag won’t look bulky.

2. Use the yard stick to help you make straight lines and cut the sweater so the sides are all straight. 4. Use the bottom of the wine bottle as a guide to draw a circle on a piece of the sweater cut out from the arm.

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5. Cut out the circle and pin it to the bottom of the tube you just made, making sure the right side of the bag is facing out.

7. Slide the bottle in and see how it looks! I tied mine with a piece of yarn to make it extra-crafty.

6. Sew these two pieces together. I used transparent thread so it’s not very noticeable.

If you find this design a little plain, why not add a bit of needle felting? Or you could pin the wet-felted flower to the bag. Or both! It’s your project; do what you want to do.

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Other Ways to Felt

More Sweater-Felting Ideas There’s an almost endless array of things you can do with felted sweaters, because once you cut them apart you’ve basically got fabric. You could try a tote bag, a book cover, a patchwork skirt, or a little purse. Use pieces of felted sweaters as pockets on other felted projects for a patchwork effect, or sew a bunch of pieces together to make a scarf. Or make a cell phone or iPod cozy to match your felted computer bag.

Chapter 8

You could felt a large sweater into a smaller size that you could wear, cut the front open and make it into a cardigan. Or try making headbands out of strips of sweaters—they’re great as ear warmers for winter days. Or try using a sleeve as an arm warmer/fingerless glove. Just cut the arm away from the body, sew a hem around the top and cut out space for your thumb, if desired. Once you start working with felted sweaters, you will see ideas for new projects everywhere. It’s a great way to use your creativity, to recycle, and to make great gifts for yourself and others without breaking the bank.

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Just a few materials and some creativity are all you need to make your own patterns.

Swatches are the key to understanding how a felted project comes together.

9 Design Your Own Felting Patterns T

here comes a time in every knitter’s life

when she or he just can’t find a pattern that’s exactly like the object she or he wants to create. That’s when you need to know how to design your own felting patterns. This chapter offers basic advice on how to make your own felting patterns as it walks you through a pattern for a messenger bag.

Why Design Your Own Patterns? he act of knitting itself is creative, even if you never deviate from published patterns. But most knitters at one time or another will want to play with designs and make a project that is completely their own. For example, you may see a great felted bag in a store that you want to re-create, or maybe there’s a published pattern you like but you wish the finished project were smaller, larger, or in some other way a little different from what the designer originally imagined. No matter the reason, it’s pretty easy to make your own knitting and felting patterns. All you need is some inspiration, some yarn, and a few math skills. (Don’t worry, it’s not scary math!)

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The colors in a ball of yarn may be all the insipration you need to start your own knitted felting designs. Copyright Alina Solovyova-Vincent, istockphoto.com. 144

Designing Your Own Felting Patterns

Chapter 9

The Importance of Gauge he most important thing when designing your own felting patterns is making sure you have a good understanding of gauge and what happens to your gauge after your project has been felted. To review, gauge refers to how many stitches and rows per inch you get when you knit with a particular yarn using a particular size knitting needle and a particular stitch (in the case of most felting projects, that’s stockinette stitch). For instance in the gauge swatch used in the next section, I got 12.5 stitches and 15 rows over 4 inches, or about 3 stitches and 3.75 rows per inch.

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Sometimes you will see gauge measured over 1 inch and sometimes over 4 inches. Four inches is used because it is easily converted into centimeters: four inches is equal to 10 centimeters. That makes it easier for people using the metric system to use American patterns.

If you were simply knitting at this gauge, that would be all you needed to know. For example, if you wanted to make a placemat out of this yarn and you wanted it to be 16 inches wide, you could cast on 60 stitches and you’d be on your way. But since felting shrinks, you not only need to know how many stitches per inch you’re getting while knitting, you also need to know how much that finished swatch is going to shrink.

A finished felted gauge swatch, with ties indicating what was a 4-inch square before felting.

Making and Felting a Gauge Swatch This is best illustrated by actually making and felting a gauge swatch. If you’d like to work along with this chapter, grab some animal-fiber yarn, a pair of needles a couple of sizes bigger than the size indicated on the ball band, a ruler, and a bit of cotton thread. I used Berroco Jasper in color 3833, Verde Lavras, and size 11 U.S. needles.

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1. Cast on 25 stitches. This should be plenty to give you more than 4 inches of width on your finished swatch, but you can cast on a few more if you’re working with a very light yarn. 2. Knit about 40 rows. If it will take more than one skein of your yarn to knit that many rows, you can go with fewer, but the bigger your swatch is, the better. 3. Bind off and weave in ends. Stretch the swatch slightly and pin it down to measure. The full size of my swatch was 7.5 inches wide and 10 inches long. 4. Use pins to mark off a 4-inch square and measure the number of stitches and rows. I got 12.5 stitches and 15 rows.

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5. If desired, you can replace the pins with a bit of cotton yarn tied onto the swatch so you can see what 4 inches turns into after felting. This isn’t a critical step, but it is interesting to see what happens to your 4 inches.

Designing Your Own Felting Patterns 6. Felt your swatch the same way you plan to felt your finished project, and keep track of how long it takes to felt. Mine took 15 minutes in the washing machine. 7. Pin down the swatch and allow to dry, stretching the swatch as needed to make the sides straight. Mine came out as a 6×6 inch square.

Chapter 9

Doing the Math This measurement allows you to figure out how much your project will actually shrink when it’s felted. The way you do that is by determining the percentage change. There are percentage change calculators on the Internet that make this calculation mindless, but it’s not too difficult to calculate yourself. Here’s the formula: (New number–old number)/old number * 100 = percentage change

So for the width of the sample swatch, that would be (6–7.5)/7.5*100=–20, which means the swatch shrank by 20 percent. In length, it shrunk by 40 percent: (6–10)/10*100=–40.

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How to Write Your Own Pattern ow that you have the calculations for the yarn you want to use, it’s time to start thinking about designing your own pattern. You probably already have a project in mind, and looking at how the felted swatch came out will give you further inspiration. If you’re not sure what you want to make, look through pattern books, magazines, or online to find ideas.

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If you like to draw, you may want to sketch out a basic design before you begin so you can get an idea of what you want your finished project to look like. I see things in my head but can’t translate them to paper very well, so I usually just work backward from the picture in my mind without ever drawing anything out. In this case, I knew I wanted to make a little messenger bag with a flap closure. I wanted it to be about 12 inches wide, 8 inches tall and 3 or 4 inches deep with the gusset. There are many different ways one could go about knitting this kind of bag:

 Knit the front, bottom, back, and flap all in one piece and sew in the sides, as with the needle-felted bag in Chapter 7.

 Knit the front separately, then knit the back and flap in one piece and the gusset all in one piece.

 Knit the front, the back, the flap, and the gusset all separately.

 Knit some pieces out of a contrasting yarn.

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Estimating Yarn Needs Probably the most difficult part of writing your own patterns is estimating how much yarn you will need. The easiest way to determine the amount of yarn you need to finish a project is to look at a few published patterns similar to what you want to make to see how much yarn they use. If you can develop a general idea of the yardage used in projects similar to yours, you’ll have a better idea how much yarn to buy. That said, it’s always a good idea to buy an extra skein beyond what you think you’ll need in case your project ends up taking more yarn than you expect. If you do run out of yarn, consider making part of the project from a different color or a different type of yarn. For this project, plus the gauge swatches, I used most of four skeins of Berroco Jasper and about half a skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca, which I used for the gusset. If you want to add a knit strap, pockets, or other details, plan on using more yarn.

Designing Your Own Felting Patterns I decided to knit the front as one piece and the back and flap as one piece. The gusset that makes up the sides and bottom of the bag was also knit in one piece, and it was knit with a different yarn (Berroco Ultra Alpaca in color 6240, Blue Violet).

Chapter 9

This is really easy math because I know my swatch was 25 stitches wide and came out to 6 inches felted, so it stood to reason that if I cast on 50 stitches, I would end up with a finished piece that would felt to about 12 inches in width. This also makes sense if you play with the percentage change calculator. I know from my gauge swatch that 25 stitches was 7.5 inches wide. So 50 stitches would be 15 inches wide. If you plug 15 and 12 into a percentage change calculator, you’ll see that the difference is 20 percent. I also know that the length will shrink by about 40 percent. Plugging numbers into a percentage change calculator, I found that about 13.5 inches of length would get me down to my desired 8-inch size. The back will be the same, but the flap is knit as part of the back; I decided the back along with the flap should be twice as long as the front, or 27 inches.

A look at the finished bag.

Once you know the basic shape, measurements, and how you want your piece to come together, you can start plotting out the pattern. I started with the front piece. I knew I wanted it to come out about 12 inches wide and that the finished piece would shrink 20 percent in width.

For the contrasting gusset, I had to knit another gauge swatch and felt it. This swatch started out at 8 inches by 11 inches and came out 7 by 7.5 inches after felting the same 15 minutes that I felted my first swatch. That’s a change of 12.5 percent in width and about 32 percent in length. Based on my bag pieces, I’ll need the felted gusset to be 32 inches long (8+12+12). I decided to make it 4.5 inches wide, which meant I cast on 14 stitches. Knitting 48 inches should felt down to about 32. In this case it’s good to err on the side of knitting something that’s too long, because you can always trim it later.

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Messenger Bag Pattern Putting all that together, you get the following pattern: 1. Knit the front by casting on 50 stitches. Work in stockinette stitch for 13.5 inches. Bind off and weave in the ends.

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2. Knit the back and flap by casting on 50 stitches. Work in stockinette stitch for 27 inches. Bind off and weave in the ends.

Designing Your Own Felting Patterns 3. Knit the gusset in contrasting yarn by casting on 14 stitches. Knit in stockinette stitch for 48 inches. Bind off and weave in the ends.

Chapter 9

6. Add a purchased nylon strap.

4. Felt all three pieces by machine, agitating for 15 minutes or until the desired level of felting is reached. Pin to shape and allow to dry. 5. When completely dry, use your sewing machine or a needle and thread to attach the front, back, and gusset together. Alternatively, you can knit, felt, and sew on a strap. Other fun additions would be a pocket knit in the contrasting yarn or a matching cell phone bag to attach to the strap of the bag. Or, if you decided to knit the bag all out of the same kind of yarn, you could make the gusset as wide as you wanted and as long as the sides of the bag plus the bottom (in this case, 42 inches) and sew the pieces together before felting, as with the needle-felted bag in Chapter 7.

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10 Knitting Resources and Swatches f you need more help in your journey of learning to knit and felt, this chapter will provide you with a few resources to look at, both online and in book form. We’ll also look at a bunch of different yarns and how they behave when they’re felted, giving you the tools you need to design your own felted knitting projects.

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Knitting Resources here are many different places

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you can go to learn more about knitting techniques beyond what is presented in this book. Here are a few of my favorite books and websites that can help you on your knitting journey.

Learning to Knit If you type “learn to knit” into your favorite search engine, you’ll come up with millions of pages, not all of which are very helpful. Here are a few of the best ones out there to help you with knitting basics and new techniques.

 Learn to Knit (http://www.learntoknit.com). The site for the Craft Yarn Council of America, this page offers lessons on knitting (and crochet) basics, project ideas, where to find help locally, and more.

 About Knitting (http://knitting.about.com). This site, written and managed by the author of this book, provides tons of free information on learning to knit as well as patterns, community resources, and felting tips, among other things.

 Knitting Help (http://www.knittinghelp.com). Knitting Help has numerous videos on knitting techniques from basic cast ons and how to form stitches to numerous ways to increase and decrease, as well as help fixing mistakes. This is also a great site if you want to learn how to knit in the Continental fashion. 154

Helpful Knitting Books Sometimes you just don’t want to head to the computer to find the answer to your knitting questions. Head to the bookshelf instead, once you’ve loaded it up with this book (of course!) and a couple other classic knitting volumes.

 How to Knit: The Definitive Knitting Course Complete with Step-by-Step Techniques, Stitch Library, an nd Projects for Your Home and Family by Debbie Bliss (Trafalgar Square Books). This book offers a step-by-step approach to learning the basics of knitting, from simple garter and stockinette stitch projects to lace, colorwork, and Aran knits.

 Maran Illustrated Knitting & Crocheting (Thomson Course Technology). A wellillustrated book on knitting and crochet techniques, the book teaches both the English and Continental methods of forming knit and purl stitches.

 Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book (Sixth & Spring Books). This book really does contain just about everything you’d want to know as a knitter, from how to perform basic stitches to how to fix mistakes, read charts, and care for knitwear. It’s a reference you’ll turn to throughout your knitting life.

Knitting Resources and Swatches

Chapter 10

Knit and Felted Swatches he following pages show a variety of different knit and felted swatches to give you an idea of

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how different yarns behave when they are felted. This will allow you to see how much a particular yarn will felt, so you’ll know to buy more than you might otherwise if you’re planning a project with it. You’ll also see what different yarns look like before and after felting, which is quite a handy thing to know since some yarns look lovely felted that aren’t as beautiful in their natural state, and vice versa. Thumb through these pages when you’re looking for inspiration for your next felted knitting project, or use them to help you choose a yarn to substitute for the yarn used in a published pattern. Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Hip Hop (100 percent wool)

size 15 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

9.5×13.5 inches

8.5×8 inches

12 minutes

Jasper (100 percent merino wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

7.5×10 inches

6×6 inches

15 minutes

Berroco

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Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Peruvia (100 percent wool)

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×11 inches

6×6.25 inches

10 minutes

Ultra Alpaca (50 percent alpaca, 50 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×11 inches

7×7.5 inches

15 minutes

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

10×12 inches

8×8 inches

12 minutes

Caron

Black Magic (50 percent wool, 50 percent acrylic)

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Knitting Resources and Swatches

Chapter 10

Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Felt-It (100 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×10 inches

6×6 inches

10 minutes

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×10 inches

5×6.5 inches

10 minutes

8×9.5 inches

6×6 inches

30 minutes

GGH

Magica (100 percent wool)

Green Mountain Spinnery

Mountain Mohair (30 percent mohair, 70 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

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Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Kaleidoscope (100 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×10.5 inches

6.5×6.5 inches

10 minutes

Montage (100 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×10.5 inches

6×7 inches

12 minutes

size 15 needles, 25 stitches, 30 rows

9.5×10 inches

7×8 inches

12 minutes

JJ’s

Knit Picks

Cadena (70 percent wool, 30 percent alpaca)

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Knitting Resources and Swatches

Chapter 10

Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Merino Style (100 percent merino wool)

size 8 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

5.5×7 inches

4.5×4.5 inches

10 minutes

Palette (100 percent wool)

size 6 needles, 35 stitches, 50 rows

6×7.5 inches

5×5 inches

10 minutes

Shamrock (100 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×10 inches

7×7.5 inches

12 minutes

Telemark (100 percent wool)

size 7 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6×7.5 inches

5×5 inches

13 minutes 159

Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Wool of the Andes (100 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8.5×10 inches

5.5×6.5 inches

10 minutes

Wool of the Andes Bulky (100 percent wool)

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

9×11 inches

8×8 inches

15 minutes

size 10.5 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6.5×9 inches

6×6 inches

12 minutes

Lion Brand Yarn

Lion Wool (100 percent wool)

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Knitting Resources and Swatches Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Chapter 10

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Bullfrogs & Butterflies size 10 needles, (85 percent wool, 25 stitches, 40 rows 15 percent mohair)

6.5×8 inches

6×6.5 inches

30 minutes

Fisherman (100 percent wool)

size 10 needles, 25 stitches, 39 rows

6.5×7.5 inches

5.5×5.5

18 minutes

Glory (mohair/wool blend)

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 35 rows

9×10 inches

7×8 inches

10 minutes

Lorna’s Laces

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Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Riverstone (100 percent wool)

size 9 needles 25 stitches, 40 rows

6×8 inches

4.75×5

10 minutes

Riverstone Bulky (100 percent wool)

size 13 needles, 20 stitches, 30 rows

9×9 inches

6×6 inches

12 minutes

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

9×12 inches

7×7 inches

12 minutes

Louet

Muench/Blackforest

Naturwolle (100 percent wool)

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Knitting Resources and Swatches Yarn Type

Chapter 10

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Alpine (100 percent wool)

size 15 needles, 25 stitches, 30 rows

9×9 inches

6×7 inches

12 minutes

Harmony (100 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×10 inches

6×6 inches

10 minutes

Natural Wool (100 percent wool)

size 15 needles, 20 stitches, 30 rows

8×10 inches

6×6.5 inches

15 minutes

6×8 inches

5×6 inches

12 minutes

Naturally

Naturelle Double Knit size 9 needles, (100 percent wool) 25 stitches, 40 rows

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Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Perendale (100 percent wool)

size 9 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6.5×7.5 inches

5×6 inches

10 minutes

Tussock size 13 needles, (80 percent wool, 25 stitches, 40 rows 15 percent polyester)

9.5×11.5 inches

7×8 inches

15 minutes

Vero Tweed (100 percent wool)

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×12 inches

5×6.25 inches

10 minutes

size 9 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6×7.5 inches

5×6 inches

30 minutes

Noro

Kureyon (100 percent wool) 164

Knitting Resources and Swatches Yarn Type

Chapter 10

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

size 10.5 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×11 inches

6×6 inches

10 minutes

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×11 inches

7×7 inches

25 minutes

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

9×12 inches

7×7 inches

15 minutes

Patons

SWS (70 percent wool, 30 percent soy) Peace Fleece

Peace Fleece worsted weight yarn (100 percent wool) Plymouth

Baby Alpaca Grande (100 percent alpaca)

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Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Boku (95 percent wool, 5 percent silk)

size 10 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6×7.5 inches

5×5.5 inches

30 minutes

Galway (100 percent wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6×7.5 inches

4.75×5.5 inches

12 minutes

size 9 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6.5×8.5 inches

5.25×6 inches

12 minutes

Prism

Andee (50 percent alpaca, 50 percent wool)

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Knitting Resources and Swatches Yarn Type

Chapter 10

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Elaine (99 percent merino wool, 1 percent nylon)

size 13 needles, 20 stitches, 35 rows

8×10 inches

6.25×7 inches

20 minutes

Esperanza (70 percent lambswool, 30 percent alpaca)

size 13 needles, 20 stitches, 25 rows

7×7.5 inches

6×5 inches

12 minutes

Kathleen (93 percent merino wool, 7 percent nylon)

size 15 needles, 15 stitches, 16 rows

7×5.25 inches

6×4 inches

20 minutes

Schafer

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Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Miss Priss (100 percent merino wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

8×9 inches

6×5.5 inches

15 minutes

Nancy (95 percent merino wool, 5 percent nylon)

size 13 needles, 20 stitches, 35 rows

7×10 inches

5×7 inches

15 minutes

size 15 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

10.5×12 inches

8.5×9.5 inches

30 minutes

Skacel

Brighton (42 percent wool, 42 percent acrylic, 14 percent polyamide)

168

Knitting Resources and Swatches Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Chapter 10

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Southwest Trading Company

Karaoke (50 percent Soysilk, 50 percent wool)

size 10 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6×8 inches

6×6 inches

12 minutes

Vegas (67 percent wool, 29 percent Soysilk, 4 percent Lurex)

size 10 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

6.75×8 inches

4.75×4.65 inches

10 minutes

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

9×11 inches

8×8 inches

20 minutes

Valley Yarns

Berkshire Bulky (85 percent wool, 15 percent alpaca)

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Yarn Type

Swatch Specifications

Beginning Size

Finished Felted Size

Time

Northampton (100 percent wool)

size 9 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

5.5×7.25 inches

5×6 inches

12 minutes

Bottone Tweed (100 percent merino wool)

size 11 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

9.5×10 inches

7×6 inches

15 minutes

Loft Classic (100 percent merino wool)

size 13 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

9×11 inches

6.5×6.5 inches

10 minutes

Pencil Roving (100 percent merino wool)

size 15 needles, 25 stitches, 40 rows

10.5×13 inches

8×8 inches

12 minutes

Zitro

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A Yarn Suppliers

Berroco, Inc.

Louet North America

P.O. Box 367 Uxbridge, MA 01569 www.berroco.com

3425 Hands Road Prescott, ON, Canada K0E 1T0 www.louet.com

Caron International P.O. Box 222 Washington, NC 27889 www.caron.com

Green Mountain Spinnery P.O. Box 568 Putney, VT 05346 www.spinnery.com

Knit Picks 13118 N.E. 4th Street Vancouver, WA 98684 www.knitpicks.com

Lion Brand Yarn 34 West 15th Street New York, NY 10011 www.lionbrand.com

Muench Yarns (GGH, Muench) 1323 Scott Street Petaluma, CA 94954 www.muenchyarns.com

Naturally Hand Knit Yarns (JJ’s, Naturally) 15 Church Street, Onehunga P.O. Box 13-176 Auckland, New Zealand http://www.naturallyyarnsnz.com/yarn.htm

Noro Yarn Distributed in the United States by Knitting Fever PO Box 336 315 Bayview Avenue Amityville, NY 11701 www.knittingfever.com

Patons Yarn Lorna’s Laces 4229 North Honore Street Chicago, IL 60613 www.lornaslaces.net

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320 Livingstone Avenue South Listowel, ON Canada N4W 3H3 www.patonsyarn.com

Yarn Suppliers

Peace Fleece

Valley Yarn

475 Porterfield Road Porter, ME 04068 www.peacefleece.com

www.valleyyarn.com

Appendix A

Webs Plymouth Yarn Company P.O. Box 28 Bristol, PA 19007 www.plymouthyarn.com

75 Service Center Road Northampton, MA 01060 www.yarn.com

Prism Yarn www.prismyarn.com/

Schaefer Yarn Company 3514 Kelly’s Corners Rd. Interlaken, NY 14847 www.schaeferyarn.com/

Skacel Collection, Inc. (Skacel, Zitron) PO Box 88110 Seattle, WA 98138-2110 www.skacelknitting.com/

Southwest Trading Company www.soysilk.com

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Index

A About Knitting Web site, 154 agitation, 10, 13 alpaca, 11 Alpine, 163 Andee, 166 angora, 11 animal dander, 2 animal fibers, 2, 11 100-percent, 60 cortex, 10 cuticle, 10 arm warmer/fingerless glove, 141

B Baby Alpaca Grande, 165 back loop, 21 ball shape, 112 basic needle-felting projects, 108-109 basic needle-felting tool, 107 Berkshire Bulky, 169 Berroco, Inc., 172 Jasper, 145, 148 Peruvia, 85 swatches, 155-156 Ultra Alpaca, 148, 149 bias garter stitch, 90 binding off, 22-23

Black Magic, 156 boiled-wool coats, 3 Boku, 166 book cover, 141 Bottoone Tweed, 170 bowls, filling with cold water, 38 Brighton, 168 broom handle, 62 Bullfrogs & Butterflies, 161

C Cadena, 158 camel, 11 cardigans, 141 caring for felted items, 65 Caron International, 172 Felt-It yarn, 50 swatches, 156-157 cashmere, 11 casting off. See binding off casting on, 14-18 cat toys, 98 cell phone bag, 141 changing colors, 30, 33 checkerboard coasters, 34-35 changing colors, 35 picking up new color of yarn, 35 stranded knitting, 43-44 width, 44 175

choosing fibers, 12 circular needles, 76 cold water felting by hand, 28 shocking project, 38 color-block coasters, 36-37 changing order of color blocks, 37 intarsia, 36, 44-45 color-block knitting, 35, 44-45 colors changing, 75 yarns, 60 colorway, 50 Continental method, 14 cookie cutters, 107, 110 cortex, 10 Craft Yarn Council of America, 4 crafting as feminist statement, 5 craftivism.com Web site, 5 crochet hook, 30, 50 crocheting, popularity, 4 customizing felted baby blanket, 94 felted bucket hat, 101 felted pillow, 84 felted rose, 72 Fibonacci striped belt, 75 funky Vegas tote bag, 91 multi-colored placemat, 80 striped envelope purse, 78 cuticle, 10, 13 cutouts, 133 cutting-edge yarns, 4

176

D decreasing, 22 designing felting projects gauge, 145 gauge swatch, 145-147 math, 147 messenger bag pattern, 150-151 writing your own pattern, 148-149 designing your own patterns, 144 dresser tray gauge and measurements, 85 instructions, 86-87 materials, 85 other projects and, 87 dye lot, 50

E easiest bag ever, 135-136 eBay, 134 Elaine, 167 embellished bag body, 115 handles, 117-118 linking up pieces, 117 machine felting, 118 motif to felt onto, 118-119 needle felting, 114-116 sewing together, 116-117 sides, 116 supplies, 114 English style, 14 Esperanza, 167 Eucalan, 65 Europe and knitting guilds, 3 eyelash yarn, 12

Index

F fabric, 3 fashion and felting, 5 fear of felting, 6-7 felted baby blanket customizing, 94 gauge and measurements, 92 instructions, 93-94 materials, 92 zippered pillowcase, 94 felted ball, 126-127 felted bucket hat customizing, 101 gauge and measurements, 99 instructions, 100-101 materials, 99 felted coasters checkerboard coasters, 34-35 color-block coasters, 36-37 drying completely, 40 felting process, 39-40 gauge, 30 making sample, 41 measurements, 30 narrow-stripe coasters, 33-34 one-color coasters, 31-32 pinning to towel, 40 stockinette stitch, 30 supplies, 30 two-color coasters, 32-33 two-color horizontal stripe coasters, 35-36 variations, 30 felted computer sleeve, 136-138 felted fish cat toy gauge and measurements, 95 instructions, 96-98 materials, 95

felted flower, 131-132 felted items, caring for and trimming, 65 felted pillow customizing, 84 gauge and measurements, 81 instructions, 82-84 materials, 81 felted rose customizing, 72 gauge and measurements, 70 instructions, 71-72 materials, 70 felted wine bag, 138-140 felting, 2 agitation, 10 animal fibers, 3, 10-11 choosing projects for, 66 defining, 2 end of of yarn to beginning of another, 55-56 fashion, 5 fear of, 6-7 gauge swatch, 145-147 history of, 3 hot water, 10 large projects, 94 to particular size, 41 popularity, 4-5 process, 13 securing threads before, 24 shrinking, 145 shrinking too much, 7 sink and, 28 squareness, 41 swatch, 147 volume of fiber coming off, 49 when to stop, 63

177

felting by hand, 27 agitating and shocking piece, 39 cold water, 28 feeling felt is ready, 28 feet and, 62 felted coasters project, 30-37 felting stone, 29, 62 large project, 62 liquid dish soap or laundry soap, 28 patience, 62 plenty of time, 62 preparations, 38 receptacle for water, 28 rubber gloves, 28 safety pins or straight pins, 28 steps, 38-40 stitch definition, 40 supplies, 28, 30 tips, 62 tools to aid agitation, 62 towel, 28 washboard, 29 what happens during felting process, 28 when it is ready, 40-41 yardstick, ruler, or measuring stick, 28 felting by machine. See machine felting felting knitting, 1, 4-5 felting patterns cat toys, 98 dresser tray, 85-87 felted baby blanket, 92-94 felted bucket hat, 99-101 felted fish cat toy, 95-98 felted pillow, 81-84 felted rose, 70-72 Fibonacci striped belt, 73-75 funky Vegas tote bag, 88-91 math, 149 178

multi-colored placemat, 79 striped envelope purse, 76-78 writing your own, 148-149 felting stone, 29, 62 felting sweaters, 134-141 arm warmer/fingerless glove, 141 book cover, 141 cardigans, 141 cell phone bag, 141 easiest bag ever, 135-136 felted computer sleeve, 136-138 felted wine bag, 138-140 headbands, 141 iPod cozy, 141 patchwork skirt, 141 pockets, 141 purse, 141 scarf, 141 supplies, 134 tote bag, 141 Felt-It, 157 feminist statement, 5 fibers, 12-13 Fibonacci striped belt customizing, 75 gauge and measurements, 73 instructions, 74-75 materials, 73 Fisherman, 161 foam blocks, 110 foam mat, 107 fulling, 4 funky felted bags, 3 funky Vegas tote bag customizing, 91 gauge and measurements, 88 handles, 91 instructions, 89-91 materials, 88

Index

G

J

Galway, 166 garter stitch, 19 gauge, 145 gauge swatch, 145-147 German knitting, 14 getcrafty.com Web site, 5 GGH swatches, 157 Glory, 161 gloves, 3 Green Mountain Spinnery, 172 swatches, 157

Jasper, 155 jeans, 48, 52 jewelry, 112 JJ’s swatches, 158

H hand felting. See felting by hand hand-knit silk stocking and gloves, 3 Harmony, 163 headbands, 141 heat, 13 heathered yarns, 60 Hip Hop, 155 hot water, 10, 13, 39 How to Knit: The Definitive Knitting Course Complete with Step-by-Step Techniques, Stitch Library, and Projects for Your Home and Family (Bliss), 154 human hair, 2

I I-cord (idiot cord), 78 increasing, 21 intarsia, 30 color-block coasters, 36, 44-45 picking up new color of yarn, 35 two-color vertical stripes, 44-45 iPod cozy, 141

K Kaleidoscope, 158 Karaoke, 169 Kathleen, 167 knit and felted swatches, 155-170 knit cast-on method, 14, 15-16 Knit Picks, 172 Cadena, 120 swatches, 158-160 knit stitch, 18-19 knithappens.com Web site, 5 knitters new, 7 skill levels, 14 knitting binding off, 22-23 casting on, 14-18 decreasing, 22 felting, 1 history of, 3 increasing, 21 knit stitch, 18-19 messenger bag with flap closure, 148-149 multiple stripes, 42-43 multitasking and, 5 origins of, 3 popularity, 4-5 purl stitch, 19-20 resurgence, 4 sailors, 3 skills, 42-46, 55-56 179

knitting (continued) space between stitches, 13 stripes, 42 turning rows, 115 variegated scarf, 50-51 weaving in ends, 24 knitting books, 154 knitting guilds, 3 Knitting Help Web site, 154 knitting in front and back of stitch (kfb), 21 knitting needles, 60 knitting resources knitting books, 154 learning to knit, 154 knitting stripes, 30 knitting two together (k2tog), 22 knitty.com Web site, 5 Kookaburra, 65 Kureyon, 164

L lanolin, 2 lap-sized blankets, 94 laundering felted items, 65 laundry detergent, 48 Learn to Knit Web site, 154 learning to knit, 154 left-handed knitting, 14 Lion Brand Yarn, 172 swatches, 160 Wool, 79, 95, 160 llama, 11 Loft Classic, 170 long tongs, 48 long-tail cast-on method, 31 slip knot, 14, 16-18 Lorna’s Laces, 172 swatches, 161 180

Louet North America, 172 Riverstone Bulky, 99 swatches, 162

M machine felting agitation, 64 checking often, 63 deciding when project is finished, 63 embellished bag, 118 front-loading washer, 64 helping it felt faster, 63 jeans, 48 large projects, 48 laundry detergent or wool wash, 48 long tongs or stick, 48 narrow, long items, 63 over felting, 64 pillowcase, 48 pinning project, 54 preparations, 52-53 process, 53-54 project pieces, 63 project too small, 64 removing projects before spinning, 54 rubber gloves, 48 straight pins, 49 supplies, 48 tangles, 63 tips, 63 towels, 48, 49 unfelting, 64 washing machine, 48 Magica, 157 Maran Illustrated Knitting & Crocheting, 154 math and designing felting projects, 147, 149 mattress stitch, 102 Meadows, 65

Index

medium-weight wool yarn, 30 Merino Style, 159 messenger bag pattern, 150-151 messenger bag with flap closure, 148-149 Miss Priss, 168 Moda Dea Gleam, 12 mohair, 11 monogrammed gift bag, 111, 120-122 Montage, 158 Mountain Mohair, 157 Muench Yarns (GGH, Muench), 172 Muench/Blackforest swatches, 162 multi-colored placemat customizing, 80 gauge and measurements, 79 instructions, 80 materials, 79 multiple stripes, 42-43 multitasking and knitting, 5

N Nancy, 168 narrow-stripe coasters, 33-34 Natural Wool, 163 Naturally Hand Knit Yarns JJ’s and Naturally, 172 swatches, 163-164 Naturelle Double Knit, 163 Naturwolle, 162 needle felting, 4, 105 ball shape, 112 basic projects, 108-109 complicated shapes, 110 defining, 106 dulling needles, 113 embellished bag, 114-116 experimenting with, 113

foam blocks, 110 jewelry, 112 monogrammed gift bag, 111, 120-122 practice ideas, 110-112 pressure used, 113 pumpkins, 112 small animals, 112 solid-color felted coaster, 108-109 speed, 113 stencils, 111 stiff-bristled brushes, 110 three-dimensional object, 112 tips, 113 tools, 107 without felted knit swatch as base, 111 needle-felted patches, 111 Noro Kureyon, 81, 172 swatches, 164 Northampton, 72, 170 novelty yarn, 12

O objects and felting specific shape, 107 100-percent animal fiber, 60 one-color coasters, 31-32 ortocortex, 10 over felting, 64

P Palette, 159 paracortex, 10 patchwork skirt, 141 Patons Yarn, 172 Classic Wool Merino, 30 swatches, 165

181

patterns choosing for felting, 66 designing your own, 144 garter stitch, 19 stockinette stitch, 19-20 Peace Fleece, 165, 173 swatches, 165 Pencil Roving, 170 Perendale, 164 Peruvia, 156 picking, 14 picking up stitches, 102 pillowcase, 48-49 pins, 52 Plymouth Yarn Company, 173 Baby Alpaca Grande, 92 Boku, 76 Galway, 73 swatches, 165-166 plys, 55 pockets, 141 possum fur, 11 potato mashers, 62 Prism Yarn, 173 swatches, 166 projects choosing for felting, 66 felting by hand, 39-40 needle felting, 108-109 sewing pieces together, 102 unfelting, 64 pumpkins, 112 purl stitch, 19-20 purse, 141

182

R rabbit fur, 11 regular wool, 10 right-handed knitting, 14 Riverstone, 162 Bulky, 162 roving, 4 rubber gloves, 28, 38, 48 ruler, 38

S safety pins, 28, 38 scarf, 52, 133, 141 Schaefer Yarn Company, 173 swatches, 167-168 scissors, 30, 50, 107 sewing pieces together, 102 Shamrock, 159 shrinking knitted fabric, 4 too much, 7 silk stockings, 3 Skacel Collection, Inc. Skacel and Zitron, 173 swatches, 168 slip knot, 14, 16-18 slipping knitwise, 16 small animals, 112 Soak Wash, 65 soap, 52 solid-color felted coaster, 108-109 solid-colored yarns, 60 Southwest Trading Company, 173 swatches, 169 Vegas, 88 space between stitches, 13 spit join, 56

Index

stencils, 107, 111 stick, 48, 62 stiff-bristled brushes, 110 stitches bias garter stitch, 90 binding off, 22-23 casting on, 14-18 decreasing, 22 increasing, 21 knit stitch, 18-19 mattress stitch, 102 picking up, 103 purl stitch, 19-20 stockinette stitch, 19-20, 31, 33, 51, 145 straight pins, 28, 38, 49 stranded color work, 30 stranded knitting, 34, 43-44 striped envelope purse circular needles, 76 customizing, 78 gauge and measurements, 76 I-cord (idiot cord), 78 instructions, 77-78 materials, 76 strap, 77-78 stripes, 42 superwash wool, 10 swatches Berroco, 155-156 Caron, 156-157 felting, 147 GGH, 157 Green Mountain Spinnery, 157 JJ’s, 158 knit and felted, 155-170 Knit Picks, 158-160 Lion Brand Yarn, 160

Lorna’s Laces, 161 Louet, 162 Muench/Blackforest, 162 Naturally, 163-164 Noro, 164 Patons, 165 Peace Fleece, 165 Plymouth, 165-166 Prism, 166 Schafer, 167-168 Skacel, 168 Southwest Trading Company, 169 Valley Yarns, 169-170 Zitro, 170 sweaters, felting, 134-141 SWS, 165

T tape measure, 38 Telemark, 159 thick-bristled brush, 107 three-color horizontal coaster, 42 three-dimensional object, 112 throwing, 14 tongs, 52 tote bag, 141 towels, 28, 38, 48-49, 52 turning rows, 115 Tussock, 164 two-color coasters, 32-33, 42 two-color horizontal stripe coasters, 35-36 two-color vertical stripes and intarsia, 44-45

U Ultra Alpaca, 156

183

V

Y

valet tray. See dresser tray Valley Yarns, 173 Berkshire Bulky, 114 Northampton, 70 swatches, 169-170 variegated scarf, 50-51 Vegas, 169 Vero Tweed, 164 very light-colored yarns, 60 Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book, 154

yak, 11 yardstick, 28, 38 yarn needle, 50 yarns 100-percent animal fiber, 60 Alpine, 163 Andee, 166 Baby Alpaca Grande, 165 Berkshire Bulky, 169 Berroco Jasper, 145, 148 Berroco Peruvia, 85 Berroco Ultra Alpaca, 148, 149 Black Magic, 156 Boku, 166 Bottoone Tweed, 170 Brighton, 168 Bullfrogs & Butterflies, 161 Cadena, 158 colors, 60 compensating for shrinkage, 61 cutting-edge, 4 dye lot, 50 Elaine, 167 Esperanza, 167 estimating needs, 148 felting at different rate, 60 Felt-It, 157 fiber content, 61 Fisherman, 161 Galway, 166 Glory, 161 good choices, 12 Harmony, 163 heathered yarns, 60 Hip Hop, 155 Jasper, 155 joining new ball of yarn, 55-56

W washboards, 29, 62 washing machine, 13, 48 weaving in ends, 24 Web sites for feminist crafting, 5 Webs, 173 wet felting, 4, 126 clutch, 128-130 cutouts, 133 felted ball, 126-127 felted flower, 131-132 home-décor items, 133 scarf, 133 wrap, 133 wet-felted clutch, 128 white yarns, 60 wooden spoons, 62 wool, 2, 10, 12 wool blends, 12 wool fiber pieces, 107 Wool of the Andes, 160 Wool of the Andes Bulky, 160 wool wash, 48, 65 working yarn, 15 wrap, 133 184

Index

Kaleidoscope, 158 Karaoke, 169 Kathleen, 167 Knit Picks Cadena, 120 knitting needles, 60 Kureyon, 164 Lion Wool, 79, 95, 160 Loft Classic, 170 Louet Riverstone Bulky, 99 Magica, 157 Merino Style, 159 Miss Priss, 168 Montage, 158 Mountain Mohair, 157 Nancy, 168 Natural Wool, 163 Naturelle Double Knit, 163 Naturwolle, 162 non-animal fibers, 12 Noro Kureyon, 81 Northampton, 72, 170 Palette, 159 Peace Fleece, 165 Pencil Roving, 170 Perendale, 164 Peruvia, 156 Plymouth Boku, 76 Plymouth Galway, 73 Plymouth Yarn’s Baby Alpaca Grande, 92 Riverstone, 162 Riverstone Bulky, 162 separating, 55 Shamrock, 159 solid-colored yarns, 60 Southwest Trading Company Vegas, 88 suggested needle size, 12-13 SWS, 165 Telemark, 159

tips for choosing, 60-61 trying different, 61 Tussock, 164 Ultra Alpaca, 156 Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky, 114 Valley Yarns Northampton, 70 Vegas, 169 Vero Tweed, 164 very light-colored yarns, 60 white yarns, 60 Wool of the Andes, 160 Wool of the Andes Bulky, 160 working with two colors, 75

Z zippered pillowcase, 48, 52, 94 Zitro swatches, 170

185