Category — Felting

Let’s face it the only ‘yarn diet’, I am on consists of making crochet fruit.  What’s that old saying?  A crochet apple a day keeps the need to buy more yarn at bay.  Well, I can confirm that is just.not.true.

Last week, I got into a big bowl felting spree.

I totally caught the felting bug after seeing these loooovely felted bowls and vases online.  I test felted a few yarns from my stash:

1. Sirdar Eco Wool – I used a double strand to knit up a little bowl.  Felted up slowly.  Took a lot of elbow grease.  But it looks just lovely.
2. Briggs & Little Regal -I crocheted a test square using a double strand and think it’s a good contender for felting.  I should have used a smaller hook – my felted square has a few “air vents”.  With a little more elbow grease, maybe I could felt it into a solid square.
3. Lett Lopi - Love this!  Use a double strand to make a stiffer fabric.  The subtle variation of colour in this yarn makes for a sophisticated final felted object.

I think my favourite bowl was made with the Sirdar Eco Wool on size 5mm needles.  (Check out my Ravelry project page for all the details.)  It felted up nice and still and I love that it sits perfectly flat thanks to a clever idea of purling a couple of rows.  I can see myself knitting up a few more of these in different sizes.  Love them.

If you’re not using a washing machine to felt your piece, here’s a handy tip that I found online:  For ‘traction’ when hand-felting, try using a rubberized mat.  You can buy these in rolls at the hardware store.  Worked like a charm!

The crochet apple comes from Tasty Crochet.  I have visions of crocheting everything in the book (ha!) for Alden’s future play kitchen.   I picked a yummy handspun red yarn from my vacation to PEI.  It had just the right amount of colour variation for a realistic apple.