Monday, April 23, 2012

A Felting Virgin No Longer

Having finished my Adult Surprise Jacket -- which turned out amazingly well, and I'm delighted with it – and having decided while knitting it that I would NOT lengthen the sleeves, but simply leave them at the elbow, I found myself with one skein of each color left over. Oh, what to do?

Well, I'd had a very interesting pattern for some felted slippers in my Ravelry queue for a while, and I have never felted anything. Not ever. The pattern is called "Easy House Slippers" and it is available HERE.

The knitting is not hard, just eight garter squares in an L-shape. Then you fold the shape in a way that is poorly explained but possible to deal with and sew it together at various points.

I wound up with this massive boot. Would it really felt down into something that would fit my foot? Hard to believe.
The colors worked out well. Not having enough of any one color to make the two slippers match, I settled for a "coordinated" look. (The pattern calls for four squares of the main color and two squares each of the other two colors. )

The felting was not too bad. I had envisioned hours of splooshing in the kitchen sink, but the whole process took a mere 45 minutes. Post-felting, the slipper fabric was so thick that they needed three days to dry, but definitely worth the wait.

The slippers fit perfectly. And the color coordination is so cool that I think I would make any subsequent pairs the same way.
So, no longer a felting virgin, I have felted – successfully – and I'm highly motivated to do it again.

9 comments:

Knitting Linguist said...

Ooh! Those are very nice - I love the way the colors worked out. I may have to try that pattern myself...

Delighted Hands said...

Superb! What a great way to use that yarn! Congratulations!

Sharon said...

Both your projects are fantastic. I've never made the adult surprise jacket but I'm wearing something similar that I knit from the top down. I like the elbow length too.

Marjorie said...

Both the slippers and the jacket look wonderful.

The first time I felted, I freaked out at the size of the knitting. It was supposed to be a baby bootie (as a test knit), and I swore that the baby was an offspring of Paul Bunyan. But after felting, it worked for any ordinary tot.

Politics, Painting, Poetry and Ponderings said...

Somebody's fabulous!

lumpynose said...

Very nice choice of colors. Much better than the random rainbow stuff I usually see on ravelry.

For felting I like using the dryer, on high. Toss the fully wetted article in with some jeans and/or tennis balls. Set the dryer's timer to 30 minutes and let it go.

bspinner said...

These are so Cute!!

Louise said...

Love it! Great color coordination& rhythm.

Louise said...

Love it! Great color coordination & rhythm.