Vintage Velvet #3 - The Untold Story

• Five skeins Muench Touch Me #3642
• Jimmy Beans Wool
• US8
• Vintage Velvet designed by Lisa Daniels
• From the book SCARF STYLES

1. A close-up of the finished knitted scarf, before felting and drying:



2. Another shot of the unfelted, undried scarf:


3. Here's the scarf right out of the washing machine after two 12 minute wash cycles (hot wash; cold rinse) in a zippered pillow case with two pairs of faded jeans for balance and agitation:

4. The finished product after 40+ minutes in the dryer and some fan time along the back of our sofa:

5. Same as above:

But all is not perfect in Vintage Velvet Land. Some odd little black bits are working their way out of the felted stitches. I think it's the yarn core showing itself. I'm clipping madly and crossing my fingers

Advice Well-Taken

When you guys speak, I listen. To prove it, I offer up photos of the swatch I knitted at your suggestion to test the giant black MIL sweater's felting potential (complete with 4 inch square in red thread for gauge testing). You probably can't really see the difference in texture from the photos but it worked brilliantly. The Cascade Eco+ firmed up nicely so I don't think she'll have the stretching problems any more. However, thanks to swatch testing I didn't overfelt it--the texture is still very sweater-like. The sleeves shortened just enough while I was able to block out the zipper section so it didn't ripple.

Pre-felting swatch:

Post-felting swatch:

Another case in point: following your helpful advice, I took the Rather Huge Noni Bag to a shoe repair shop to have the leather handles sewn on (since my New Jersey suburb isn't rolling in saddle shops--LOL!). He did a wonderful job of making the handles strong and secure.

Here's the up close photo of the shoemaker's stitching.

And here's my Noni Bag all ready to carry yarn, books and the kitchen sink. Did I mention it's Rather Huge?

.

Thank you all for the incredibly useful, truly fabulous suggestions! What would I do without the yarn geniuses here on RTY?

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Need to know: A felting question

Remember the big black MIL sweater? Well, the yarn is not holding its shape so I've taken it back and thought I'd try felting it a bit. What's the collective wisdom of this blog on the advisability of trying that? Any helpful hints on how to judge whether it's "felted enough"?

Another question: once I've taken it out of the washer, blocked it and let it dry, can I put it back in the washer and do it again or is that a bad idea?

I can't bear to have all that work go to waste so I really want to make this sweater work.

The yarn is Cascade Eco + which I believe is suitable for felting but feel free to tell me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for your help! I really, really appreciate it!

The Noni Bag's Progress

Remember the Noni Bag I started way back when? The one that was for me to keep? Well, I finally finished knitting it and felting it and thought you'd like to see the almost-finished project. Here it is pre-felting (with my trade paperback sized book for scale).



Here it is being blocked:



I have to admit that I had to improvise a bit to block something that is three-dimensional and has folds in it (on the sides). I stuffed it with towels, used giant binder clips for the inside folds (as per the instructions) and then pinned the heck out of the outside. I had to unpin and repin the front edges in order to flip it and change the towels so the bottom side dried more quickly.

Here it is felted (with my book again):



I haven't quite gotten around to sewing the handles on yet (something else I'm doing for the first time) but I placed them on it to give you the general effect. I think the leather handles will jazz it up nicely.

Up close and personal.



Felting still seems almost miraculous to me in the way it changes the texture of the knitting. I love, love, love the colors and feel of the bag. You were all right about the defined bottom: after felting, the stitching blended right in so it looks great. (And couldn't we all use well-defined bottoms?)

The only thing I'm not 100 percent pleased about is the proportions. I think it's a little too wide for its height, something I wouldn't have expected from the pre-felted shape. However, I'm learning that felting tightens more in one direction than the other and I need to adjust accordingly.

Does anybody have any advice about sewing leather handles onto felted knitting? Thread recommendations? I'm learning as I go here and I want my handles to be strong enough to carry lots of knitting and books around.

Bad Influences!

Last Friday I did a terrible thing. I went to my Local Yarn Store just to buy a set of needles I needed for the MIL sweater and to pick up a couple of Yarnapalooza prizes (one of which Shirley just won--congrats!). That's all I was going to buy, nothing more, I swear.

But you all have led me down the treacherous garden path of multiple projects and I am so tired of the black-sweater-in-stockinette-stitch-that-never-ends. So I bought the makings of a felted totebag FOR ME!

It's a subtly striped Nani Rather Huge Carpet Bag. The yarn is Cascade Heathers in soft natural mossy greens. I splurged on a set of handles in a rich brown leather. It's all sitting there in its bag, calling to me, but I am trying to resist. I need to knit two black sleeves and a collar before I heed its siren call.

OMG, this is torture! I can't stop myself...I have to just cast on the bag...someone save me from myself!