Tag Archives: felting

Have you read it yet?

Posted on by
2

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Mr. Aitch got the e-book version for his tablet a few weeks ago.  I borrowed his tablet, started reading the book on Tuesday and finished it today. 

Wow.

Some reviews were not favorable but I enjoyed the book.  I’m looking forward to the second book in the series called Catching Fire.

Now that that is out of the way, I can concentrate on the iPad cover.    Since I’m doing a stockinette stitch and a two-color houndstooth design on this one instead of one color and the garter stitch, I thought I should felt another swatch.  The swatch is finished and felted.  I just have to make sure the two-color knitting it very loose on the back so the stitches don’t pull too close together while being felted.  I may decide to knit a couple of stitches along the sides for a small gusset to make it a little wider just in case my knitting is too tight.

I think the houndstooth pattern will show up nicely once it’s finished.

It’s felted

Posted on by
10

I cast on for my first CCM hat on Saturday, March 17 and finished the knitting on Wednesday, March 21.  I would have finished it sooner but I miscalculated my yarn amount and ran out of yarn.  By about a yard or so.  I ripped it back to the row before the decreases and all was well.

The yarn is a llama and wool blend and sheds like crazy!  We have a septic system and I was afraid it would clog things up so I decided  to felt it by hand with a 5-gallon bucket, hot water and new plunger.

I should have taken pictures but I did this in the bathtub Thursday evening.  It was unseasonably hot and I was working up a sweat.  The lighting was bad.  Trust me the pictures wouldn’t have been good.

I added about 4-5 inches of hot tap water to the bucket, threw in the hat and started plunging.  I changed the water every 15-20 minutes and filter out the loose fibers before letting the water go down the drain.  After an hour (yes, an HOUR) of plunging, I had gotten pretty far but the hat was still too big for my head.  I got my exercise that night!

I have a small head.

I put the hat in a mesh bag, tossed it into the washer with some old jeans and ran it through one wash cycle on hot.  When I pulled it out of the washer, it was fairly dry.  I shaped the hat and let it dry overnight.

It was lumpy and had some thicker spots.  I emailed Carrie and she suggested I re-wet the hat and reshape it.  I filled the bathroom sink with hot tap water and dunked the hat in.  Bingo!  It finally occurred to me that the hat wasn’t dripping wet when I took it out of the washer and that’s when I realized it had gone through the spin cycle.  That’s why my hat was lumpy and thick in spots.  I worked with the dripping wet hat to get the lumps and bumps out and now it’s better.  Much better.

I went to my LYS (local yarn shop) on Saturday afternoon and bought a cotton/rayon blend to embroider a design on the brim.  Not sure what I’m doing just yet but Carrie’s gallery inspires me.  I love leafy and spirally things.

Stay tuned for the embroidery surprise!

Reconsidering

Posted on by
7

Remember when I made the first tablet cover for Mr. Aitch and it was too small?

Well, I’ve been using it as a temporary-but-too-small cover for my iPad.

Several people commented about knitting and felting my own cover but the sting of the failed attempt was still too new to consider that.  I was going to sew one as it would be a much quicker process.

Have I sewn one yet?

No.

I love the feel and protection of the felted cover and am reconsidering making my own.  But it has to be something more than blue and gold.

Mr. Aitch’s tablet and my iPad are almost the same size so I can use the same stitch and row counts for the second cover.  I just have to decide on colors and possible color work.

Any suggestions?

Tablet cover take 2

Posted on by
7

Remember when I made the first tablet cover for Mr. Aitch’s e-tablet?  It was too wide and too short.

I finally finished it this afternoon.  It seemed like this took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. since I already made one.  It took awhile to get motivated to start it all over again.

The pre-felting size was 11 inches wide by 23 inches tall.  I had already sewn one side when I remembered to take that picture so just imagine that it’s really 23 inches tall.  The all important pocket was 11 inches by 10 1/2 inches once it was all sewn together.  I added a solid blue edge and checkerboard row to the top of the pocket area as well as knitted it longer.  The back is solid navy blue and I didn’t take a picture of it since it was boring.

I soaked it for about an hour in a vinegar and water solution before felting so set the blue dye so it wouldn’t run into the gold.  I didn’t add enough vinegar this time since it did run a little.

Post-felting measurements were 10 inches wide  by 8 inches high for the pocket.  That was the most important measurement.

The lining was hand sewn using some microfiber suede cloth I got on sale at Joann Fabrics. 

Perfect fit.

Blood, sweat and tears went into this.  Blood: when I stuck my finger with the needle while sewing the lining.  Tears: when the first cover didn’t fit.  Sweat: while felting this and wondering if it would fit.

Mr. Aitch is happy.