Felting Flowers

Well it looks like the break did the trick knitting wise. I did bring the lace wrap with me for the week but I never once took it out of the bag! But I did pick up sticks yesterday and worked on 3 WIPs - two just needed ends sewn etc, the finishing that takes patience and yesterday I seemed to have it. I also cast off on the 3rd WIP. So, some washing and blocking this week and I may have some FO's to show off really soon.

So, just so there's some pics to go with this post I thought I'd share a felting tale from some time ago now. Being in NZ this year and being blessed with an abundance of easily accessible 100% wool combined with the fact that for the first and probably only time ever I have a top loader washine machine it seemed the time was right to delve further into the world of fulled knits. I got a book, some yarn and then got distracted by some very cute patterns and decided to give one of them a try first.

I ordered the patterns online and as soon as they arrived I rushed down to the LYS to get some suitable red yarn and got knitting. It's important that I point out that I rushed into the LYS just as they were closing for the weekend and grabbed a brand of yarn that I had previously bought and known to be NOT machine washable - same brand different 100% wool yarn.

So, home I went and got knitting. This is how the flower turned out pre-felting. (Didn't think of measuring it but at least it's pictured on top of my laptop to give some sense of scale, also I don't recall if the light was bad or if the particular shade of red was hard to photograph but the photo is pretty crap, sorry!)It's kinda large and although I had no fixed idea for what I intended to use this flower I still hoped that it would shrink a lot. Now I believe Fisher and Paykal washing machines are known for being gentle so I thought I may have to run this through a few cycles before I got the desired results. I was patient but nothing was happening. Wash after wash after wash. I began to lose patience. I consulted the book. Yes I was doing it right. The flower just wasn't co-operating. I'm not sure at what point I thought to consult the ball band but when I did I just might have let a bad word or two slip out. So, yes it wouldn't take a genius to see where this was headed - the yarn was 100% wool but it was superwash!!!! Yipee I could send it through as many cycles as I wanted but this flower just wasn't ever going to get smaller. Blast. I've tried to think of alternative uses for a huge baggy flower but I can't come up wih anything! So, I made another trip to the LYS and took my time this time and even consulted the staff as to whether or not they knew if my chosen yarn would felt well. I knit again and this time with much better results (although I forgot to take measurements before putting it in the machine).

Although the flower is still huge - 20 cm across.Not exactly corsage size but maybe I can use it for an embellishment on a bag at some later date.