Here We See The Wily Felter...(now with pictures!)

Am currently on a felting adventure. Worked up two swatches in Lopi that I had hanging around as test swatches for the Satchel (aka the JackBauerManpurseofAsskickery) and they are in the washer as we speak! Feel the excitement! Revel in the fact that I haven't a clue how in the hell they're going to turn out as I'm kind of making this shit up as I go along!

Okay, not quite. I've read a lot of people's blog entries about felting and as I have a number of woolly things that I don't want felted I know the basic rules. Hot water + agitation + soap = felt, with the side addition of cold water shock = even more felting and shrinkage. So I've whacked my swatches in a pillowcase and tossed them in with my sheets and a couple towels that needed washing anyway. Should be done soon. Unfortunately in my haste to get going I forgot to take "before" pictures, but I'll get some "after" ones and hey, at least I took measurements!

ETA: Success! Mostly. Come on down to my felting lab and I'll show you...

...come into my parlour said the spider to the fly...

Okay, here's the felting lab, a.k.a, my basement. Washer, dual-compartment sink (very important in a couple minutes), cleaning products, weird stains on the floor, the whole shebang.

So I pulled the swatches out of the washer and...


...huh. A little felting going on, but not much. Considering I shrank this photo quite a bit and you can still see the stitches, not terribly good results. I did a garter stitch swatch as well, just to see how the different stitch patterns felted, but it's really boring, so I'll leave the photos on that one.

So here's where the fun started! Were I actually making something, this is where I'd do the lazy thing and just whack it back in the washer with more loads of laundry, but I didn't want to waste the water or wait. So instead, I hand-felted it!

Filled up a little basin with hot, hot soapy water and put it in the left half of the double sink becuase that's where the dishwasher drains and ew, it's gross in there. Turned the tap on cold in the other side of the sink, then proceeded to violently agitate and shock that swatch. I was violent. I tortured it. I...pulled a Jack Bauer on it. ;-)

Anyway. After all that shocking and agitating, shocking and agitating, I got...

...FELT! It didn't shrink much width-wise, but it did shrink about half an inch lengthwise. I know it usually doesn't felt evenly in both dimensions, but then I thought it might change a bit more at least. The swatch was fairly dense to begin with, though.

So looks like it worked well. Both swatches are drying downstairs, and I'll see what they feel like when they're dry. But it looks like the Satchel (aka JackBauerManpurseofJustice) is a go for New York. Will get the yarn tomorrow. *cackles*

Of course I'm kind of bodging it as I've never seen the yarn used for the original project, and there are a bunch of other variables with that but the stitch gauge was about the same and really, as long as it's big enough for my stuff...

Besides. Making stuff up as I go along? So Jack.

...Now I wonder if I could do it in 24 hours?