Felted Lunch Bag

Since it was school vacation last week we were downtown Boston and took a detour on the way home. We visited the Fabric Place in Woburn. It is a store I used to shop years ago when I lived in Beverly, MA. It has always had a great selection of yarns. I wanted to start work on a felted bag for my daughter. She is interested in making a bag to use as a lunch bag. The lunch bag in the book “Knit One, Felt Too” inspired her. She chose the yarn colors herself. Shh…. I’m hoping to finish the project as a birthday present. We chose 100% wool from South America. Most of the books I read about Felting suggested using Lamb’s Pride or Cascade 220. My local yarn shops don’t carry these brands. We chose Arucania “Nature Wool” because of the bright colors. Since, this brand wasn’t mentioned in any of the books I have I needed to make gauge swatches.

I’m still new to felting so I bought an extra skein to fool around with. I decided to make two sets of gauge swatches. Since some of the patterns that I have read require knitting double stranded I chose to knit a double strand gauge swatch on US size 15 needles and a second gauge swatch on US size 11 needles using a single strand of yarn. The other small test I made while knitting the swatches was to change the knit pattern. I chose to knit the bottom part of each swatch using a garter stitch and the top part using the stockinette stick pattern.

The needles I used to make the gauge swatches were much larger than the yarn’s recommended US size of 4-7 needles for the yarn gauge of 18 stitches for a 4-inch swatch. Most felting patterns recommend generating very loose, soft fabric before the felting begins. I believe the swatches I made fit this requirement.
This shows the swatch before washing. The single strand knit is on the right. Notice how much bigger it is than the double strand knitting swatch on the left.
This is how the swatches look after one wash cycle. Notice how much the single strand swatch (right) shrank already compared to the double strand knit (left). I wanted less stitch definition so I put it for a second pass though the wash.

Final swatching! It felted nicely.


Observations
The single strand swatch feeling is thinner and more floppy than the double strand knit swatch. I would use this weight if I were to make a felted vest. It feels more like a thick fabric. There is a slightly thicker feeling to the garter stitch area but it is less of a transition than I would have thought. The double strand knit swatch is a much thicker. It feels like a good potholder or trivet type thickness. The felted fabric is more sturdy; it would work well for a bottom of a bag. My daughter’s first instinct was to choose the thicker swatch to make her bag with but I’m still undecided. I might want to line the bag because we will be putting food in and out of it. If that is the case I’m thinking the lighter weight (single strand knit) might be better.

Gauge Swatch Information for a 4” x 4” square

Spa, Knit and Spin

My friend Ellen and I attended the Fifth Annual Spa, Knit and Spin, which took, place Saturday, February 17, 2007, in Portland, ME. This is a gathering of New England KNITTERS, Spinners, Spindlers, Weavers, Dyers, Lacemakers, Felters, keepers of Bunnies, Goats, Alpacas, Llamas and SHEEP, Yarn Shop Owners, people who CROCHET and Tat and Hook. I was totally amazed at all the spinners. They were in every available chair and sofa in the hotels lobby and special conference rooms. We got there late and only found space in the pool area. Ellen and I wanted to see the vendors set up in a conference room. There were sales of yarn, knitting supplies, spinners fleece, and spinning wheels. I was a good girl and only picked up a magazine and needles. I was tempted since, there was some hand dyed yarn skeins.

Eye Candy Friday

My daughter and I went for a walk this morning with our dog. It was a fluffy, sticky snow that fell during the night. This is the kind of snow that is fun to go and play in. My daughter is planning to go out and play with the neighbors just as I'm writing this.

Here is a shot of Jessie from this morning searching for something in the snow.

Ripped out 12 rows

I'm so mad today; I found out after 12 rows that I was knitting on the wrong needles. I was on 3s when I should have been on 2s. You are seeing the ripped out version here. Oh well, back to the beginning. I know that I'll get the pattern down because of lots of practice.

Late Eye Candy

In the middle of winter it's nice to see some spring flowers. These are from two years ago this February. We were visiting family in Israel and got a chance to see the almond trees in bloom.

Noni Flower

I adore the Noni Flower Bags. I found that my local knit shop had the patterns. The flowers are a separate pattern then the bag itself. I purchased only the Camilla flower pattern. My local knit shop doesn’t carry the Cascade 220 yarn and recommends the Brown Sheep Bulky as an alternative. However, I fell in love with this Paint Box yarn. It has a nice blend that changes from a Pink at one end into a Purple at the end.

I read some blogs about creating these flowers, which mentioned that the large flowers need more than one ball of yarn. I chose to create the medium size flower to save on yarn. It suggested that the leaves should be created using 6 stitches in the width, then working up to 11 rows/stitches in the length. My first thought was that the petal leaves were too narrow and long, but my past experience with felting a bag I felt that the petals would shrink-up. I used a longhaired acrylic yarn as an accent for the center bobble.

The pattern suggests that the petals should be twisted around and sewn together. I did this loosely because I thought the shrinking would tighten up the total flower. It didn’t. If I do this again I would sew the petals together more tightly.

I do like the size of the medium flower except I would the make the petals wider with 7 or 8 stitches and less long with 9 or 10 rows tall.

I felted my flower in the washing machine with a warm wash and warm rinse setting. After the first wash cycle the stitches were still visible so I washed them for a second cycle. To try and form this flower I pressed the flower into a ball shape and placed a crumpled sheet of newspaper between the first and second round of petals. It did dry in a good shape but the petals were very floppy. For me to use this flower I believe I would need some stiffener to keep the petals in shape. I’ll post the final pictures once I find and use some liquid starch.