Elijah posing as a lobster with the pre-felted mittens

The finished product - Mitten Love!

I completed 2 pairs of felted mitttens. One made out of Cascade 220 and the other out of lanolinwolle. These are always so fun because I can knit a pair in a day and then felt it the next. Instant gratification! Michael was really pleased with the cascades and can’t wait to use it. I have to figure out a way to create loops on them so that he can clip them to his harness or whatever. I did crochet some hooks on the lanolin one, but the connection is kinda flimsy. Maybe I’ll just put a gromit in them and then tie a piece of thin rope or sumthin’. I thought the cascade was a bit too thick, and Michael can feel the difference with/without the lanolin (or so he says). The lanolin one ended up being a little short and the cuff part flares too much. I think I can fix that with another round of felting.

The mittens took on their own personality to I made some “mitten couple” shots. This marks the end of my “Gothic Spire” break and I already started on the cuff.

I also wanted to mention that after being gawked at (well, it wasn’t in a bad way) at the German SNB where all the ladies are super speed knitters, I finally learned how to knit continental style. If any of you have seen me knit, I do a hybrid of continental and English - I still throw, but with the left hand. Weird, but it doesn’t hurt my hands as much. What I had to do was always think “relax” and it worked better for me. I’ve got the knitting down pretty good, purling is still a little uncomfortable and other non-ordinary things fuggetabouit! It just will take practice and patience.

Booga bag #1 pre-felt

Booga bag #2 pre-felt

Well, I scoured the internets to find information about felting in a front loader. It was a little surprising at how hard it was to find detailed information. Or maybe I’m just an idiot. Everyone made it seem like it was not possible or extremely hard to do.

For my first bag, I threw it in the wash in a zippered pillowcase along with one of those color catcher deals. Then I also put in 2 pairs of jeans. Since everyone was saying that they had to put it through several wash cycles, I set the wash to the maximum temp (90 deg. c) and max time and let it rip. I also had our water cooker and added a couple of liters of boiling water while it was going. I put the water in by opening the detergent drawer and just pouring it in there. I also put in about a 1/2 cap of Woolite.

Once it was just about to start spinning, I turned the knob to drain the water and checked the progress. It felted TOO MUCH! I don’t think I’ve read about this happening, everyone always said you need to put it through 4 or 5 times. Maybe it was the yarn I used? Or maybe European washers are different than the US ones. The bag even fused together and I had to pull it apart. There are a few lines/creases that was created because it felted too much and I’m kind of peeved about that. It rolled itself up into a ball and stayed that way. But it’s still a cute bag. IMHO. I am blocking it using Harry Potter 4 & 5 hardcovers.

Hand felting in the sink

Blocking

The second bag (same bag, different yarn), I decided to hand felt to see how hard it is and the differences between the two. Also, Noro is more expensive than the Wollmeise yarn, so I wanted to have more control over the process. I got my water cooker, some gloves, woolite and did it in the sink. I followed the instructions from here. I think it turned out really well, I may put a cardboard covered in fabric on the bottom so that it keeps it’s bag shape when in use. Noro felts really easily, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have sore arms! I think I will embellish it a little with embroidery along the edge and maybe a leaf on the front? Never embroidered before, but it seems like it will make it more complete. It is now being blocked using “Programming Windows” and “Abstract Data Types”.

Over felted

Almost finished, just need to attach the handles

Finished Booga bag #2