Felting Failure
I made this purse, intending it to be a Christmas present for 14yo dd, except it's a bust. I was following a LionBrand pattern for a striped felted tote using LionBrand Felting Wool. The felted size was supposed to be 14" x 9". I followed the pattern to a T, got gauge, blah blah blah.
A picture says a thousand words, so here's a couple of thousand :(
Pre-felt:
Post-felt:
As you can see, it felted vertically just fine. It's the horizontal part that didn't work so great. Even the handles didn't felt, they were worked horizontally (CO 7 and work in stockinette stitch until 35" long). So obviously this "Felting Wool" doesn't felt 'down' very well. I don't think I can salvage this one :(
If I were to use the rest of the LB FW I have I would need to cast on fewer stitches (making it less wide) to account for the lack of felting in that direction. Would that work?
*side rant- the stupid pattern said it would take three balls of each color and I used one of the green and one and a tiny bit of a second of the black.
I will say this, I will NEVER use LB FW for felting again. Has anyone else had similar issues with felting this yarn?
A picture says a thousand words, so here's a couple of thousand :(
Pre-felt:
Post-felt:
As you can see, it felted vertically just fine. It's the horizontal part that didn't work so great. Even the handles didn't felt, they were worked horizontally (CO 7 and work in stockinette stitch until 35" long). So obviously this "Felting Wool" doesn't felt 'down' very well. I don't think I can salvage this one :(
If I were to use the rest of the LB FW I have I would need to cast on fewer stitches (making it less wide) to account for the lack of felting in that direction. Would that work?
*side rant- the stupid pattern said it would take three balls of each color and I used one of the green and one and a tiny bit of a second of the black.
I will say this, I will NEVER use LB FW for felting again. Has anyone else had similar issues with felting this yarn?
posted by Heather @ 1:03 PM
12 Comments:
At 1:39 PM,
Knitcrazy said…
Hey.. You could use it as a Knitting Needle case :)
Penny
http://pennyknits.blogspot.com/
At 3:11 PM,
Trillian42 said…
It's definitely a cute bag, but how crappy that it didn't felt like it should have.
I think your solution should work fine, now that you know how it will felt (as opposed to how they CLAIM it will felt).
At 4:09 PM,
Zonda said…
Sorry to hear what happened. It did felt, although not what you wanted. I prefer Patons Classic Merino as it felts very fast and has more yardage. It is very nice though!! Can you use it for small projects. As for the handle, could you just put that part in the washer or try to hand felt it in hot water? Better luck next time! :(!
At 5:24 PM,
Katy said…
Or you could send it to a flute player as a flute carrying case bag... :)
It's really pretty even if the dimensions didn't quite work out.
At 5:27 PM,
Anonymous said…
Well, look, it's unique! It reallly is. And what teenaged girl wants to have the same purse as every other girl? (Ok, let me rethink that....)
I like it, though! You did a great job!
At 7:45 AM,
Anonymous said…
I think it's really cute! I love the shape. Where did you get that pattern? Is it a freebie?
At 7:54 AM,
Heather said…
Thanks!
It was a free pattern on a tear off pad at Michaels right by the display of LB FW :)
At 2:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Heather -
We at Lion Brand were so sorry to learn that you were disappointed with your bag.
Based on the number of stripes we can see in your photo (and by your mention of only needing to use a small amt of yarn) - your piece may not have been knit to the full length.
Since felting isn't an exact science, the finished size of a felted project may vary a bit from the pattern measurements - but it should be close.
Lion Brand values our customers and stands behind all our products. Please let us know how we may assist you in achieving success with this project.
Jackie Smyth
Technical Editor, Lion Brand Yarn
At 8:58 AM,
Anonymous said…
Your bag is cute!
If you had lots of yarn left over, did you knit it as big as it was supposed to be before felting?
At 9:51 AM,
Anonymous said…
I only felted once... but you could use that bag for holding your knitting needles! :-)
At 12:44 PM,
Shelly Hattan said…
Looks like you may not have doubled the yarn and knitted with two strands. Don't really know, just tryin' to figure out what went wrong.
At 6:48 PM,
Heather said…
The pattern did not call for knitting with two strands.
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