Holli Yeoh Knits

As one of the contributing designers, I received my copy of Amy Singer’s new book No Sheep For You in the mail today.

Let me tell you, what a thrill! While I have self-published a number of patterns and I’ve had some on Knitty.com (Devan and Drunken Argyle for him) and in the Accord Knitting Pattern-a-Day calendars since 2005, this is my first design published in a book.

I got goosebumps when I turned to my page.

After carefully bundling the slippers in a pillowcase and then subjecting them to the hot water cycle in the washing machine, they started to shrink and felt.  It took two or three cycles and they are somewhat uneven - I even tried to hand felt the sections that didn’t seem to be felting as quickly as the rest. 

All in all, I managed to felt them down to my size and the felted fabric is nice and dense without any stitch definition - just like my swatch.  It actually worked! 

Pattern: Fiber Trends Felted Clogs
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool That’s Pink (00238) and Paprika (77732)
Needles: Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles

The knitting is done.  A quick knit although a little fiddly with the sewing together afterwards.  I’m sure there must be a way to avoid that.  I’ll save figuring that out for a future pair of slippers maybe if this felting thing works out.

My happy model was willing to put on Mama’s ridiculously large slippers to show some scale.

The knitting for the felted clog is coming along quickly.  I’m happy with my colour selection although I realised that I goofed with the amounts.  The sole (orange) takes twice as much yarn as the upper (pink).  I had one ball of orange and two of pink.  Woops!  A quick stop at my LYS one day and the project continues.

I’m pleased with the difference between the felted swatch and my knitting.  It looks like there’ll be hope for this project as long as I have faith in my swatch.

I’ve decided to brave the felted project again.  After my past disasters I’ve decided to choose a yarn that has a good reputation for felting - Patons Classic Wool.  I have some leftover from a bag workshop I took last year (well I ripped out the unfinished project and reclaimed the wool).  I’ve also chosen another good standby for this project: Fiber Trends’ Felted Clogs.  I need a new pair of slippers after the last fiasco (wish I had taken photos of the holes - oh well, that was pre-blog).

This time I even knit and felted a swatch.  So far so good.  We’ll see how it goes.

Note: I’ve changed the title of this one in the hopes of receiving fewer SPAM comments - we’ll see if it works!

I’ve tried felting in the past without much success. My first attempt was a Cat Bordhi moebius bag. I had some undyed Condon’s on hand (woolen mill from the Maritimes that’s long gone out of business). To digress, when I was first weaving at art college the college bookstore sold skeins of Condon’s. I came across it again at the Co-op Store in Taloyoak when I was teaching jewellery in the high Arctic for Arctic College. I knew the mill had closed down quite some time back and that the stock had been on their shelves for years. I convinced the manager to sell me all the skeins for $2 each. I still have many skeins in my stash.

Fast forward to the moebius workshop I was going to attend with Cat Bordhi. I decided to dye my own yarn for the project and started experimenting with Kool-Aid dyeing. I knit my bag (and had a great time at the workshop – if you ever get a chance to take a workshop with Cat, she’s a hoot). I finished it at home and felted it in my washing machine. It seemed to take forever and the wash water looked and smelled very much like a huge tub of grape Kool-Aid. I swear, when I dyed the yarn I did rinse it until the water ran clear! Even with all that washing, I wasn’t able to get the stitch definition to disappear – the darn thing just wouldn’t felt any tighter. So between the bag being noticeably paler by the end of the process and not as felted as I would have liked, I was somewhat disappointed.

My uncooperative model

My next felting project was a pair of slippers for my son from Amy Singer’s Knit Wit. The adult pattern is on Knitty. I used some burgundy coloured Briggs and Little from my stash with a bit of eyelash yarn at the cuff for fun. The slippers were HUGE after knitting. My husband and son thought I was crazy. With a little trepidation the felting began. After probably 5 full cycles in the washing machine with alternating hot water and cold rinse plus a couple of old pairs of jeans I decided they just wouldn’t go any smaller. This took forever since I was checking it every 5 minutes or so as recommended. Yikes, I could barely get them small enough to fit me! After a very few short months of wearing them holes started to appear on the bottom and because they didn’t felt very well, they really fell apart once the first hole appeared. I think they might be my only handknit that I’ve actually thrown in the garbage!