Wet felting

pink ruffle scarf

I still haven't conquered silk. In fact, it appears not as easy to find in my nearby stores and I will have to order online from somewhere, so I have put it on hold.

In the meanwhile, I have been obsessed with wet felting. I mean, really obsessed. I absolutely love the fabric you can get with cobweb felt! It's amazingly soft and drapes well.

And, I have discovered ruffles! This is a really impressive scarf, and I am going to send this one for my cousin, hopefully she will love it :) The colors I used are fluro pink, rose and magenta. Different fiber layout and a slightly more aggressive felting in the middle part of the scarf result in beautiful ruffly edges.

fluro pink, rose and magenta wet felt ruffle scarf

I have tries a few fiber combinations over the past week or so with cobweb wet felting technique. Merino silk mix produces the most luxurious ones, with a fascinating drape. Here are a few pics:

cobweb felt scarf black white red merino silk

This is one of my favorites - very elegant look

cobweb felt scarf merino silk earth tones

cobweb felt scarf "rose garden" shades of red beige and white

Pure merino wool can produce very nice results, too, but I discovered I had to be extra careful when fulling them, so that they would preserve all the softness and drape nicely. Here are some of my favorites:

cobweb felt scarf silver grey storm blue and  just a shadow of lilac to bring in extra light

cobweb felt merino scarf shades of purples and blue

cobweb felt merino scarf hot pink magenta fuchsia plum and bamboo staple 

And, I also tried a mix of 95% merino wool and 5% mohair, which produced a very airy and lightweight scarf with a bit of an earthy feel to it due to mohair.

cobweb felt scarf merino mohair mix purple and green

I absolutely love wet felting, the possibilities of fibers and colors are endless and results are gorgeous!

Fun Felt Egg Cozy Pattern

These are fun and a very quick project.
For a pdf version download now 

Things You’ll need:

A little bit of 100% wool yarn, worsted (super-wash will NOT felt)

DPNs or double point needles

Tapestry needle for weaving in the ends

Crochet hook
Meter

Rubber gloves for felting

Liquid dish soap for felting

Gauge: 4 st = 1 inch

Finished size after felting: ~4.5 inches tall, 3,5 inches - cozy + 1,5 inches - 'tail'. It fits over the whole egg.

Knitting.

Cast on 30 stitches and split them on 3 needles – 10 stitches/needle. Knit in round for 11 rows.

Row 12: k2tog, knit till the end of needle, repeat for each needle.

Repeat row 12 till you have 2 stitches left on each needle.

Then k2tog, put down the free needle, k2tog, put down the free needle, k2tog. You’ll end up with 3 stitches on one needle. Knit I-cord for about an inch.

Next row: knit back and front of the loop in all three stitches. You’ll have 6 st on the needle now. Knit two rows like if you were to do 6 st I-cord. Then slip the stitches on a crochet hook and pull the loop through all of them. Make one single crochet to tighten the “ball”. Make another single crochet to join the row where you increased I-cord from 3 to 6 stitches. Cut the yarn, weave in the ends.

 The un-felted cozy measures about 3.2" wide and about 5" tall including the 'tail'.

Felting.

Felting is done by using hot and cold water, while agitating the item with the rubber gloves and a drop of detergent. Start with hot water, soak your cozy, add some detergent and start working it with the gloves, don’t let it cool down. After a while, shock the cozy placing it under cold running water, wash out the soap and check progress. Repeat as many rounds of this as needed, every wool felts different, every color of the same wool felts different….
I only needed two cycles for this one:

result after felting cycle #1

result after felting cycle #2

Once you are happy with the result, dry the cozy with towel, gently squeezing out excess water. Shape it and leave to dry. Do NOT use a hair dryer! (ask me now I now it….)

That is it!

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I-cord - knit 3 stitches, do NOT turn work, just slide them to the right side of the needle, knit 3 stitches again, slide again, knit 3 st again… etc

k2tog - knit two stitches together