felting success

just a quick note, as actually i am looking up crochet tutes (i am determined to get the hang of it - those butterflies won't make themselves) in recent times, i was given a mostly finished hand knitted jumper in amongst a whole stash of wool. having been inspired by this book that i got for Christmas, i decided felting the jumper was the way forward. i have all sorts of felted projects in my head to make - but the trouble was, i was not having any luck with making the felt. i had washed the jumper in the washing machine on the hot cycle a few times, but to my disappointment, it never seemed to shrink at all. so today i went searching for tutes. i found a great one by laughingpurplegoldfish here. its got a great explanation of the process and of what is required to make jumpers into felt (heat, moisture, agitation and soap). after learning this, i did a bit of a re-think. heat - i was using the hot wash, so fine. moisture - ditto, fine. agitation - well, i had been throwing the jumper in the machine by itself. it seems a lonely jumper just won't felt as it has nothing to rub up against. laughingpurplegoldfish uses gumboots. i decided to throw in a couple of old towels. soap - i had been using my gentle wool detergent. i decided instead to use a big scoop of harsh washing powder. i put on my washing machine, with the new improved felting plan and finally success!

its such a cute little jumper now - all tightly felted together and ready to be turned into other things (once it dries, of course)