Just Messing Around February 18, 2007
Posted by threadingwater in felting, knitting, sewing.trackback
Caution: Rare knitting content ahead
Behold, the ubiquitous bathroom mirror shot of me modeling a recent experiment with the fulling process and Muench “Touch Me” yarn.
I’ve seen and felt this yarn’s velvety hand post fulling, and thought that it might be the answer to my growing intolerance to having wool fibers next to my skin. “Touch Me” is a chenille yarn (BAD because it worms horribly after knitting) but it has a wool core. This core, when “fulled” with hot water and tossed in the dryer, prevents the chenille from worming. The result is a knitted item that pops out of the dryer looking and feeling like velvet. A delicious result for us gals in icy climes.
I made this scarf super skinny just because I wanted to finish it quickly. It was an experiment after all. And, in the few minutes it took to drape it around my bare neck and pose for a few shots in the mirror, it felt like my skin had been scratched raw. Despite the thickness and softness of the rayon fibers, that shrunken wool core was making its presence felt in a most uncomfortable way.
It’s destined for the “gift” box for someone without a sensitivity to wool.
My next fiber experiment turned out better.
I’ve been playing around with some luscious merino wool top and making sheets of flat felt. The sheets have been piling up as I refine my technique for ensuring evenly thick edges, avoiding thin spots and experimenting with “couching” of colors and textures. Several sheets of undyed merino flecked with dark blue wool in a center layer kept suggesting something for baby. It was just so incredibly, airily soft and pure and cloudlike.
I designed these booties with a long strap that wraps around to suggest a moccasin. The strap could be adjusted by moving the side button to achieve a snug, unkickable fit if necessary.
Of course, it never occurred to me to reverse the button and strap for a right/left pair. Oh, well.
Now, it I could just figure out where I put the baby . . .
Oh, the booties are very, very good. Something tells me someday I’ll develop a wool sensitivity… I’m sorry to hear about yours!
Wait, wait, you can full Touch Me?! How exactly? I am finishing up a scarf (that yarn is so beautiful!) and no matter what I did, the worming was awful.
Yes, indeed. “Fulling” is, to my mind, the ONLY way to use this yarn. It’s easy, but here are a couple of things to consider and factor into your planning process. 1) I think it helps a bit to have your cast-on and cast-off edges knit with a needle one or two gauges larger than the needle you use for the rest of the garment. 2) Your garment’s stitch pattern must be evenly balanced or the fulled result will be torqued out of shape. My scarf was knit every row, therefore equally balanced. Stockinette stitch is unbalanced and not a good choice. 3) Prior to beginning the fulling process, gently ease-in any “worms” that have formed on the surface of your garment to reduce their size. Sometimes, it is possible to simply tug them into place by stretching the garment in various directions.
Full the garment in your washing machine, putting it through one cycle of hot wash/cold rinse with a small amount of mild soap or detergent. Put it in loose, not inside a mesh bag.
After the wash cycle, it will be a hard, ugly little mess. Do not panic. Put the garment into your dryer - high heat is OK - and dry thoroughly. Voila! It will be velvety soft and drapey with no “worms,” and very little shrinkage from the original size.
Very inventive cloud booties! I would like to see more of your “sheets of flat felt” and/or items you’ve made from them.
Ahoy, Captain! This flat felt business is all new to me. I’ve only been at it for a few weeks, but I’m really intriqued with its possibilities. I think it’s fair to say that more felt projects and experiments will be showing up on this site in the future.
Thanks for stopping by.
I know where you left the baby. He’s filing. Either papers or legal motions, he wouldn’t talk. You probably do what I do: Tell him it’s nice work when you can get it, then go knit summore.
Thanks for using touch me in a mature, adult fashion without using all kinds of exclamation points about its softness. Akabini just about gags when her classes have mini-orgasms over it–hey, it’s soft, get the F over it. And …It’s a pisser when it comes to worming. You’ve come up with a great solution, and wait a minit. Yer Hot!
he he - Evil Twin.
AND by the way. You should make those booties toddler sized and don’t make a left/right so toddler can put them on “BY MYSELF” without getting them wrong. Just saying, from recent experience.
There’s also a great sweater pattern that is completely reversible back front AND inside out/rightside out so if toddler has one arm in each armhole it is on correctly. It’s a bitch to knit because it’s completely seamless with lots of bitch-ner stitching and each pattern is a k2p2 variation.
Anyway, just my tangent for the day.
Yeah, I’m the same way with wool. That scarf looks great though, excellent for when it’s cold outdoors. I wish I could touch the clothing through the computer. :- )