I felted my first planned-from-the-started felted, knitted project
yesterday. I'm not sure whether I'm glad or not :)
I got 4 ounces of Corriedale top as a door prize. I rainbow dyed the
two pieces in the microwave, in luscious colors that sort of suggested a
Carribean sea--cyan, turquoise, purples, many greens through to lime,
with some yellow and magenta thrown in just because :)
Spinning was a dream, easy and fast and FUN with all those colors
flashing by. I navajo-plied the singles, resulting in a yarn about
sport weight. One skein was, overall, quite a bit lighter than the
other (deliberately done during the dyeing).
I knit a bag shape from the top down on size 7 needles, in a variation
of a Shetland lace wave pattern. The last couple inches were in plain
stockinette, then I shaped an oval bottom and wove the last 38 stitches
together. I was very pleased with it--bright, beautiful colors, the
pattern designed to show off the stripes made by the dyeing, and a
practical shape (it finished, before felting, at 14 inches tall, 9 1/2
inches wide).
I threw it in the washing machine in hot water with laundry detergent.
Agitated it on high. And agitated. And Agitated. And AGITATED! The
thing was in there (by itself, maybe that's why the process was so slow)
for about 10 minutes and still hadn't shrunk much. The color was
lighter, but otherwise not much change.
So I added some washing soda to raise the pH, and agitated to the end of
the cycle. Success, sort of :) It felted, and lost nearly all the
gorgeous color it started with. I guess Ciba Kiton dyes don't like alkalis.
It only lost a couple inches in both directions. The pattern is still a
little visible, but the eyelets in the pattern wouldn't let anything
other than knitting needles through them. The bag looks sort of
frosted, compared to the original colors. Yellow and magenta washed out
much more than the cyan.
I don't think I'll be doing something quite like that again, but it was
fun, and I do have a nice little bag to use :)
Holly
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