FKFOs! (Felted Knitting Finished Objects); and, Knitting in Public
First, Some Beauty Shots
Finished Objects! Finished Objects! We've got Finished Objects!
To be precise, two of them. First, the Market Squares Bag that I've been working on:
Market Squares Bag, Ready for Action
Pattern: Market Squares Bag, from the book Bags: A Knitter's Dozen
Yarn: Galway 100% wool yarn, 1 skein each of five colors
Needles: Addi Turbo size 8 circulars for bag; Inox size 8 dps for i-cord handles
Working notes: This was my first experience with entre-lac knitting, and I enjoyed it. I can imagine myself having fun working the technique into different projects and shapes.
To make it easier, I taught myself to knit in reverse - in other words, to knit flat stockinette stitch without turning the work. How I do that is detailed in this post. Entre-lac would have driven me insane if I hadn't done this - dozens of tiny squares, and constantly turning your work after anywhere from 3 to 12 stitches? Yikes!
I started the project on an Addi Turbo size 8 24" circular needle, and that was a perfect fit for the beginning size of the bag. After 7 or 8 tiers, though, the squares - and therefore the overall diameter of the circle - start getting smaller. By about the 10th tier or so, I had added in an Addi size 8 40" needle I had in my tools, and was working with the 2-circular needles technique.
The felting process took place in my washing machine. I put the bag and straps into a pillowcase and safety-pinned it shut - I don't have any zippered pillow liners. Tossed that into the machine along with a couple of towels, added a tiny bit of laundry detergent, set it for low water level, hot water wash, and for the longest cycle under "Heavy-Cotton". I stopped the agitation every 5 minutes and checked progress.
It's astonishing how there seemed to be very little progress for the first 15 minutes, then after another 5, BAM! Suddenly I had a much smaller bag in my hands. I got out a deep dishpan to do a final rinsing in, put a small trash bag over a large popcorn tin, and stretched the felted bag over the tin to block. The straps I laid out flat on the counter.
Drying took over a day. After about 24 hours, I turned the bag inside-out on the tin to give the other side of the felt a chance to dry, too.
Final Evaluation: I like the bag, generally, but I wish it were deeper. It's got a bucket-shape that's wider than it is tall - about 15" wide, but only around 10" tall. I'd prefer a proportion that's a tiny bit taller than it is wide. If I do this again, I'll probably add a few more tiers of squares to the body.
Still, this is going to be a fun bag to carry a small knitting project, or a book or two, in. I'm considering whether adding a zipper to the top would be an improvement.
A Bonus Project
With some of the leftover yarn from the bag, I tackled a project from Knitting: Pattern-a-Day 2006 Calendar. This fun little calendar has unbound pages for each day of the year with knitting patterns on them. (Though to my dismay, they are another calendar publisher who take the route of shortchanging the year, IMHO, by putting Saturday and Sunday on the same page. You lose 52 pages of potential content that way!)
On Friday, January 13, we have a set of patterns for Felted Coasters, Hot Pads, and Beverage Jackets. Canned beverages being regularly consumed in this household, and attractive coolers for them difficult to find (especially off-season), I decided to tackle a beverage jacket.
Felted Beverage Jacket
Pattern: Felted Beverage Jacket, from Knitting: Pattern-a-Day 2006 Calendar
Yarn: Galway 100% wool yarn, random leftovers
Needles: Brittany size 10 dps, Bates size 10 circulars
Working notes: The pattern is simple and straightforward. You create a flat round base, using pi-like increases. I was a little puzzled that they didn't have you just continue knitting up the sides of the cylinder then - rather, you bind off the 48 stitches you've come to, then you go around the edge and pick up 40 stitches. Maybe it gives a more correct sizing for the sides, especially with the felting to consider.
I worked in random sections of color, then when I got bored with that, I did random two-color stranded knitting (sometimes alternating colors every stitch, sometimes 3 of one, 1 of the other), changing the pattern as the mood struck me. When that got tired (after about 6 rounds) I grabbed all the 4 to 8 inch leftover strings from the Market Squares Bag, tied them together in no particular order, then continued the random two-color knitting with the green as the main color, and the random piece for the accent.
Felting took place mostly in a large food storage tub. I put in two terry washcloths and the unfelted beverage jacket, added hot water and a tiny bit of mild dish soap, then sealed the lid. Gryphon and I took turns shaking this, checking progress every 5 minutes or so. At the end, I finished it by simply rubbing the piece together in my hands in the open tub. It's still sitting on a beverage can drying and blocking as I type. I'm still debating whether I should have felted it down a bit more, as it feels a little floppy compared to the Market Squares Bag. But then, it's knit on needles 2 sizes larger, so maybe this is as it should be.
Final Evaluation: Since this is still drying, I haven't had a chance to test this under the conditions in which it will regularly be used. Still, it was a fun little knit, especially when I started playing with the colors a bit. I'd definitely knit more of these - they'd be a great way to swatch multi-color patterns and see how they felt up. I'll bet that a coordinated set of them would be a fun gift as well.
Knitting In Public
I've been contacted by e-mail by one reader about Craft Goddess (CG) Bea and I and our Knitting Around last week, asking where and when we might do this again and if we don't mind others joining us. The answer is a resounding, we don't mind!
It's actually something that CG Bea and I are trying to foster - knitters gathering en masse someplace on a regular basis, and knitting where the world in general can see us doing it. So yes, if you're a knitter in the vicinity of our Knitting Around activities, and you're available at the time and place specified, please come on by!
Knitting Around this week will take place at Panera Bread, 590 Amherst St., Nashua, NH. (The one by Target.) The time to gather is 6 p.m. - or as soon after that as you can make it. Last week, Bea and I continued hanging around until 8:30 p.m.
I feel compelled to point out that this is a commercial cafe, and the Knitting Around is not an officially endorsed Panera event. We don't want to make Panera unhappy with our presence, and we don't want to wear out our welcome, so anyone attending should expect to be there as a customer of Panera, and at least purchase a small coffee or tea to sip on while we knit.
There is no formal agenda here - only a desire to Knit Around in Public - and in numbers. It will be interesting to watch reactions from Panera staff and regular customers as they realize we're showing up week after week! Perhaps we can even help to encourage an aspiring new knitter or two.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to drop me a note at the e-mail link on my sidebar.
I hope some of you can join us - and do bring along any knitting friends you have that you think might enjoy this as well!
Tomorrow
Knitting Around with the Budweiser Clydesdales. Really, I promise this time. I've even started composing the post already!
Happy Knitting!
Finished Objects! Finished Objects! We've got Finished Objects!
To be precise, two of them. First, the Market Squares Bag that I've been working on:
Market Squares Bag, Ready for Action
Pattern: Market Squares Bag, from the book Bags: A Knitter's Dozen
Yarn: Galway 100% wool yarn, 1 skein each of five colors
Needles: Addi Turbo size 8 circulars for bag; Inox size 8 dps for i-cord handles
Working notes: This was my first experience with entre-lac knitting, and I enjoyed it. I can imagine myself having fun working the technique into different projects and shapes.
To make it easier, I taught myself to knit in reverse - in other words, to knit flat stockinette stitch without turning the work. How I do that is detailed in this post. Entre-lac would have driven me insane if I hadn't done this - dozens of tiny squares, and constantly turning your work after anywhere from 3 to 12 stitches? Yikes!
I started the project on an Addi Turbo size 8 24" circular needle, and that was a perfect fit for the beginning size of the bag. After 7 or 8 tiers, though, the squares - and therefore the overall diameter of the circle - start getting smaller. By about the 10th tier or so, I had added in an Addi size 8 40" needle I had in my tools, and was working with the 2-circular needles technique.
The felting process took place in my washing machine. I put the bag and straps into a pillowcase and safety-pinned it shut - I don't have any zippered pillow liners. Tossed that into the machine along with a couple of towels, added a tiny bit of laundry detergent, set it for low water level, hot water wash, and for the longest cycle under "Heavy-Cotton". I stopped the agitation every 5 minutes and checked progress.
It's astonishing how there seemed to be very little progress for the first 15 minutes, then after another 5, BAM! Suddenly I had a much smaller bag in my hands. I got out a deep dishpan to do a final rinsing in, put a small trash bag over a large popcorn tin, and stretched the felted bag over the tin to block. The straps I laid out flat on the counter.
Drying took over a day. After about 24 hours, I turned the bag inside-out on the tin to give the other side of the felt a chance to dry, too.
Final Evaluation: I like the bag, generally, but I wish it were deeper. It's got a bucket-shape that's wider than it is tall - about 15" wide, but only around 10" tall. I'd prefer a proportion that's a tiny bit taller than it is wide. If I do this again, I'll probably add a few more tiers of squares to the body.
Still, this is going to be a fun bag to carry a small knitting project, or a book or two, in. I'm considering whether adding a zipper to the top would be an improvement.
A Bonus Project
With some of the leftover yarn from the bag, I tackled a project from Knitting: Pattern-a-Day 2006 Calendar. This fun little calendar has unbound pages for each day of the year with knitting patterns on them. (Though to my dismay, they are another calendar publisher who take the route of shortchanging the year, IMHO, by putting Saturday and Sunday on the same page. You lose 52 pages of potential content that way!)
On Friday, January 13, we have a set of patterns for Felted Coasters, Hot Pads, and Beverage Jackets. Canned beverages being regularly consumed in this household, and attractive coolers for them difficult to find (especially off-season), I decided to tackle a beverage jacket.
Felted Beverage Jacket
Pattern: Felted Beverage Jacket, from Knitting: Pattern-a-Day 2006 Calendar
Yarn: Galway 100% wool yarn, random leftovers
Needles: Brittany size 10 dps, Bates size 10 circulars
Working notes: The pattern is simple and straightforward. You create a flat round base, using pi-like increases. I was a little puzzled that they didn't have you just continue knitting up the sides of the cylinder then - rather, you bind off the 48 stitches you've come to, then you go around the edge and pick up 40 stitches. Maybe it gives a more correct sizing for the sides, especially with the felting to consider.
I worked in random sections of color, then when I got bored with that, I did random two-color stranded knitting (sometimes alternating colors every stitch, sometimes 3 of one, 1 of the other), changing the pattern as the mood struck me. When that got tired (after about 6 rounds) I grabbed all the 4 to 8 inch leftover strings from the Market Squares Bag, tied them together in no particular order, then continued the random two-color knitting with the green as the main color, and the random piece for the accent.
Felting took place mostly in a large food storage tub. I put in two terry washcloths and the unfelted beverage jacket, added hot water and a tiny bit of mild dish soap, then sealed the lid. Gryphon and I took turns shaking this, checking progress every 5 minutes or so. At the end, I finished it by simply rubbing the piece together in my hands in the open tub. It's still sitting on a beverage can drying and blocking as I type. I'm still debating whether I should have felted it down a bit more, as it feels a little floppy compared to the Market Squares Bag. But then, it's knit on needles 2 sizes larger, so maybe this is as it should be.
Final Evaluation: Since this is still drying, I haven't had a chance to test this under the conditions in which it will regularly be used. Still, it was a fun little knit, especially when I started playing with the colors a bit. I'd definitely knit more of these - they'd be a great way to swatch multi-color patterns and see how they felt up. I'll bet that a coordinated set of them would be a fun gift as well.
Knitting In Public
I've been contacted by e-mail by one reader about Craft Goddess (CG) Bea and I and our Knitting Around last week, asking where and when we might do this again and if we don't mind others joining us. The answer is a resounding, we don't mind!
It's actually something that CG Bea and I are trying to foster - knitters gathering en masse someplace on a regular basis, and knitting where the world in general can see us doing it. So yes, if you're a knitter in the vicinity of our Knitting Around activities, and you're available at the time and place specified, please come on by!
Knitting Around this week will take place at Panera Bread, 590 Amherst St., Nashua, NH. (The one by Target.) The time to gather is 6 p.m. - or as soon after that as you can make it. Last week, Bea and I continued hanging around until 8:30 p.m.
I feel compelled to point out that this is a commercial cafe, and the Knitting Around is not an officially endorsed Panera event. We don't want to make Panera unhappy with our presence, and we don't want to wear out our welcome, so anyone attending should expect to be there as a customer of Panera, and at least purchase a small coffee or tea to sip on while we knit.
There is no formal agenda here - only a desire to Knit Around in Public - and in numbers. It will be interesting to watch reactions from Panera staff and regular customers as they realize we're showing up week after week! Perhaps we can even help to encourage an aspiring new knitter or two.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to drop me a note at the e-mail link on my sidebar.
I hope some of you can join us - and do bring along any knitting friends you have that you think might enjoy this as well!
Tomorrow
Knitting Around with the Budweiser Clydesdales. Really, I promise this time. I've even started composing the post already!
Happy Knitting!
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