Moving Right Along and On Schedule

I'm on schedule with some of my knitting gifts and have actually finished my projects early. Now, I can sit and relax and continue knitting my CPH and another VBB (vintage bubble bag).

I have to show you a multi-colored bowl I knitted using Plymouth Galway for the main color (heathered blue) and Noro Kureyon (#40) for the contrast colors:



So this floppy looking bowl...




...became this beautifully felted bowl



I ended up using all of the yarn I started with: 4 skeins of Galway (2-brown & 2-blue) and 1-1/2 skeins of Kureyon. This is a wonderful example of using up every bit of wool yarn.




I also finished another pair of Cozy House Socks for a gift. I used a lighter worsted weight yarn in Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Denim Twist color. I wanted to use a machine washable yarn for this gift. This lighter yarn made the socks smaller or snug, which is the fit/size I was after. The recipient of this gift wears a shoe size smaller than mine. Here's the 8" length sock (I really like how this yarn color knitted up):




New Upcoming Project:

I've been checking out slouchy berets/hats on Ravelry. I plan on knitting my first slouchy hat sometime in December.

Felted Bowl - Completed

Name of Pattern:
Felted Bowl

Designed by:
Leigh Radford for One Skein (book)

Pattern/Garment Description:
Taken from book: “I like colorful containers of every sort. Recently, I began making sturdy felted bowls and now have an assortment throughout my house. The bowls make colorful decorator accents and are ideal for organizing buttons, beads, yarn, keys, or other small objects that need a special place. I used a single color of yarn for each of the bowls...but imagine the fun you can have with stripes!”

Size(s):
Small (2.5”x17”) and Large (5.5”x18”) - height x circumference

I made the Large size bowl.

Yarns Used:
Plymouth Galway Highland Heather in 712-Brown: 210 yards/skein, 100% wool

I used two skeins and knitted with double stranded yarn

Gauge:
Not necessary

Knitting Tools Used:
Circular needles: 24 inch in size 13
DPNs: size 11
Bent tip tapestry needle (thread through the last few stitches and pull tightly)



Techniques I used:
Join and knit in the round
SSK
K2tog
Felting

Changes I Made to the Pattern:
No changes were made


What I Like About this Pattern:
Quick and easy knitting project


What I Dislike About this Pattern:
Nothing to dislike

My Pattern Rating (Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Hard):
Easy

Conclusion/Additional Comments:

I’ve been looking for man-ly type of gifts to knit for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Some of the men in my life live in a warm climate in the middle of winter. Wool scarves are frowned upon. So, I looked around and came across these functional felted bowls.

I’ve only had limited amount of knitting in the round skills and limited felting skills. I thought this would be a quick and easy knitting project, with a few challenges.

As I was knitting the bowl, it began to look more like knitting a hat (which I haven’t done one...yet). I ended up knitting 10 inches before starting the decreases for the base. I didn’t have #13 DPNs in my stash, so I ended up using my #11s for the decreases and finishing the base of the bowl. This unintentional change worked out fine.






I have to say this floppy looking bowl turned out to be a beautiful felted piece.




Felting Process:

My LYS has a felting/agitating machine. I placed my bowl in the machine. Added hot tap water, enough to cover my floppy bowl. I added a dime size amount of All liquid detergent (white bottle) and turned the machine on for 10 minutes for the initial agitation. Afterwards, I would check the bowl by feeling the stitches/fabric. The floppy bowl had shrunk considerable, but still felt floppy. I set the machine for 5 more minutes and checked it again. I could still see the stitch definitions in the bowl and it started to take the shape of a tall bowl. I set the timer for another 5 minutes and the bowl fabric was nice and thick. I could still see some ribbings of the stitches. I set the time for 3 minutes and let it agitate. I did another check and I could see I had a nice bowl. I then placed the bowl back into the machine with the soapy water and added a few drops of fabric softener to the water. I set the machine on 2 minutes, enough time for the soap bubbles to disintegrate. The fabric softener also made the bowl smell nice. This was a fascinating process to watch and experience.

The water had turned a nice light brown color and the machine had minimum amounts of fuzz/lint. I drained the machine into a bucket and used a fine mesh colander to scoop out any fuzz and lint.

The Galway had felted into a beautiful wool fabric.

NOTE: I am fortunate to have a LYS that has a special felting/agitating machine to felt my projects. I am certainly spoiled in this area. For those of you who will use a washing machine, your felting process, felting time and results will be different than what I’ve mentioned in this review.

Next Projects

I plan on knitting and felting several more bowls. For the next one, I plan on using blue yarn with a brightly colored Noro Kureyon yarn. I also plan on knitting the top rim/edge of the bowl in garter stitch and then the rest (base) in stockinette stitch.

A Chance to Felt...Knitting Projects and Other Things

I had the opportunity to felt my own knitting projects. My Vintage Bubble Bag and the Brown Bowl are drying. So far the Bag is taking 2 days to dry. My fault, I forgot to swap out the damp towels inside the bag for dry ones (overnight). I used small hand towels and stuffed them inside the bag to help shape the bag. I found a "lint shaver" at my local fabric store on sale for 50% off. I used it to shave the long pieces of lint/fuzz off the bag. The fuzz was not as bad as another felted bag I saw a few weeks ago.

The felted bowl came out beautiful! I wasn't too sure about felting with Plymouth Galway yarn, but I'm extremely happy with the results. I can now start knitting more bowls for gifts.



In the end, my bag took about 35 minutes to felt and the bowl took 25 minutes. I will be back to post a review for each of these items and my thoughts about felting.

CPH Status:
I've managed to work on CPH for a few hours. I'm getting ready to shape the front right neckline, do the decreases, and hopefully bind off the shoulders sometime tomorrow. I hope to start one of the sleeves this week.

On the Sewing Front:
I've been going through my pattern stash, looking for a needle case to sew. I'm in dire need to store my DPNs. I don't care to wrap them in rubber bands or dump them in a zippered case. I found a Butterick pattern that looks promising. It's for straight needles, but with some modifications I'm sure it will work to store my DPNs. Unfortunately, I can't start this sewing project until I finish my Christmas gifts. I'm hoping, maybe, Thanksgiving weekend I'll get to sew it.

Oh, I made a comment about being at my local fabric store and catching their 50% off notions sale. I also found a beautiful home dec remnant to make a simple tote bag to carry my knitting projects. That was also 50% off. I enjoy finding fantastic bargains.

I have a lot of projects to tackle as well as a lot of blogging to do over the next few days and weeks. Stay tuned!