Stupid Felting Questions
So, I mentioned last month my intention to try to recreate my beloved Planet Dog satchel as a knitted bag, despite my complete inexperience with felting. (Because, well, where would the fun be without some added danger.)
I’ve started smartly. I’m using Cascade 220 from my stash, which I know felts well. I’ve even made two swatches–one in the greenish-brown which I bought last Spring, which I then decided was too “flat” a color, and then made another one with a strand of that with a strand of magenta, which I also had in my stash.
I marked off 20 stitches and 20 rows with some thread, as detailed in “Felted Knits” and then I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed the swatch in a sink of very hot water, and remeasured the whole thing.
So far, so good, right? Except . . . Well, the first thing I can tell you is that I do NOT like felting by hand. Too hot and tedious.
The second thing is that I don’t like the magenta. I mean, the felted swatch looks fine, and all, but it’s far too pink for my taste. I’d rather see two parts brown to one part magenta, at the least . . . 50/50 is way too much. But that’s okay, I have seven skeins of a really lovely blue Cascade that I bought ages ago for Mason-Dixon’s Perfect Sweater. I adore the color, but that pattern doesn’t seem to be upcoming any time soon, so . . . I think I’ll substitute that.
Still . . . all well and good, so long as I don’t run out of the blue. This is what swatching is for!
But now we come to the questions . . . things that I just don’t know enough about since I have never made a felted bag before.
- Do I sew the pieces together before or after felting? I mean, I plan on needing as few pieces as possible, and heck, isn’t this the kind of thing circular knitting is for? But there will still be things like handles and pockets, even if the basic structure of the bag is done by knitting needle.
- I’m going to need pockets for the satchel frame. Can I felt the bag with those pockets already there? Or will they felt closed, instead of remaining a tube?
- Will shaping details like a purl-row to mark a direction change translate to the felted fabric? Or just disappear into the fabric like all the regular stitches?
- Ideally, I’d like to knit as much of this bag in one piece as is possible, and then just felt the whole thing. But, without any real felting experience, I don’t know . . . is it better to assemble things at the end, say, with a sewing machine, than it is to mattress stitch seams with yarn and then felt everything together for added strength?
Anyway . . . things to ponder, right?
Elsewhere, thank you, to all of you who suggested Replacements.com and mentioned their matching service. I now know that my Grandmother’s dishes are Noritake pattern N898, discontinued approximately 1936. That’s very cool–thank you!
Also, today being Labor Day, the Summer of Stash is over. I’m proud to report that the only yarn I bought during the summer was a tiny bit of sock yarn, which really, was Liz’s fault. (I mean, it would have been RUDE of me not to buy yarn at her local shop, right??) There was the Sundara Petals Collection yarn, but since that was part of a club I’d joined well before SOS began, that didn’t count. Nor did the two skeins of Suede I bought to make baby booties, because, well, they were for a gift, I declared them upfront as possible exceptions, and anyway, I refuse to feel guilty about them. All of which means that I consider myself free to take advantage of my promised-reward: one of the many St*rmore kits I’ve been lusting after. I do love the Elizabeth I sweater that Cate got me longing for, and I have to say, that Grant Avenue vest has been calling my name for a long, long time. Of course, there’s also the thought of hand-dyed silk lace yarn from Sundara, which frankly, I’d also love to have….
We’ve been really lucky with the weather this weekend. Saturday was as wet and miserable as the forecasts had said, but yesterday and today? Really quite nice. We took Chappy out for a nice, long walk this morning and it was delightful. 70 degrees, mostly sunny, a nice breeze. Very nice, indeed. Especially since the forecasts had been predicting that the whole weekend would be like Saturday was. So much nicer this way! And Chappy has been able to enjoy that rarest of things, a GOOD Monday. Now, if only my teeth would stop hurting . . . stupid temporary crowns . . . grumble, grumble . .
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Good felting questions. One thing to consider is that felted material is harder to sew once finished (or so I’ve found). Machine-stitching shows whereas stitching it up ahead of time will become part of the bag–more organic. A good book to look at for ideas for pockets is Cat Bordhi’s Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. She uses the waste yarn method to add pockets. It’s easy and fun to knit. I also have some other bag patterns I’d be glad to share or you can check out the free patterns here: http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/felted_items.php
I always do any sewing before felting – not only is it easier; I think it makes a stronger seam since it’s all felted together. I have made bags with pockets and felted them already sewn on with no problems. As far as how you sew them together, I find by hand with just a plain old whip stitch works well because, again, the felting process makes it all stronger anyway. I’m not sure as to the purl row and shaping.
Try another swatch with a tiny pocket and machine felt it – machine felting is going to give you a totally different effect/size decrease than will hand felting. I’ve had some bad luck with pockets closing up – maybe there are some tips online somewhere about how to prevent that? Like basting a scrap of t-shirt into the pockets or something…
I’m a pretty lazy sewer-upper, so my favorite thing about felting is that you just knit/sew everything together sloppily, with yarn tails hanging out and whatnot, then felt it, snip off the tails, and all the sloppiness disappears. This may not be sound advice if you’re looking for a more polished finished product, but if you’re going to felt the heck out of it in a washing machine it seems to work ok.
I have yet to do a bag with pockets, but I want to add one to my Booga bag – I’ve always thought it logical to felt the bag sewn together, and then add pockets so they don’t felt into the bag. However, it might look more finished if they are on the bag when you felt it…I’m a lot of help, aren’t I? ;o)
I do think you should try felting a swatch in the machine – it does turn out completely different than hand felting.
Love, love, love all the kits. Love them each and every one. Now, on to felting. I have opinions and a tiny bit of experience (like one felted bag in my life). The Noni bag I knit was done in one piece. You knit the bottom and then picked up stiches to knit the bag up from that. There was a purl row incorporated to add a bit of a defined edge and it was noticable after felting – more like a fold or a ridge, but it was there. The Noni bag designer recommends you sew handles and such on after felting and I don’t think a pocket would stay open if you added it and then felted – add it after. How about lining the bag and using fabric pockets?
I’ve always sewn the straps on after felting. I’ve put interior pockets on a big tote bag and they didn’t felt closed. But I don’t think that will work for the satchel frame – I suspect at least some areas of the tube will felt together (expecially in a washing machine). You need to find something that is flexible, around the size of the finished tube, and can be secured so it doesn’t come out in the felting proces. Maybe aquarium tubing, garden hose or something like that. Or you could sew the tube closed after felting – and maybe just do a little hand felting in that area. I’d also suggest redoing your swatch in the washing machine – I think I’m seeing more stitch definition than you would get from a washing machine.