I "Felt" Your Pain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 My inspiration today came from a question from a friend who had knitted and felted a yoga mat tote. Her problem was that the bag came out a little bigger than she had hoped.  The tips I have for you today can be used with any felted item that needs tweeking.  First off, since this was her first knitted and felted item she was terrified at the thought of cutting the felted piece without having it unravel. 

 

 

 

A knitted (or crocheted) felted piece acts very similar to the felt fabric that you would buy in the store except that it is thicker.

You CAN cut your felted piece without the fear that it will unravel.

The edge achieved is very clean.  You can choose to leave the edge "raw" or you can do some embellishments.

In the case of the yoga mat, my friend wanted to add some bling.  My suggestion was to do a crocheted embellishment on the "raw" edge with beads.

You can poke through the felt with a crochet hook without the fear of tearing the fabric.  You could also use a knitting needle or other sharp object to pre-poke the holes to be sure that your holes are uniform in spacing.

 

 

Add the beads for a more decorative finish.

 

Now the next problem!! How do you get those little beads threaded onto the yarn?!

I use dental floss threaders.

You can buy dental floss threaders in any drug store.  The threader will replace your needle.

 

 

Thread your yarn into the "eye" of the threader as you would with a needle.

Use the tip of the threader to add the beads.

 

 

Slide the beads over the "eye" and onto the yarn.

Much easier than using a needle.

 

Check out these other adventures using felt and beads using a needle felting technique!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Errata: Holyoke Shawl Chart Key

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/holyoke-shawl/edit

Inspired Projects

It was not my intention to be away from my blog for so long.  My computer has been down for a couple of weeks thanks to my cable company.  Exactly why I hesitate to make changes to ANY services we have.  Anyway, I'm back and have been busy with many projects. 
My grandson turned 8 in October and decided he wanted a pirate birthday party.  As the resident cake baker I decided to go all out on this one.  It was super fun!

I made a four layer round cake.  The top two layers are 8", the bottom two are 9".  All layers were frosted with off-white buttercream icing.  For the map, stripes, skeleton scarf and eye patch I used prepared fondant.  It came in all white so I kneaded the gel colors into the fondant for each piece.  Then for ease of rolling I used my hand crank pasta machine.  The skeleton was formed out of rice krispie treats and then dipped in white chocolate.  On the map I used gel colors and paint brush to paint on the features.  The treasure box of course is made out of chocolate graham crackers. The plastic chain and play plastic sword gave it a really dramatic effect. 

On the yarn and needle side I was inspired by a class I took with Edie Eckman.  Edie highlighted the techniques from her new books.

  She has some wonderfully beautiful crochet motifs in the Connect the Shapes book. I am envisioning a table runner and placemats with some of these interesting motifs.  I was especially 

inspired by her free-form crochet hand bag.

So of course, I had to try my own.  I used Noro and separated the long colorways by color.  What do you think?  I added a zippered and pocketed lining, purse feet, an acrylic purse bottom and store-bought handles.  The base material is plastic canvas.

On My Needles Now

Currently I am designing a Christmas gift.  My grandsons love to get dressed up.  My youngest grandson requested an orange, button-down vest.  It features an argyle-look cable up one side.  The vest will be v-neck with four leather buttons.  The button band is worked simultaneously with the piece and will "wrap" around the neck. 

What are you working on for Holiday gifts?

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with friends and family!!