Felted Wool, Hand Stitching, & New Books

Felting Wool

This week started on the low side. Logic says one shouldn't get sick in the heat of summer, but I did, and then throw a nasty yellow jacket encounter on top of that. It's hard to determine what made me sicker, but I'm on the mend. Life happens. It meant quick trips over to my studio looking for little projects to keep me going while binge watching Downton Abbey, but mainly the Doxie girls and I snoozed through our week. (Yeah, they loved it.)

Our minds must play silly tricks on us while we work through fevers because I suddenly remembered a box of wool sweaters stashed away for a someday project of felting. A quick search brought up a pile of hits on felting wool in your washing machine, and even a front loader! I specifically wanted information on wool sweaters, Merino wool, cashmere, and wool suitings. Three sites below cover it all.

Happiness Is Quilting

Crafty Pod

Crafting a Greener World

Without being able to show you my great stack of felted sweaters and clothing yet, I will tell you it all worked very well. I only used warm water--never hot, our regular Tide detergent, and a front loader washer. I did stick in an old pair of the husband's work pants to help the process along. Then I dried it all in the dryer on low heat until damp, and line dried the rest of the way. One cashmere skirt needed two trips through the washer to felt properly. 

One thing I will add from my own experience that none of the sites mentioned: Save your lint! Wool items should be washed with like colors so the lint came out in beautiful colors. Red, white, dark, and green. I found a trick to using that lint, and will share it in another post.

Next, add an order from Amazon that arrived early--a great surprise when your laid up! I was too worn out to do a lot of reading so nothing to even tell you, but the pictures were all inspiring. My little projects above were a little of one tweaked with ideas from the other. I think one is destined as a needle book since it has an embroidered scene on it, but the other feels like it would make a good homemade book. You would be right in saying the style isn't typically what I'd make, but I do love them. 

Now that the process is no longer a mystery, I have a feeling some wool may find it's way into my projects, too. The texture is fabulous to stitch, and it gives a 3 dimensional effect with the loft. It's not that I would ever be thankful for getting sick, but it sure opened my world to another fabric.

See you next week when this is all behind me.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Put on the next show.