I know, I know

I made so many promises this week. I will make good, but I've been having a blogging set back - complete addiction to knitting my sweater. No worries though, I just have one sleeve left, please pray I have enough yarn - ahhh! But I will continue my chat on felting and much more, but first, this sleeve!

The Magic of Felting

One of my faithful readers (I don't have hundreds, but I do have a few) requested that I share some about felting. Having recently learned about it myself the info is fresh in my mind so I'll do my best to share some tid-bits.

The type of felting I learned to do is called hand felting. This type of felting is done with wool that is not spun into yarn or knitted. I found that I prefer to do it with carded wool or roving. We did a bit with raw wool and mine didn't turn our very well.

The simplest way I can think to explain making a piece if felt with carded wool or roving is as follows: take some fluffed or loose roving and lay pieces so the fiber length is going left to right, then lay more on top of that going the opposite directions (top to bottom), and then a final and third layer left to right again.

Once all the fiber is laid out you press your hands down on the fiber and gently shake without moving your hands from the spot they are in and firmly press with your hands flat. I realize this sounds odd. What you are doing is getting the fibers to attach to one another. You'll notice the poof of your piece goes down. After doing that initial shake/rub then you get hot soapy water and poor some over the piece and continue to do the same motion.

To be continued.... oh the suspense

Sweater Progress and a Tribble

Happy Monday to all - I know those two things (happy + Monday) don't often go together, but today is warm and sunny here in the valley and there isn't much work to be done at the office so I am feeling a bit cheery.

I am also cheery because of my Wicked Sweater progress... are you ready for this? I cast on Friday night before going out to dinner and here it is folks - tah dah! Yes, I am so excited about this sweater that I have been knitting nearly non- stop. David was feeling especially goofy so it was difficult to get a photo. The goofiness is mostly because even though the time changed we found ourselves up at midnight last night - ridiculous.

Also I have been teaching my fellow volunteers how to knit - so far they have produced four and a half wash cloths and just cast on a hat and soon a scarf. They are doing really well and I am excited to share my addiction. David says I'm like a virus. Maw-ha-ha-ha. But because of their furious knitting I was able to try out this cool pattern with some scraps. For some reason it is called a Tribble, and I think they are very cute and a fabulous way to use up cotton rag scraps. Yes, I realize you can just make another rag with scraps, but why not have a little something else to wash dishes with.

Things to come this week... photos of my cotton scarf, leg warmer pattern with photos, and my lessons in learning to felt. Hope your Monday is sunny too!