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Thursday, February 9

Getting ready to call in the farm team...

Well as I write this, I'm waiting for the swatches to come upstairs. They've been through the washer four times now, and if it's not felted by now, I'm afraid it won't felt at all. I may have to change events at the last minute. I've been wracking my brain since last night to try and figure out what I have here that would qualify as an event. There's the silk waves scarf... but I don't think that even that pattern would be *that* much of a challenge for 16 days. Everything else I have on hand is already started. I had my heart set on the HBC Booger, and I *will* make it... I just don't have the $50+ for different wool until at least the 21st. I'm heartbroken. Earlier today it hit me, I can do Lissa's cabled poncho as a replacement event. It's working with a difficult yarn {I'm assuming}. It's quite a bit of knitting for me for 16 days. It's got cables which I haven't done yet.

and the verdict is...

hung jury. I'll take a pic right away, but I still wouldn't declare it felted. It *is* beginning to start the felting process, so I have a few rays of hope here. There are so many variables involved, and I think that those were going against me today. The loads of laundry I had them in were regular sized loads, so between that, and the small size of the swatches, they may not have gotten the agitation they needed. Even though our hot water tank is very hot, I could add a few kettlefuls of boiling water to make it that much hotter. A little less soap, and a lot less clothes {a couple of towels tops}, and I just may have felt with a bigger amount going into the pillowcover. After this washing, the two swatches are close to the same size now. Not the big difference they had after washing #1 and washing #2. Even the cream Patons is beginning to felt, and it *has* to be bleached with how light it is.

2 comments:

Sara said...

Have you thought about hand felting? It may not be getting good agitation in with a load of laundry. I use two pairs of jeans in my felting loads. If you hand felt, you can rub it around. I would also shock it from hot water to cold water and back again.

Nicole said...

I thought about it, but this wool seems to have "attitude" about being felted. I know it's not going to be easy, but the conditions when it comes time to felt my bag {in the washer} should make it easier to felt than when I was tossing them in the regular laundry. Thanks for the suggestion though!