Fulling

I was talking with a friend recently about felting.  She was making felted bracelets and I was knitting a bowl for felting or so I thought.  Apparently I wasn't.  Felting is the process of laying down layers of raw unspun fibres and using water and soap to make the fibres hook together.  Fulling, on the other hand is knitting, crocheting or weaving with spun fibres an oversized project which is machine washed to shrink it.  So I was fulling not felting.

I have made several small bowls which I have fulled but I wanted something a bit larger to store nature finds on our seasonal table.  The small bowls are little on the deep side for this,  I wanted a bowl with a wider, flat base.  I used the original pattern as a basis to create my own.  

The yarn you use needs to be one that can be fulled/felted, it must be 100% wool and not super wash, this inhibits the fulling/felting process.  I used a roving yarn, this pattern used 75m of the yarn on four 8mm, Size 11 double pointed needles.

Fulled/Felted Bowl &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp

Cast on 100 stitches, divide between the needles, join in the round being careful not to twist, place marker.

Round 1: K

Round 2: P

Round3: K

Continuing knitting rounds until work measures 3"

Shaping

Round 1: *K18, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 2: *K17, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 3: *K16, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 4: *K15, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 5: *K14, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 6: *K13, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 7: *K12, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 8: *K11, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 9: *K10, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 10: *K9, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 11: *K8, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 12: *K7, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 13: *K6, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 14: *K5, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 15: *K4, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 16: *K3, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 17: *K2, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 18: *K1, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Break yarn leaving a 6" tail, thread the yarn through the remaining stitches, pull tight and weave in.

Place the bowl in a mesh bag or pair of tights and put in the washing machine with the rest of your washing.  It is not true that you 'need' to have a top loading machine to do this as so many websites seem to suggest.  I have a front loading machine and have successfully fulled/felted many projects including unintentional ones!  I use my own washing powder made of bicarb and borax, bicarb, I have read, can assist with the felting process.  Felting/Fulling is not an exact science but it is good fun and I will definitely be making more of these and experimenting further with different sizes.

Joining in with Nicole for this week Keep Calm Craft On, head on over to see what others have been making.....

Weekending

It has been a great week this week, one of creativity mixed with busyness.  We started the week with our usual trip into the local town for shopping and a visit to the library.

On Tuesday we headed to our friends house for an afternoon of play.  It was lovely and warm so we spent most of the afternoon outside, when the sun finally went in we all headed inside and had an impromptu felting session led by one of the mamas.  I have never done any felting before it was great fun, we all made flowers.  It is definitely something I would like to do more of.

The next day we stayed at home for the day keeping quietly busy.  We played lots of board games, read lots of books, look at the books and games in a story sack about Polar Bears, played with Lego, made some birthday cards and lots of talking.

On Thursday we headed out for a walk around the grounds of a local castle, it was dry and cold.  We had a great wander around, ate our picnic and eventually headed home as we were getting cold.  In the evening I headed out for a meeting with the folks that run a local Explorer Scout group which I help out with, we were planning a programme of activities through to September.

Friday we joined our local home ed group for a visit to a local quarry and mining musuem, we had a ride on a train, an adventure down a mine, panning for minerals and a look round a wonderful exhibition of mining and quarrying in the local area.  It was a really wet day but it did not dampened our day at all, it was great to spend time with friends.  Despite the fun it did turn into a challenging day!

Over the weekend we spent both days at home.  I finished knitting two socks, one to complete a pair the other the start of a pair.  I worked on the curtain for one of the bedrooms which is now nearly complete, it is hanging and waiting to be hemmed across the bottom.  We built a fruit cage for the garden to cover our fruit bushes which hopefully means we will not loose all our crop to birds.  We watched it snow and snow and snow, not much of it settled but it is still very cold temperatures are barely above freezing at the moment and it is set to last the rest of this week too.