Spork, she is a-felted
And boy, did she felt up fast! But I'll get to that in a minute... Here is a "before" photo of Spork all sewn together and ready to take a hot bath:
My husband saw this and thought I should leave her as she was! He liked the garter stitch detail around the edges and thought it looked funky (in a good way) where the side and body were joined up. She would've been pretty flimsy, though, so I opted against that suggestion...(sorry, honey!).
I threw her in the wash with a couple old towels and set my oven timer for 10 minutes. I'm not sure how long it really was before I went back down to check, due to the fact that I had to assist my husband in dealing with the world's poopiest diaper (you know, the kind where you don't even bother trying to really clean the kid, you just perform triage with the wipes and head straight for the bathtub). I think it was probably about 15 minutes total time in the wash and she was felted up nice and tight. Here she is blocking on a phone book (which unfortunately isn't quite wide enough):
She got a little bit distorted in the wash, and the edge of the opening was flared quite a bit. I stretched the body out as much as I could, but couldn't quite get it to stop flaring. I'm going to have to perform a bit of surgery w/ needle and thread once she's dry. I'm thinking of maybe taking a couple of slices out of the corners and sewing them back up, and then putting some bias tape around the inside of the mouth of the bag (both suggestions from Knit One, Felt Too). I also read somewhere on the Knitty board that you can sometimes hand felt a flared edge into shape. I might pursue that option, too, depending on how I feel once she's dry. She is really cute, though, despite her deformities. I am interested to see what the other folks doing the knit-along discover and taking their suggestions into consideration when I make my next Spork.
In other knitting, I posted a little progress on Hopeful to the knit-along blog (you can read it here). I also finished my swatches for the final installment of the TKGA Basics Basics Basics class. Here they are blocking:
The long strip on the left is 32 rows of garter stitch, 32 rows of stockinette and 32 rows of seed stitch. The point of this lesson is the importance of gauge, so after these are blocked I will measure gauge of all the different swatches and enter them into a little table. This will show how different stitches (lace, garter, seed, stockinette, cables) affect gauge when using the same yarn and needles for all the swatches. Here are some close-ups of the more interesting swatches:
This is a lace pattern called gull-wing. It is so pretty, but this swatch gave me no end of problems. I had to rip back a bunch of times after forgetting to YO (or YO-ing in the wrong spot).
This is the "X-O Cable". I really like this one! I had visions of a cute little sweater for Sydney while I was knitting this swatch.
This is a braided cable. I picked this one out of a stitch pattern book and got to write my own little pattern for this swatch.
Now I need to finish my write-ups for these swatches and get them in the mail. Then I'll be ready to start on my Masters Level I - yay!
My husband saw this and thought I should leave her as she was! He liked the garter stitch detail around the edges and thought it looked funky (in a good way) where the side and body were joined up. She would've been pretty flimsy, though, so I opted against that suggestion...(sorry, honey!).
I threw her in the wash with a couple old towels and set my oven timer for 10 minutes. I'm not sure how long it really was before I went back down to check, due to the fact that I had to assist my husband in dealing with the world's poopiest diaper (you know, the kind where you don't even bother trying to really clean the kid, you just perform triage with the wipes and head straight for the bathtub). I think it was probably about 15 minutes total time in the wash and she was felted up nice and tight. Here she is blocking on a phone book (which unfortunately isn't quite wide enough):
She got a little bit distorted in the wash, and the edge of the opening was flared quite a bit. I stretched the body out as much as I could, but couldn't quite get it to stop flaring. I'm going to have to perform a bit of surgery w/ needle and thread once she's dry. I'm thinking of maybe taking a couple of slices out of the corners and sewing them back up, and then putting some bias tape around the inside of the mouth of the bag (both suggestions from Knit One, Felt Too). I also read somewhere on the Knitty board that you can sometimes hand felt a flared edge into shape. I might pursue that option, too, depending on how I feel once she's dry. She is really cute, though, despite her deformities. I am interested to see what the other folks doing the knit-along discover and taking their suggestions into consideration when I make my next Spork.
In other knitting, I posted a little progress on Hopeful to the knit-along blog (you can read it here). I also finished my swatches for the final installment of the TKGA Basics Basics Basics class. Here they are blocking:
The long strip on the left is 32 rows of garter stitch, 32 rows of stockinette and 32 rows of seed stitch. The point of this lesson is the importance of gauge, so after these are blocked I will measure gauge of all the different swatches and enter them into a little table. This will show how different stitches (lace, garter, seed, stockinette, cables) affect gauge when using the same yarn and needles for all the swatches. Here are some close-ups of the more interesting swatches:
This is a lace pattern called gull-wing. It is so pretty, but this swatch gave me no end of problems. I had to rip back a bunch of times after forgetting to YO (or YO-ing in the wrong spot).
This is the "X-O Cable". I really like this one! I had visions of a cute little sweater for Sydney while I was knitting this swatch.
This is a braided cable. I picked this one out of a stitch pattern book and got to write my own little pattern for this swatch.
Now I need to finish my write-ups for these swatches and get them in the mail. Then I'll be ready to start on my Masters Level I - yay!
posted by knittinmom at 9:23 AM
2 Comments:
Spork looks fantastic!! From the photo, the opening doesn't look flared at all. Awesome job! I'd like to give felting a try someday soon. Your swatches look great, too. I especially like the gull wing.
BTW, about the box jellies, yep, we have 'em in Hawaii, but different varieties than the lethal ones in Australia, thank goodness. I make bad decisions, but not THAT bad. :-)
Great colors on the spork! DF has had some amazing luck with handfelting since we don't have access to a top loading washer without having to pay $1.5 every time. Oh, and there is no water level setting on the laundromat washers either, so it doesn't work so well. Anyway, something we learned about hand felting- buy some rubber globes. It'll make your hands more impervious to the scalding water, and will save them from being dried out when you're done.
I like the gull wing lace too! BTW, jessimuhka started a series on fixing mistakes in lace without having to rip back; part 1 was posted on 9/17 and addresses missing yarn overs.
Oh and I saw your post on the Hopeful KAL. Very cute color and I'm glad the shine is working out for you. I doubt you'll have the problems I've been having. The pattern is good and I doubt that anyone spazzes as much as I do!
Looking forward to what they ask you to do in the master knitting series!
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