I really hate this tote. I threw it in the washer to felt. It did absolutely nothing the first full wash cycle. i set it on a second, it shrunk. But it got all wonky. The bottom of the tote felted a lot tighter than the top of the bag, giving it a fluted appearance. I 'm not sure what I'm going to do, see if i can sew it a bit to get the shape better? Or as you can see in the photo below, maybe cut it into two bags? 
I have been thinking about trying out needle felting for embellishments. If I made 2 bags from the one tote i could experiment a little.
This is the tote before felting on my exercise ball (does that count as using the ball?)
If you look very carefully just a hair right to the center of this picture you will see it looks like the color of the wool changes. See it? This was not a dye lot screw up. It was actually about 8 or 9 inches after I had changed skeins, so it was mid-skein. I don't know why that was, and I figured I was felting it, I figured it would blend. but now, I wonder, that was the top 7 inches of the tote. I wonder if the weird colored yarn felted less than the "normal" yarn? If anyone reading this post has any experience felting Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, i'd appreciate a comment. I have felted many bags and never had this type of issue.
I don't know much about felting because I don't have a washer, but I understand whites and off whites are harder to felt and that Fishermans Wool is particularly hard because its designed to repel water, I could be wrong though, this is just some things I have heard.
ReplyDeleteI haven't felted anything yet, but I plan to attempt it soon!
ReplyDeleteI've not tried to felt that particular wool before, but I think needle felting on it would be really neat!
ReplyDeleteI've felted a few things, mainly not on purpose or else just a random little scrap for fun, but generally it doesn't work out in a perfect shape for me. You have to keep it crazily controlled if you want it to work out right. The bag looks fine, thought. It might help just to add something around the top edge. Maybe you could make some sort of decorative drawstring look cute? Cutting it into two bags would work too. :)
ReplyDeleteMy attempts at felting have all been very haphazard, but I can refer you to Kathleen Taylor's website -- she's written two books on felting, and I'm sure she'd be able to help you out.
ReplyDelete--http://kathleen-dakotadreams.blogspot.com
-- Karen
i think you can see even in the felting(the first picture) that there is a difference in color. towards the top of the fotos is more yellow than the rest of the felted item... that is all i have to comment on that, my attempts at felting were with small items, not large bags like yours... the first time i tried felting, i was felting with superwash wool... i tried felting it til my hands were red... and nothing happened... i thought i was doing something wrong... as it turns out superwash wool does not felt no matter how hard you rub and how hot the water is...
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