Felted Knitting

I did get around to felting the two knitted samples I made. I felted them the same way I'd usually wet felt, not through the washing machine. The piece I made with the hand blended and handspun yarn doesn't look too much different, but it is duller and fluffier:

It did keep some texture:

This is a close up:

This is how it looked before:

The pencil roving knitted piece was much nicer and easier to felt. It grew quite a bit and flattened out quite a lot:

It was quite chunky before, this is after felting, looking over the surface:

And how it looked before:

It didn't lose all its texture:

And a closer look:

It felted really neatly, but I'm not sure I'll find a use for felted knitted pencil roving :)

Spinning and Knitting and Art Therapy

I know I've not updated my blog as often lately, I mean to, but either completely forget or just feel too tired. I'm not sure if I mentioned a new wet felting art-therapy group I was going to be joining, a few of the people from the Felting and Fiber Studio were very kind and generous to donate some gorgeous supplies for it not so long ago, you can see photos here. The classes started last Wednesday, and as enjoyable as they are, they really take it out of me (better that than something like cleaning, though!) I posted some photos on the studio site last week, it was the first time a lot of people had made any felt. I've not had chance to do much recently, but I did spin the roving that I made:

I didn't set the twist or anything, I just left it on the spindle a day or two, then let it unravel:

I knitted it into a small rectangle:

Here's the other side:

And here's a close up:

I still can't do the cast off so it doesn't pull and seem tight compared to the rest of it. I plan to felt this piece when I get the chance, by hand, not in the washer. This is another piece I've made specifically for felting, I promised Nada from the forum I'd make a piece with the pencil roving to see how it felted:

It's quite chunky:

 Another piece I made recently turned out really nice, the colours and shine are gorgeous:

This has a really nice texture:

When you open the yarn out, it's actually a kind of netting, I bought it with felting in mind before I learnt to knit:

I'll show the photos when the top 2 pieces have been felted.