Sunday, August 30, 2015

And Now We Are Three...



Back in July 2014, I knitted and felted two fish using a Fiber Space pattern. I gave them to my daughter who planned to hang them in her house. Her plan was to make a mobile with them, but she thought that it would work out better with three fish. So I've just finished making her a third fish. The original two fish were made using wool from the pattern kit. This third one is a little different because I used Lite Lopi wool yarn. I think it felts up denser because the yarn has such a loose twist. But the effect is still quite cute.



A trip through the jewelry department of our local Belk store snagged her a marked-down necklace of clear plastic beads in graduated sizes. She plans to use these as "bubbles" coming out of the fishes' mouths. I'll post a photo of her finished project. 

2 comments:

Madtatter80 said...

I love felting items and these are very cute! I want to learn how to do this, there are so many adorable things to make and your fish are sweeties too!
Was it hard to learn ?

Carolyn Kotlas said...

Technically, it's fulling not felting, since felting starts with fleece or roving, rather than yarn. So fulling is really easier, I think. You start with usually a wool or other animal fiber, knit or crochet your piece using larger needles/hooks than you would normally use, and then subject the finished project to the fulling process. This involves a lot of agitation, hot water, and often some sort of soap. The water and soap loosen the scales on the animal fibers allowing them to grip each other during the agitation, thereby shrinking and fulling the item. You can do the agitation by hand or, as in the case of my fish, in a washing machine. Top loaders work the easiest since you can open them during the process and check to see if the item has reached the size you want. It's pretty easy as anyone who has ever shrunk a wool sweater can tell you. ;-)