Capri Longies!!!

I used my favorite Curly Purly soaker pattern for the waist band and figured out the gusset and legs on my own! :) The yarn is from my dyeing experiment. This was a size large before slightly fulling / felting in the washer (warm for 10 minutes or so and rinsing on cold). Large was too big for him, so I thought felting would not only make them a tad bit smaller but also help with keeping the moisture in! :-D

He has worn them already - that is why the knees are a bit buldged...

A new idea for a wool cover!

I have this great idea for a wool cover, and if it works as well as I hope, I think I may be able to sell it really well. Therefore no major details here until I have things figured out, but I am excited about it!

Besides that I have been playing around with figuring out a pattern for knitting little baby shoes, but got discouraged when they didn't turn out they way I wanted them - after ripping them out about 1o times! :D I hope to eventually perfect on my pattern and be able to offer it online.

Today, I finally got enough courage to just through the 100% merino wool fabric into the washer at 50 degrees Celsius. I think it felted up well and I am satisfied with the thickness, so I will not be washing it again.

Got a little sidetracked!

Ok, Easter is less than a week away, and I a fellow knitter shared link to a wonderful free pattern on Ravelry (you have to be a member to view) for an "Easter basket." It is supposed to be for a knitting tote, but works as a basket as well. I just could not resist dyeing some wool to make these felted baskets. I guess you could argue that it goes along with my felting experiments! :-)

The first one is done, two more to go!

100% merino wool interlock fabric

Felting:
I thought since I didn't find much information about this on the web, that I would do my own experimentation and post it here on the blog.

I received my 100% merino wool interlock in the mail a few days ago, but have been tossing and turning at night thinking about how to best felt it, without ruining the $20 /yard fabric. I have read that you are just supposed to wash it on hot a few times and it will take care of itself, but it just seemed to be the opposite of what I have learned all of these years about wool, that I couldn't get myself to through the whole 2 yards into the washer and just hope!

Just a few things beforehand: I have a German front-loading washer. It has temperature settings, and heats the water with a heating element. So the cold water goes in and is slowly heated up to the desired temperature. I wasn't sure what to call a warm or hot cycle, so I just picked 40° C (104° F) as a warm cycle and 60° C (140° F) as a hot cycle. My washer also only has a cold water rinse, so the wool is always going to be shocked after warming up.

So, I decided I would try small swatches first, to see what the results would be. I cut three pieces of the fabric, each 3 1/2" wide by 4 1/2" long. First, I threw a piece in with my shower curtain on a warm cycle (104° F). I used normal detergent and a cold water rinse. It didn't look like it had changed very much, so I just left it and didn't put it in the dryer. I think one of the reasons why it didn't get much smaller, is because the swatch got hung up on the glass of the front loader and didn't get as much agitation as it would if it had stayed in the drum of the machine. The result wasn't much thicker that the original. This is what it looked like compared to the original unwashed swatch on the left:




This is the results of the same swatch (on the left in the above picture) being washed again on a warm cycle (40° C). I can't see much difference, really... but again the thing to hung up and didn't agitate much at all.



Next , I threw one unwashed swatch in with my normal diaper wash at a temperature of 60° C (140° F). The result is much smaller and thicker than the swatch that I had at the warm temperature wash.




Then I threw it in the hot dryer for about 40 minutes or so. I don't think it changed much in size or thickness - maybe a bit fluffier and softer. This is what came out:




Now just to see how much further the "hot-cycle" swatch would shrink/felt, I put it into a second hot water wash cycle. Results (not much difference - maybe a tad bit smaller):




And finally same "hot-cycle" swatch, after 40 minutes in the hot dryer:



So in conclusion, though I have not attempted to felt all of the fabric yet, I think that one hot water wash would be fine for the 100% wool interlock fabric to make diaper covers. You could even venture a second hot wash, without over felting.

After felting 100% merino wool interlock, I would not attempt to wash the finished product (diaper cover) in the regular wash... I would still recommend hand wash with a homemade wool wash and lanolin.