Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Felting Koigu...

...who'd have thunk it???

Well, it's true. I finally caved and bought a skein...okay 2... of Koigu Felting Merino AKA KFM.
I saw swatches at Rosie's last week but I guess I had to believe it with my own eyes and washing machine. Plus, I decided after seeing and feeling it, that it would make a gorgeous and incredibly warm hat and maybe mittens for this winter.

So I swatched,




















and despite my garter stitch border, it rolled. I measured and headed down to the washer. I quickly realized this was going to be a challenge...my new washer is all digitally controlled...so I cannot set it to have continued agitation...so I guess. I throw the swatch in, with a towel, 110 degree water and pray.

About 12 minutes later, this was the result:


















Now, I'm not sure the photos do the felting justice, but it does look very cool and is it soft! It probably could have agitated 2-3 more minutes, but the cycle was over but I couldn't make it start again with this high tech washer!!!!

So I guess I am going to have to felt the finished product at mom's house over Thanksgiving in her "old fashioned" washing machine. Until then, the swatch can dry...I can re-measure and then comes the math, and the knitting...

5 comments:

AmyDe said...

Looks good. I still don't know that I can bring myself to felt Koigu.

Anonymous said...

That looks so cool! I wish my LYS had Koigu so I could get some too!

profbookwurmknits said...

i agree
felting koigu...
i love my koigu
as it is
but i am anxious to see your hat

Wendy said...

Hmmm . . . I'm scared of the felting! Good luck, and go where no knitter has gone before!

w

Anonymous said...

Now I'm going to have go out and get the felting Koigu!!!
To get rid of the curling and promote the felting I would recommend that you try knitting with slightly bigger needles so that the stitch is looser.