wahey! finally finished

patchwork blanket made from charity shop jumpers fulled (felted) in the washing machine.

the hardest bit was getting the buggers to felt properly. once i’d narrowed down my criteria it was easier. i had very little luck with 100% wool jumpers, i found it much better to look for things with a proportion of angora or mohair, the best sign being “hand wash only” or “dry clean”. i found most of these jumpers had a percentage of nylon, up to 20%, which didn’t adversely affect the fulling at all.

then there was a cost :eek:. i think i finally used 10 jumpers, averaging £2-3. then there’s the ones that didn’t work… then there’s the thread… i used upholstery weight, maybe 8 reels? then there’s the tape… i used close on 50m of cotton tape to support the butted seams. so by no means a cheap project, although much cheaper than something of similar quality (lambswool, angora, mohair) would cost in the shops. it is very warm.

on the up side the actual sewing together was much easier and quicker than i’d anticipated. after a lot of thought i decided to butt the seams, partly because i didn’t want ridges along the seams and partly because i didn’t want to loose any of my precious fabric having to turn it under. i did 11 x 11 6″ squares in the end. it would have taken at least another 3 jumpers to make it 12 square. i used a stretch zigzag (hence the huge quantity of thread) and just fed the two squares next to each other over the tape. it’s by no means perfect but much easier than i’d anticipated. a friend said you could do a butted seam without the tape with a serger, but i’m not sure i’d want to test the strength of the fabric in that way - it would be a hell of a lot of work for it to disintegrate at the first wash. there was some rippling at the seams, especially with the least-felted (most stretchy) squares, but a heavy steam and press helped massively.

so i’m left with a have a huge pile of felt scraps to play with, and a bedroom that reeks of imperial leather (got a load on cheap for the fulling).

needed something baglike to hold my new ipod mini as i never wear belts and often have no pockets. this was just something really basic to fill in till my swanky leather one arrived. it’s surprisingly practical - i particularly love the way the headphones thread through the straps, saving having all those wires flapping about. the back flap can be used to store the headphones and strap wrapped around it, works fine but looks dreadful.

i can still skip tracks and pause through the fabric, but can’t change the volume (even with sound check i get the odd nasty surprise) or rate tracks, but it’s great for when i just want to shuffle n go. i’d say i’ve used it about equal with the swanky £25 leather one. all free - leftover yarn and buttons from my jumper hoard.

desperately seeking funky crochet patterns…

crochet me has more patterns than is obvious at first sight, click on back issues.

crochet pattern central woah! possible overload, but hey i found exactly what i was looking for (toddler hoodie) straight off. mmm love these mary janes too. i feel a trip to the charity shop for jumpers to frog coming on.

not strictly a pattern linnk but yay crochet forums: crochetville. my absolute favourite web medium.

niiiice shrug, might be a good use for the handspun yarns i’v ebeen drooling over. also $4 fulled messenger bag pattern might be worth a shot (am utterly failing to finish my half-done bag cos i’m not entirely sure where i’m going with it and don’t want to run out of yarn). just a shame there’s no hints about yardage before you shell out for the pattern… aha is mentioned on crochetville: debbie bliss silk alpaca 140 yards

fab lacy cardi, schematics so more adaptable than an actual pattern (bought the above and it turns out it’s xs-m only, might have been good to mention that grr with general advice will be able to adapt though). not sure what makes it a shrug, i thought that was the ones that look like you got bored half way through