Julie Says:
I have been looking at the felted nesting bowls all over the internet, on blogs and etsy, and really wanted to give it a try. I made my first felt bowl last week, washed it, shaped it and I think it turned out pretty awesome!
For anyone who is looking at giving this craft a try, I have included some tips that I couldn’t find online and had to figure out.
First…. the bowl!
I visited our local yarn store, and purchased a red and a white ball of 100% wool. You can buy wool in different types. This was not spun into a single strand made of several smaller spun strands. It is just one string. I think this makes a difference. I was looking at several samples in the store, and this variety looks the most “felted”. Now, also very important… you need a top load washing machine to felt. Fortunately, i have one. Apparently, it wont work well at all in a front load.
This bowl is felted twice. Or, I washed it twice in hot water both times. Because I wasn’t happy with the results after the first wash, I not only did it again, but I also boiled the kettle and dumped a full kettle of boiling water into the already hot water. I got a much better result. I have made 2 bowls since then, and tried the second and third with out boiling water and had to do them 3 times, with boiling water in the third load. I recommend just trying it in the first load and see if you like the results. I will be trying this with my next effort.
I cant give you a pattern, because I didn’t use one myself. I started with 6 stitches on 4 needles and increased every 2nd stitch for several rounds then every 5th stitch until it was the size I wanted and then continued in a tube until I cast off. You have to knit a lot longer than you want it, because it shrinks about 30% over all when you felt, but that isn’t even in length and width, it gets a lot shorter than smaller around… keep that in mind.
This is the “hat” before felting:
It is actually a pretty fun craft, I recommend giving it a try!
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