While I am really in the midst of a lot of VIB project projects, right now I am working on making felted balls. With the emphasis on "working". I finished one ball yesterday:
Then, I threw it in the wash to felt. Here's how it looks after two wash cycles:
Hmmm. About the same.
Panicked, I went to the Boulder S'n'B meeting today and asked for advice. Just when I was about to lose hope (for the first time), Joan showed up. She asked what yarn I was using, and I showed her the label - Cascade 220. This is 100% Peruvian wool, with no superwash coating, so it should felt fine. Add to that the fact that the store I bought it from displayed a "Great for Felting!" sign right by the yarn.
Joan was perplexed. She has felted with this exact yarn, and says it works great. After much consternation among the assembled knitters, we agreed that I should just keep trying.
So I did. The ball is now on its FOURTH agitation cycle - with the only change seeming that it is attracting lint from the towels it is sloshing around with. I am beginning to wonder whether the clothes I have been wearing since I moved into this apartment are really clean, or just seem that way. Maybe my washer is just wimpy?
The environmentalist in me is getting frustrated by the water I am wasting on this. I need to make five more balls, so I can't keep this up. Does anyone out there (among my millions and millions of blogspace fans) have any advice? Have any of you encountered an inability to felt a yarn that should felt easily? (I am begining to feel jealous of all those knitters who accidentally felted something. What I wouldn't give for a felting accident right about now! It would at least show that I am capable of felting.)
Fortunately, these balls are not the only things I am knitting for the VIB. I'll get some pictures up here soon. I have been working on the blocks, and on a hat with earflaps. I have just had word that the yarn I ordered to make a - not again! - felted diaper bag has come into my LYS.
If any of you out there live in or near Boulder and have a functional washing machine with a history of felting, and would be happy to take in a sad knitter for a half an hour of agitation, I would be eternally grateful!
