My first felting project...... it shrunk maybe too much !

    In Norway it is very popular to go 'På tur' (on an outing) no matter what the weather or temperature is like.....

    Now, when you go På tur, you usually bring along a thermos with either coffee, hot cocoa, or if you go on a longer trip, or ski trip you take along a large hotdog thermos designed to keep your sausages warm till the snack break.

    Another important part of the 'tur' equipment is a sitteunderlag (a little mat to sit on), you can buy them of course but if you have knitter in your family or friend circle, you'll probably end up with a collection of colourful felted examples.

    One Christmas my younger daughter received a cute little ladybug felted mat from a friend, kids knit them in school and you can easily find wool for a reasonable price.

    I never felted before, but since I needed a simple knitting project to do in between other  I let myself get tempted by some colourful wools and started a new quick knit project.

    I used 6 mm needles, and 300g of wool.

    I knitted a large rectangle in purl stitches, and made a 20 st wide opening for a handle.

    Then I washed it in my washing machine on a short cycle at 40 degrees with a little bit of green soap.... nothing happened ! So I tried again, this time running it through a 60 degrees cycle...... it felted, but maybe a bit too much !

    This was my first try, so I'm not too disappointed but next time I might felt by hand  to control a bit more the degree of shrinking.

    Any tips on felting would be appreciated.....

Before felting

After a full cycle at 60 degrees.... much smaller, and a little stiff.... but still a useable size.