Dear KnitBits® Subscribers,

This year I have discovered felting. I understand that I may be a bit of a "late bloomer" but let me assure you that I am nonetheless ultra-enthusiastic about this miraculous technique. Norah Gaughan has encouraged me to take this leap of faith. With her expertise we plan to keep developing wonderful projects for your felting pleasure.

Several of our Berroco yarns felt well because they have a high percentage of wool. I have focused today on Hip-Hop™ and Medley™, but Vibe™ is also an excellent candidate for felting.

Toshiko Tote
This is a simple rectangular Medley knitting tote. It's knit loosely on a #13 circular needle and then fulled alone in a washer with hot water and a little detergent and a cold rinse. I threw it in the dryer once to remove the excess water and fluff it up a bit. I have a front loading machine that doesn't agitate at all. The fulling process was caused by the change in temperature from very hot to very cold. You could call this one a "starter felting project." It can be made by the scarf knitter with ease. In fact, Kris on our sales staff is knitting this bag right now. Until now she has only made simple scarves. She is really enjoying knitting on a circular needle because she doesn't have the problem of the first stitch being so loose and sometimes looking like 2 stitches.

Hiroko Bag
Norah made this very hip, fringed Hip Hop shoulder bag on #17 needles. She did some easy decreasing to create a crescent shape, made a very long strap and some tie closures and she felted it in a top loading agitating machine, with a hot wash and cold rinse for 20 minutes. I love the way the fringe felted. It looks like dredlocks. The transformation was incredible. I'd like to share it with you. Here is a picture of the bag before it was felted. It was huge, flat and droopy! After felting, it became a 3 dimensional masterpiece of a bag.

Hip-Hop being 100% wool felts fully. When felting Medley, with its mixture of fibers, the wool component fulls around the non-wool novelties. Norah and I are determined to explore the infinite possibilities of felting. We will make many trials. Some will fail and some will succeed. We will show you our successes. We will document them and pass on all we have learned to our KnitBits subscribers.



Gina from Oakland Beach wrote: "I started knitting last year and frankly, I am "scarfed out." I have made dozens of garter stitch scarves. I am tired of them and I have run out of people to give them to. Can you recommend another project for a novice knitter that only knows how to knit and not how to purl. "

Gina, You are in luck. With your simple knowledge of the knit stitch you can tackle the Toshiko Tote. You cast on, join and knit in the round until you bind off. When you work in circular you can make stockinette fabric by only knitting, never purling. The handles on the bag I knit were worked on straight needles by knitting one row, then purling one row (stockinette stitch). You can knit every row for the handles (garter stitch) if you wish. It won't make a difference. You will use slightly more yarn for garter handles, but there was enough yarn left over from the last ball so that it will work just fine. One of our Berroco employees, Kris, has only knit scarves in the past. She is working on the Toshiko Tote right now and she's finding it very, very easy.