Felted Mousetraps

Ya gotta love snow. Less than 15 minutes and all of these hand felted on the wash board. I didn't even break a sweat!

Reading clockwise from the top, little blue bootie with a stripe (cuz I ran out of lt. blue) is the one I like the least. It's OK, but not perfect, and I would prob'ly look for a regular old knitted bootie pattern to make if I was in the market for that kind of thing. The large orange is an adult size (woman's size 6/7) same as the original just a shorter cuff. The little blue one is a toddler size (if I remember what that looks like) without the tall cuff. A "slippy" rather than a bootie as my kid's call them. The large grey is an adult size (woman's 6/7) of the "slippy" variety. In the center is a little larger than a toddler, maybe something for a 7 or 8 yr old.

I've proven to myself that I could do it. Now what. Well there could be many of things to do actually. I've got lots of finishing ideas, which I'm pretty sure I mentioned before, like some embroidery, needlefelting, and the like, not to mention how easy it would be to do some colorwork in a pair of these. Then there are some shaping things I'm considering, like rolling some edges and maybe some cutting and putting in zippers, buttons, or eyelets and lace them up. I also have a pair of flipflops I bought at the end of the season ridiculously cheap for the sole purpose of becoming soles on some felted slippies. I still have that "real" boot possibility nagging at me as well. But to be frank, I think I'll make a PAIR before I actually begin any of the finishing things I have in mind! lol IF I get around to doing that, (giggle/snort) you gotta remember something about me, 'the proving it to myself' is a much greater thrill for me than the end product. If you still don't believe that, just take a gander at my boxes, drawers, chests, and closets that are full of UFO's and samples of techniques :o)

I think I'll spend the rest of the day, working on my Nutkin socks, maybe spinning something, and prob'ly attacking a set of dpn's with some wire cutters, and sandpaper to make them shorter. I switched last night to magic loop method, on the Nutkins. Those 7 inch dpn's kept threatening to poke out my eye out and I could no longer stand the intimidation.

Cows

Ya know how cows spend their entire day grazing. They eat for a while then lay about chewing their cud (all the while looking very contemplative and content), then they eat some more, and the cycle repeats itself. I've been a cow.

A cow has four chambers in it's stomach rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. The rumen, is the first compartment where everything goes and the good stuff, like sweet tender grasses and such pass through there onward to the other parts of the stomach to get absorbed and digested further. The flotsam and jetsam of their foraging, the stuff which is harder to digest or the stuff that really should not have been eaten at all but got scarfed up while grazing, is spit back up from the rumen for another go around through the teeth. This is the cud part, a "lets try that again I've got to chew on it a little more" thing if you will. Hopefully after a few go a-rounds with "I've got to chew on that a little more" everything passes on through.

This is how my days have been spent of late, chewing the cud of what is/was attempts at sizing the mousetraps for babies, kids, and adults, along with numerous other variations. I've had some successes, and a whole lot of jetsam. lol

I know I could figure a neat and tidy algebraic equation to whip all this out in a flash, but alas, while the gray matter is still churning out ideas, it is still also stuck in the no math zone. Case in point, I've made several errors by my inability to count by two's!!!.....sigh....Nonetheless, I carry on.

Four newly sized booties to felt, the sweet tender grasses so to speak.


Pix of "finished" felted booties/slippies to come, and I'm still chewing on a lot of cud, but I really, really, gotta put down the needles and the pen and paper and get the house ready for Gillian's arrival home for the holidays. Then of course there's that Turkey Day thing that is coming some time this week. ;-)

Mousetraps

You guys are so clever. Even though I threw you that red herring of a picture that was waaay out of proportion, you did come up with some really good guesses, as well as some that were actually right. LOL I'm still giggling over the Wonder Woman breast plate and the bat catcher. ROFL.

Yes it is a sock, of sorts, a felted bootie technically.



An adaptation of Debbie New's Better Mousetrap Sock. (found in her Unexpected Knitting book with a basic version printed in Interweave Knits Fall 2001)

Obviously I had gauge issues to work through doing this in stockinette as opposed to garter stitch, plus embiggening it for felting. There was also getting the decrease angles right, and of course having absolutely no sewing/grafting was a must.

I have to admit, I was dubious at first if this was going to felt like I wanted.


The bunchy part at the break of the ankle was worrisome as well as those incredibly pointy toes and heel. Even before I felted these babies I casted on for a version that has a less pointy toe and heel. I'm ok with how the toe felted I'd still like to work on that heel, and obviously, I have to use a different decrease. See the tiny holes at the decrease seam on the heel? Not a big deal on the toe but problematic for wear and tear at the heel.

In regard to the first attempt that was so out of proportion, it wasn't a complete failure, it actually turned on the light bulb of how and where to make some adjustments to make a more substantial boot that has a tongue and laces up. Hmmmm considering I don't have any boots, and this year is supposed to be colder and with more snow than we've had in many many years, maybe I ought to actually consider a "real" pair of boots!

After I'm done with the next version of this boot, of course I'll start thinking harder about a real boot, but I'm thinking working this in a slip stitch checkerboard pattern would be kinda fun, a harlequin jester's boot kind of thing. :o) And there are certainly globs of embellishments that could happen, embroidery, needle felting, etc. Then of course there is putting in zippers or buttons for a better overall fit. Egads, I do go on don't I? I can't help myself, when faced with something so incredibly mindless and easy to make it begs for just a little more time spent to make it extra special.

I like it. What more could you ask for in a design? 34 mindless rows of simple knitting and you've got yourself a bootie. I think, "normal" socks should be blushing with shame.

Gotta go, I've got waaay too many variations to get knitted....rounder heel, shorter cuff, with tongues that lace up, zippers, buttons....

Felt Boxes

Recently during a Ravelry discussion regarding things to make with felted sweaters I mentioned making boxes out of the really hard felted sweaters. Here's a few pix of some of the boxes I've made.

In the first picture is a 4 inch box and a 6 inch box. On the smaller one you can see that I did a little bit of embroidery (such as it is). The little box has a thin row of plastic canvas around the upper edge, to help keep the shape of the larger box I pushed a wire through the top hem. Notice the seams on both of these are on the outside. I like it this way, it give a very angular edge to the box.



The last two pix are of the the same 6 inch box pictured above just turned inside out with the seams inside. I kinda like it this way too, it lends a softer more sculptural element to the angular cube.





The only support in either of these is the plastic canvas/wire along the top edge, there is no support in the sides nor in the bottom. Obviously the factor that determines the need for additional support is the firmness of the felt itself. I prefer to use wire, I have plenty of copper wire around here, a wire coat hanger could be used just as easily. Supports could be hand sewn into the seams as they are made here, but it's not necessary. When the construction is one piece, as opposed to the 5 pieces these were made of, the faux seams at the edges actually lend a bit of support themselves, but if need be, a wire can be pushed through those edges too.

Felted FO's and Grey Sweater

As promised...a day late...here are some pix of the clogs and the cat bed.

CLOGS

The clogs turned out well. Obviously they weren't for me, that is my shoe in there. :-) They fit Joe well, but he's a little skittish walking around in them on the hardwood floors. I've thought about using puff paint on the bottom and other stuff along those lines but given Joe's gracefulness, or lack thereof, and the fact that the man just learned how to walk in flip-flops this year (!) I don't think that would be much help. I also considered sewing some vinyl on the soles, again not enough for this man I'm sure. Next time I'm town I think I'll go to Big Lots or some such place and see if I can find a pair of cheapy flip-flops and attach those soles on to the bottom of these clogs....that should work, something really sturdy.

CAT BED

The bottom is crocheted, just cuz, you know, I didn't want to spend forever knitting this.

Here's the finished product, still stuffed and drying. Obligatory cuteness photo with kitty all snugly to come.

Felting notes: Both pieces were made with vintage Bear Brand wool. From that same lot of wool I bought eons ago at an estate sale and did the major red dyeing job of the graduated peachy to orange colors. And yes there is still LOTS more of it left!!!

I learned that I cannot, under any circumstance it seems, open my washer once it has been started. I figured I wasn't going to be able to open it in mid-cycle (duh, it's a front load), but I thought I'd be able to do so between cycles....NOPE....sigh....so my felting days, other than with things like this, in which I don't fear the dreaded spin cycle crease, are over. At least until Summer when I can cajole Joe into hooking up the old top load washer in the basement. :-)

Then again.....I'm making a new felted bag. Just a tiny bit to go and then the felting. I'm considering felting it by hand with my wash board. Yes, it will be a work out no doubt, but I'm thinking having my hands in soapy hot water sounds like a good thing right about now! If not I'll take it to town with me when I go looking for soles for Joe's clogs and use my sister's washer.

The Grey Sweater aka Tempting the Gods

The sweater is done, has been for a while, but the gods weren't tempted and the yarn never came. I'm assuming the yarn company forgot about me.....sigh.

Sweater recap:

Used some OK vintage orlon (?)...it's as OK as this kind of fiber goes I guess. I reversed engineered an old fav Gap sweater, but modified the original funnel neck to a stand up open neck. I made the sleeves extra, extra long. One because of my ape-ishly long arms and two because my hands get soooo cold. (lack of blood flow all the way down there? lol) I added thumb holes in the cuffs so I basically have fingerless gloves attached to my sleeves. Love it, especially when I'm sitting in my chair, with my hands up in the air for hours on end...... oh I don't know, knitting maybe (?)........gotta love my life!

The lace wimple pix tomorrow maybe. I don't want to post it without a link to the designer's pattern.

Maybe tomorrow some pix of the new neon food color dyeing experiments. Was planning to do those yesterday, but had a granddaughter in tow. Usually on her visiting weekends there are lots of fibery things going on, but this weekend she was into it.