Stress gives my knitting consistent tension

[kaitou]

I've been working my way though my beginning knitting book, dutifully trying each project that teaches me a new technique, whether I WANTED a shawl or not. So the latest thing was to learn how to decrease by making a felted purse. For the most part it went off without a hitch. Decreasing was really easy to learn, and the halves of the purse came off without a hitch. Then, since the example purse was supposed to have flowers (example purse was green with pink flowers) I decided to make leaves instead. The leaves came out really well even though I did them without any sort of pattern at all.





And then I tried to felt it.
>.<
It didn't go so well...



Anyone know a fashion forward 3 year old? I let it felt in the hot water too long. Which really, I'm not too surprised. Since this is my first time, I didn't really have a baseline as to 'when are the stitches felted' and probably let it go 5-7 minutes longer than necessary. I did my best to stretch it back out, but this was the best I could do. It's a shame really, besides the size it came out really well. You can't even see the seam where I sewed the two halves together.

Oh well. *sigh* Better luck next time.

Comments

[mewsrissicat.livejournal.com]

((HUG)) You did a great job, and it's not your fault if the instructions were a bit too vague.

I just hate you feeling like you wasted the effort, you know?

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

It's not the end of the world. At least it's not a sweater or something, right?

[twigcollins.livejournal.com]

I think I remember Yarn Harlot talking about stuff like this, and how she does it a lot. So now you're up there with the pros, right?

I totally chickened out and let Heather felt the bag she did for me.

The yarn is a really beautiful color, anyway. You could use it as a little tote for more knitting supplies.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a lovely color? Shame I don't have enough of it to do anything else now. LOL.

And other than being too small, it really did work beautifully.

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what a pretty color. I'm sorry it shrank so much. At least you're doing the dutiful thing and working your way through the book. I tend to leap into the arts and crafts equivalent of a black diamond project.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

It's actually one of the things I like about this book. Most of the beginner books I looked through have a bit at the front where they show you all the techniques, and then after that come projects that use lots of them.

This book kind of assumes you don't know one end of a needles from the other (not including double-pointed needles) and each project builds off the other. Because if you don't have purling down, the whole "Dec 1 st at neck edge every 2nd row 8(5,2) times. Then dec 1 at neck edge every 4th row. At the same time, when piece measures 7 inches...." is really going make you cry.

It also helps that a lot of the projects are really pretty.

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

Because if you don't have purling down, the whole "Dec 1 st at neck edge every 2nd row 8(5,2) times. Then dec 1 at neck edge every 4th row. At the same time, when piece measures 7 inches...."

Oh my God, that looks frighteningly like a word problem in my eighth grade math book. I would SO cry. Most of my scant number of knitting lessons have been with my mom or grandma, whose instructions are something like, "Do this now. No, I don't know why. Just do it."

And pretty is an excellent motivator. ^_^

[soranokumo.livejournal.com]

Eep! I'm sorry it shrank so much. As you say, though, it's not the end of the world, and the next time your project calls for felting you're now much more closer to getting the timing down right. So no worries! And, you can always find another little use for it, I'm sure. (Maybe a cute bento bag?)

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Oh it's far too small for that. It's maybe big enough for 2 apples. (Hey, it's Hello Kitty sized!) I don't think I'll actually bother assembling the strap and all. I think I'll just start on the next project. (Once I get more yarn)