Felting w/ different yarns

[Dawn]

I have a silly question. I've never felted before, so I'm clueless. I want to make a bag of some sort and I have 6 skeins of patons classic wool. I was thinking of making the well traveled bag and it requires more yarn than I have. There is no place locally to buy the patons yarn, but I do have a walmart where I can get lion brand yarn. Can I combine the two in one pattern? Will they felt the same way? As I said, I'm new to felting so any help would be great. I also found some moda dea cartwheel at the dollar store and was wondering how that felted? Thanks in advance for the help.

[sfgwife]

ok first you need to make sure your yarn is not superwash if it is it won't felt. 100% wool

 

As far as adding the 2 types together you need to make a swatch (same size and stitches and hook) of each measuring before and after. If they are both the same size after felting then you can work with them together but if they aren't you can't because your item would be shaped crazy because one felted one way and the other another way.

 

You can make the well traveled bag as big or small as you want or until you run out of yarn also. I know it is supposed to be a bigger bag but if you run out and don't have access to get more then what can you do?

 

HTH.

[Dawn]

Ah, a swatch....why didn't I think of that. That would certainly give me the answer. Thanks.

 

I would adjust the pattern, but I dont know how.

[Loveragdolls]

Dawn

Have you tried Knitting Warehouse.com. They have Patons Classic Merino Wool Yarn for $4.65 a skein and loads of colors to pick from.

http://store.knitting-warehouse.com/yarn-patons-classic-merino-wool.html

And Joanns Fabrics they Patons Classic Merino Wool Yarn for $4.99 a skein

http://www.joann.com/catalog.jhtml?CATID=88320&PRODID=85778.

[OzRebel]

I made a smaller version of the bag for my DD using Lamb's Pride and it is adorable! I think I chained 25 instead of 35 and did 15 rows for the bottom then just pared down each colored section going up the sides ie. 4-5 rounds of blueberry, 6 rounds of fern, 1 round of maple syrup etc. (except I used different colors than those, just using the colors that are called for in the pattern for my example). Hope that helps too.

[sherryzzz]

I've used many different brands and colors of 100% wool together in felted bags (such as Cascade 220 mixed with Patons, etc.) If you're open to your bag not being exactly like the pattern, then often it's a happy result! I usually heavily felt my bags (3 times through the wash cycle before rinsing) until you can't see the stitches. If one part shrinks up too much, I can usually tug and stretch it to match. I have used Lion Landscapes, which does felt but not quite as much as regular 100% wool, and it makes for a kind of pebble textured effect. I used it by itself around the top of one bag and, since it shrank less, it made a self-ruffle around the top (example of happy result!) If you're using Patons SWS, I would definitely swatch it, as I've read that it felts down very quickly.

 

I usually use one strand of wool, an L hook and a half double crochet stitch. When I add in a strand of novelty yarn (carrying it along with my regular wool strand), if the novelty yarn is thin like eyelash, I might continue with the hdc stitches. If the novelty yarn is thicker, I have had good results with switching up to a double crochet stitch - seems to make the stitches felt down the same as the plain regular wool. With the Lion Landscapes, I usually use it by itself (not carried along with the regular wool) for textured accent stripes and I use a sc - again seems to work to make it felt down the same as the surrounding hdc stitches in the regular 100% wool.

 

You just have to test out the different yarn combos you want to use - and make swatches if you really want to know how it will felt before you put all the work into the bag!

[Dawn]

Thanks so much. I thought of buying it online, but I'm impatient and don't want to wait for it to come in the mail. I actually made a swatch this morning and it seems to be working well. I even threw in the cartwheel just to see what would happen and my swatch came out a nice rectangle, not wavy or anything. Now I can't wait to get the bag stitched up so I can see how that comes out. Thanks again for all the help.

[andip470]

I'm so glad that you started this thread. I'm making a larger version of the well traveled bag, using patons classic & cartwheel too!! Never thought to swatch, & was starting to get nervous about the results, as I start on straps. Thanks for sharing your results.