Saturday, March 27, 2010

Texture

Several weeks ago I found a knit skirt at the thrift store made of 100% lambswool and I just now got around to doing what I had planned for it. I decided to make a scarf (now that winter is over?) but I wanted to add some texture to it. I had seen this technique used ages ago - can't remember where - and decided to give it a try. This picture shows how I tied pennies in a random pattern to the wool, and it's all ready to go into the washing machine and dryer for felting. The idea is that the wool stretched over the pennies will stay the same size, while the other areas will shrink. I raided hubby change jar for this and used at least 100 pennies!

Below shows the finished product. The pennies wore holes in some of the wool as it was tumbled around so that wasn't good, but I do like the bubbly effect they made. Instead of doing them all on one side I alternated front and back so it would be reversible. I'm not thrilled with the outcome, but it was fun to play with.


A close up of the bubbles. 


Edited to add: I found out where I had seen this technique done before - please visit Betz White's blog to see more about it. She's the queen of all things made using felted sweaters.......

10 comments:

whitey said...

are the pennies still in it?

Kathy (woolfind) said...

Never saw anything like that. Intersting to see, thanks for sharing!

Alice ~ Folk Art Primitives said...

Very interesting! It looks like it was time consuming!

QuiltingFitzy said...

I love the look you achieved!

What about maybe putting some decorative embroidery stitches where the pennies wore thru? Lazy Daisies or Starbursts?

Deb said...

I love the look of that scarf. What a clever idea!

Nedra said...

What an interesting technique.

Unknown said...

I think this is a great idea.
I'm going to check out the woman's
blog.
Maybe it was the sweater being weak thread or something.
Love the concept.

brenda said...

that is really clever-- I like the texture it created...

Unknown said...

What a cool idea-- I'll bet it just takes some playing around and the right wool to get it perfect, but I like it imperfect too!

Kim from The Sheep's Nest said...

Hi Gayle, Thanks for visiting my blog and joining my giveaway. Glad you did, so now I get a chance to see your wonderful blog! Kim