Okay, we’ll just call this a fail, alright?

Yargle.

Thump thump thump

That’s the sound of me whumping my head against a project that is just so not working out.

Mostly, I post about things that make me feel all happy and pleased and generally chuffed.

BUT, the last couple of days, I have been experimenting with felting some Shetland fleece.

and it has not gone well.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I spun up a bunch of said fleece…

I blythely assumed that I was just

going to spin it up ,

turn it into yarn….

weave it…

and felt it…..

so I could make  adorable

little booties for

my darling grandbaby to be.

Sample swatch number1: Well…. I plyed (that’s what I am doing with 2 wheels in the pic above) the yarn, and wove up 4 squares on the potholder loom. I stitched them together, and did the things that I generally do to turn woolies into felties.

Oh oh….. the felted fabric came out soooooooooooooo thick that the poor child could stomp across the tundra in the booties and never feel tumble weed or barbed wire fences.  Not exactly what I had envisioned….

Sample swatch number 2: I thought…. hmm…. First swatch was too thick, so I’ll just weave up singles and the felt will be thinner….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I decided that the singles wouldn’t stand up to the rigors of being warped through a rigid heddle or reeds etc, so I thought…. I’ll just use my Schacht school loom….. which I love.

The weaving was great fun, and I was soooooooooooooooooooooooo optimistic…… wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee………… I thought!

Holy smoke.

The piece of fabric that emerged from the washing machine looked like a small rodent had ventured onto a construction site.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

(I washed it again, and it got worse. Much worse)

Wow. I thought….

I guess this fleece doesn’t want to be woven.  What about knitting it on the knitting machine?

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

It was lovely to knit. Of course, because it was unplyed singles, it angled off madly…..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I washed it……

and it didn’t felt.

It shrank a little….

but it’s not felt.

oh sigh.

I will wash it again tomorrow and see if it might felt after it’s been abused some more.

Well….. if it doesn’t, I will just spin up the rest of the fleece and knit soakers for the baby, as it’s beautifully soft.

So, I guess it’s not a total failure….

well, not quite….

Um, I think I am an incurable optimist.

Ah well, let’s see how things come out in the wash tomorrow shall we?

Hmm… maybe the uber thick felt could be made into booties for the dogs…. yes…. that’s it!

They can stomp through the snowbanks of deep winter with cozy toes…

now that’s a thought.  An optimistic one , at that…..