Crafty Aspirations

If you spend any time at all searching through the back of your closet, you will certainly find at least one ancient wool sweater that you NEVER plan on wearing again. If you're like me, it's because you shrank the daylights out of it in your haste get your laundry done one day...five years ago. The good news is, that shrunken sweater may actually prove quite useful. The "art" of shrinking your sweater in the laundry machine is also called "felting." It's the process by which "wool" becomes "felt." Wool felt is exceptionally warm, it doesn't fray, and it's super easy to work with.

Personally, I am planning on felting three sweaters this weekend...Yes on purpose. How am I going to do it? Follow along with my oh-so-scientific experiment.

Felting a Wool Sweater: A Highly Scientific Experiment

Question: What will happen to a wool sweater if placed in the washing machine on a VERY hot cycle, then dried in the dryer on high-heat?
Hypothesis: I hypothesize that the fibres of said sweater will mat together, and the sweater will become felt.
Method/Testing:
-Place sweater in washing machine
-Turn machine onto HOT cycle
-Run sweater through washer
-Place sweater in dryer
-Turn dryer on HOT
-Leave it for 60 minutes
-Remove sweater from dryer
-Admire newly felted sweater
-If not felted to satisfaction, repeat once or twice.
Outcome:FELT!

THAT, my friends, is how easy it really is to felt a sweater.
Now that you've successfully felted your sweater, what the devil are you going to do with it? This is the fun part.

Felted Mittens at Martha Stewart


Cashmere Hot Water Bottle Cover using this concept as a guideline.


Finally, since our Furbaby is growing like a weed, I am going to make him a felted sweater à la, this one from Craft Stylish:


I can't wait to get started...come on, weekend!