Felting hand knitteds

Someone asked me how I intend to felt the teacosy. Firstly you need to use woollen yarn, not a man made yarn. The wool should not have any treatment that makes it ok to machine wash in case it inhibits the felting. Then you need to knit the article with much larger needles than is usual - for double knitting wool (sport wool in USA) you need about a 6mm needle. When finished and sewn up, soak article in hot water and a squeeze of mild detergent (synthrapol if you have it) for half an hour. Then throw in the washing machine on hot with a couple of pairs of old jeans in case the colour runs. Check for size now and then in case the shrinkage is too much. You need heat and agitation to felt wool, heat alone does not do it.

I don't think this is a very precise art, so I would not make anything where size is important, but for felted scarves or tea cosies it is an ideal thing to do.

Many years ago my Mum went on a holiday on a Norwegian mail boat right up to the Artic circle. This was the last trip of the season before winter set in, and no more tourists were taken on the trip. The stewardess on the boat was frantically knitting mittens for the crew in her spare time, she knitted these mittens on 5 needles and when finished threw them in the washing machine on hot. Of course most of the ladies on the boat wanted to make some of these, so my Mum copied out the pattern, got some needles and some wool and made a pair. She gave them to my son who was doing the Ten Tor walk on Dartmoor with his school. This was a winter thing and was very cold up on the moor. He loved his mittens, made his hands so hot that he shared them round with his team.

Oh, I got the pattern for the teacosy from a little Vogue book called 'Vogue Knitting - Felting. On The Go!'