Felting With Wool

Felting with wool was project I had wanted to try for a few weeks. There is a handy pattern and felting instructions included in a nifty book I recently bought entitled "One Skein Knitting" by Leigh Radford (referenced at end of post).

I began with two skeins of wool purchased from the local craft shop (not finding the bulky wool which the pattern suggested be used), held the two different colors of wool together and began knitting the project.

Then I discovered I had made a mistake. No worry. Since perfection is not in my vocabulary, I remembered the Japanese word/thought process which my brother John had told me about several years ago. The word is “wabi-sabi”, which means that to have something flawed in a hand-made item only increases its intrinsic worth.

From wikipedia...

Wabi and sabi both suggest sentiments of desolation and solitude. In theMahayana Buddhist view of the universe, these may be viewed as positive characteristics, representing liberation from a material world and transcendence to a simpler life.

And another source says:

The primary aesthetic concept at the heart of traditional Japanese culture is the value of harmony in all things. The Japanese world view is nature-based and concerned with the beauty of studied simplicity and harmony with nature. These ideas are still expressed in every aspect of daily life, despite the many changes brought about by the westernization of Japanese culture. This Japanese aesthetic of the beauty of simplicity and harmony is called wabi-sabi (wah-bee sah-bee). Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.It is the beauty of things modest and humble.It is the beauty of things unconventional.

After that excursion into wabi-sabi, let’s continue on with this felting project.

Here is a picture of the beginning project, in which I inadvertently twisted the circular needle, making a twist in the final product. But I did not take out all the previous knitting in order to correct this minor mistake, and soldiered on, finishing the piece with that flaw incorporated into its beginning.

Then I washed the final circular knitted piece and began the felting process:

Felting Guidelines
"Fill washing machine with hot water at lowest water level possible and add 1-2 Tbsp of dishwashing soap. Place knitted piece in washing machine, along with a tennis show or some tennis balls for friction. Set machine to agitate and check progress every few minutes - felting time will vary, depending on temperature of water, type of soap, and intensity of agitation. When knitted stitches are no longer visible and the fabric is smooth and impermeable, remove the piece from the machine. Do not let the piece run through the spin cycle, doing so may cause permanent creases. Remove the piece, squeeze out the water, then roll it in a dry towel to remove excess water. Lay it flat to air-dry, checking on piece periodically and reshaping as needed. Depending on the climate where you live, it may take several days to fully dry.”

From One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet, Leigh Radford, published by Interweave Press, 2007, Loveland, CO, p.116

And here is the final result, on my kitchen work station, with no one the wiser for the one mistake initially begun while knitting the third round. It typifies the concept of wabi-sabi. It is impermanent, it is simplistic yet utilitarian, and by gosh, I like it.

I plan on making several more smaller bowls in different colors, using the recommended chunky wool yarn. Perhaps there will be no knitting mistakes in the next bowl.

But, perhaps there will be more wabi-sabis in many future projects and relationships, thereby somehow increasing their worth. After all, we are all flawed human beings, but valued in the eyes of God in spite of our individual personal wabi-sabis.

One Big Waa! Magical Thinking Does Not Work when Knitting

Oh, my. Another boo-boo on the knitting front. If I knew how the mistake first happened, maybe I could learn from it and avoid its repetition.

Alas, I was 1/3 through with the project before I saw that an extra stitch had been added into a knitting row on the clapotis scarf. This one little extra stitch put a halt to the planned drop stitch row that is purposefully unravelled, actually making the unique design in the shawl.

After having ripped out at least fifty rows of the shawl prior to noticing this big mistake, I was not willing to again do more frogging ... rip, rip. So I took the scissors to that one extra stitch and snipped it, thinking it would magically eliminate the problem. Yes, it was magical thinking, but one can always just click her ruby red slippers and wish hard, believing that the outcome will transpire into the desired result.

But after clipping the stitch, clicking my heels and looking down to see the "fixed" problem, it still remained, with further glitches resulting from the cut yarns. Sigh.

So I took some extra yarn, started weaving and came up with this half-hearted solution at the half way mark on the completion of the clapotis (corrected mistake on lower right side of picture):

Perhaps this is not the best fix, but I did learn to never take scissors to knitted yarn again in hopes of fixing that one added stitch inadvertently put into the pattern. Short of starting all over, do you have another suggestion to make this look better?

I am trying to learn to embrace the beauty of the mistake, and will ensure that the knitting snafu is disguised with a knot when wearing the scarf. Another wabi-sabi under my belt. I must embrace this project in its total harmony and keep this Japanese concept in mind when looking at this little mistake.

Another wabi-sabi mistake in felting wool can be found here posted over a year ago.

Organizing a Closet (aka Just Throw it Away)

Yep, my husband overstepped his bounds. He irreverently referred to my obsessive admirable habit of trying to organize my clothes closet, and even went so far as to tell the world about it. Honestly!

The chore of cleaning out my closet is an ongoing battle. The DH has a ridiculous and completely unnecessary house rule of "whatever item comes into the place, an item of the same size/category must go out of the house". Example: if he buys a new fishing rod, the old one is discarded. In his orderly mind, this is a way to keep clutter and unnecessary paraphernalia under control. This may be an admirable rule, but it is also a trial for me since I am more of a hoarder collector. After all, you just never know when that old wool sweater could be used for a felting craft project.

Yesterday, I had several empty shoe boxes, a couple pairs of shoes and a few articles of clothing separated out from the closet. These items were innocently placed in the adjacent bathroom ready for the next step of closet organization: sorting into piles of "throw away" or "give away", or "take to the resell shop". (Granted, the stuff had been there all day.) In steps DH with a snarky question about how long this pile would make its home on the bathtub rim. I told him this minor delay in organization was just part of the process of "staging" in the closet cleaning process.

And THEN he had the nerve to ridicule my staging process on his blog. Read it at Cleaning Closets on Living the Grand Life and see if YOU think it's funny. (It really is.)

(from 2009 Engagement Calendar by Anne Taintor)

"Staging" in the process of reorganization is a perfectly legitimate, although slow, method of getting rid of junk. In My Humble Opinion.

Maybe I SHOULD just throw everything away ... and start over.