Louie

Fun with felting (technically fulling)! At the last Whidbey Weaver's guild meeting, one of the members showed her recycled wool sweaters, which she felted and made into purses and mittens. She found the idea in a book, Heartfelt. I so loved the idea that I immediately ordered that book, and another felting book, Felt Frenzy, from the library, and went to the thrift store to find wool sweaters.
These photos all show my results so far with three sweaters - the top half is before, and the bottom after. The big, bulky white one felted very thick, so will make a good tote bag, as will the black one, which I like the best. It has chenille flowers with metallic stems, which didn't shrink in the felting process, so it's quite lumpy. The green one shrunk a lot lengthwise, but stayed almost the same in width, and still seems pretty loose, where the other two are thick and solid. I wanted to try the patterns and embroidered sweaters to see what they would do.

I felted them right in the washing machine with very hot wash and cold rinse, then dried them in the drier, so they're soft and fluffy. I'll try making things with them, and keep you posted.