Felting preview

One day I'm going to talk about felting. I love felting. I don't know why. It's funny because in the midst of the novelty, fuzzy, furry, trend, I always loved the smooth yarns with their crisp stitch definition. But yet, I love felting, where there is no stitch definition. I like it because it is practical. The application of felting I like the best is in purses and totes. The felting makes the wool fabric more dense and so pens and crochet hooks don't "poke through". Look at this fun set of swatches. This is in Caron Felt It in Evening Mist. http://www.caron.com/ It is a stitch of my own design, a variation of a shell that you may see again later. And look at the interesting texture that it makes the felted material. So much of the time you see a felted item with a nice smooth, untextured finish. again, all stitch definition disappears with hard felting. Look how much smaller the felted one is than the pre-felted swatch on the left. For purses, another alternative is to crochet tightly with a smaller than recommended hook, which makes the crocheted fabric more dense, less drape-y and gives pens and other small items less chance of "poking through". That is also why I chose the Tunisian twisted simple stitch for the Tunisian backpack. I liked it because it made a denser fabric than regular crochet and allowed for less "holes".