Surface Design for Felted Knits: Leather trim

Here's the first part of the Surface Design for Felted Knits series. One of the reasons I love working with felt is because it's such a great medium for all sorts of surface design- from dyeing and paint to embroidery and beading. I worked on sequined, cross stitched and dyed bags today and am so excited to share all the fun ways to embellish your felted knits. But first up- let's work with some leather.

Here's the Perfectly Simple Clutch trimmed with leather. 

I think that adding leather makes the felted clutch look more expensive and brings a nice change of pace texture-wise. I'm a sucker for neon pink as well as tassels, so this is destined to be my new go-to bag. It's just the right size for my essentials. 

(I don't consider a spool of blue silk thread an essential, I just grabbed things off my work table to give the bag some body for the photos...)

It's really difficult to convey in a photo, but the bag isn't fluffy and fuzzy. It's trim and supple and you wouldn't look crazy carrying this around in the summertime. 

Rather than adding all the detailed how-to photos to the post, I made a pdf with the crazy-simple knitting pattern and all the step-by-steps for felting, blocking and my trick for easily adding the zipper. The pattern also has directions for how to make the leather tassel and leather patch. So click here to download the free pattern. 

Next week I'll share another great way to embellish this little bag using sequins and beads- stay tuned!

Tangents: New Niece Edition

::Tangents is the collection spot for the things we're thinking about, obsessively researching, and doing at home and on the web.

We've been a bit absent here this week, but for good reason- Our new niece Margot arrived fashionably late on Wednesday. We think she's perfect!

Our week was spent keeping Abby and Josh company at the hospital, cooking extra meals for the new family, and making a few decorations.

Laura did not miss a chance to use her new pompom garlands...

Today we converged at Abby and Josh's place to share a meal and have some fun out in their meadow- 

Times are changing in Kentucky, you can buy cascarones ready-made! Do you know about them? All the fun of an egg hunt with none of the dubious hard-boileds or plasticy candy-filled. (Plus major bonus for being able to throw confetti eggs at each other!) 

Also, turns out Avery is picking up Michael's special four-leaf finding skill. 

We're lucky all-around. 

How I Felt: Simple Hand-Felting Projects

So here is the rundown on the How I Felt series so far: 

How I Felt series introduction

What is felting? 

What is felting good for? 

Machine VS hand felting

And finally, how I hand felt

Today I'm going to share a few pattern ideas if you are curious about hand-felting. All of these projects can be knit with any worsted-weight feltable yarn, and they are all super-simple, small projects. 

The Simple candle holder string makes use of a color-changing yarn to great effect. And the knitting could not be simpler- you just knit a rectangle and sew up the ends and tack the work together in a few places before felting. 

The color stripe vessels are a fun way to use up bits of yarn.

Not really seasonally appropriate, but you could also try my little Jack O'Lantern pattern.

This one has an added step of a bit of shaping after you felt it, so you'd learn a few new tricks I employ by following this pattern. 

Or how about get ready for summertime cookouts and make a few beer cozies. 

Let me know in the comments if you've tried hand-felting and if you have any tips or questions about the process.

Next week, I'm beginning a new chapter of this How I Felt series: Surface Design for Felted Knits. I've got a whole bunch of mini-clutches all knit up and ready to felt. I'll share that free pattern next week. Then, for six weeks, I'll show you how you could alter the simple design in all sorts of ways. It's going to be great! If you want to play along, be sure you have a skein of Cascade 220 or something similar and a pair of double point size 10 1/2 needles.

Tangents

::Tangents is the collection spot for the things we're thinking about, obsessively researching, and doing at home and on the web.

Laura's Tangents

What a wonderful surprise to find the white trout lilies down by the creek blooming:

I made the best of another gloomy day and got a bunch of work done on Abby's quilt today:

Katie's Tangents

Don't tell anyone, but I'm working right up to the very last minute today and putting together my application for The Fiber Factor. I think it would be an amazing opportunity but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Either way, I think it's going to be a super-fun project to follow online. There are an incredible range of knitting pros participating and I can't wait to see the designs people come up with! 

This is interesting reading if you design knitting patterns to sell- State of the Stock(inette) Market.

Loved this blog post for some vicarious travel. Via the ever-excellent LLoyd Kahn.

Projects in Progress

::Projects on our work table or needles.

Katie's projects

I finished the Pebble. 

And then Abby saw it when I left it on the dining room table and she dropped by. Ah well, no biggie. It still needs buttons of course, so it's not really finished. I'll probably be sewing them on in the car on the way to meet the baby. 

I came up with an awesome, easy way to add beaded designs to my upcoming Baby Moccasin Boot pattern. They still need the leather wrap ties, but here's a snapshot to show you where the design is headed.

I have to say, these are pretty cute. The pattern is currently being tech edited and I'm hoping to release it soon. I'm very happy with this design- almost everyone who sees the tiny boots squeals in delight- and they aren't even on any babies yet. A super-cute pair of boots on a sweet baby? Over the top.

Today I've been knitting a bunch of samples for the next part of the How I Felt series. I'm really excited about this project. Rather than showing the techniques I want to share on a scrap of felt, I'm going to give away a free pattern for a clean, modern accessory then show six different ways to add color, texture and interest. I bet you can guess what the pattern is for when you see the image- 

I've got two more to go and then on to the fun part- felting and embellishing.

Laura's projects

After a few weeks of no knitting I've been itching to get something new started-today I began a shawl for a friend:

The pattern is LaLa's Simple Shawl, and the yarn is Crazy Zauberball. The pattern is easy enough to memorize, and of course it is so fun to watch the colors change as I knit.

My little boy bunny is finished-please don't be scandalized by his lack of pants...just haven't gotten that far yet. He is sitting on our long awaited window trim-also finally in progress!