Felting and Shibori

I've been in a bit of a felting frenzy recently. I had just seen some amazing examples of Shibori, including some felted examples, at the Artwear exhibit at the Legion of Honor (see my post from June 23). Then the Fall '05 issue of Interweave Knits arrived in the mail with an article on Shibori knitting and patterns for two felted bags (Weekend Getaway Satchel by Marta McCall and Canteen Bag by Rachel Battaglia Nissen), a felted capelet (Felted Floral Capelet by Nicky Epstein), and felted laptop covers (Laptop Cases -- an excerpt from Leigh Radford's upcoming book, Alterknits). What a wealth of inspiration!

Shibori Felting
IWK's Shibori Knitting article is a good overview. It focuses on a couple of artists: Mary Klotz at Forestheart Studio, Mary Hal Davis, Jeung-Hwa Park, Mie Iwatsubo, and Jay Rich.  I'd been interested in Jeung-Hwa Park's work since reading about her when IWK first published a couple photos of her scarves back in their Winter '01/'02 issue, and the subsequent longer profile on her in the March/April '02 issue of Fiberarts. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, i was thrilled to see her work up close at the Artwear exhibit. Fiberarts also had a profile about Mie Iwatsubo in a recent issue. Still, the IWK article does have some new pictures of both artists' work. Plus photos and information on the other artists, whose work I hadn't see before.  According to the article, Forestheart Studio sells shibori knitting kits, but I wasn't able to find them when I looked at their site. I suppose I'll have to contact them when I have more time...

Felting by Hand
Of course after all of this inspiration, I had to try out some felting of my own! I played around with hand felting a knit-in pocket, some swatches with shibori techniques, and other random bits.

Hand felting? Yes, it is most definitely more work than tossing something in the washing machine. Unfortunately, my washing machine is a front-loader, which is very energy and water-efficient, but not ideal for felting. The locking mechanism on the washer door prevents frequent checks to see how something is progressing. Of course, opening the door mid-cycle would probably also cause a small flood; I guess it is just as well that the machine is idiot proof! :}

In any case, while I take larger projects to the laundromat, I resort to hand felting for most smaller projects. Actually, there's something incredibly satisfying about felting a project by hand -- watching and feeling the fabric change completely from a wet, floppy mass to a soft, dense fabric. When I'm experimenting, hand-felting also gives me a great deal of control over the process, even allowing felting of selected areas on a piece.

So...the experiments
The felted pocket is very cool - I was playing around with double-knitting pockets using Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, and wanted to see what felting would do. Definitely a success, although I realized afterward that next time I could probably just SEW on a pocket and skip the double knitting. I think I'll try a slash-type pocket next...probably with lots of stripes or some other color pattern. Lamb's Pride does felt well -- with a good bit of fuzz, and a definite halo of mohair on the finished piece  but overall, a very nice fabric with no stitch definition remaining.

Classic Elite Lush is still one of my favorite felting yarns, so I tried a few experiments with that as well. There is still a bit of stitch definition left, but the felted fabric's softness more than makes up for it. It it weren't for the washing requirements, this would make a lovely fabric for baby things.

And then on to the shibori knitting experiments... I wanted to dive right in to the shibori techniques, so I pulled out random gauge swatches knit from wool and wool/other animal fiber blends. I tried a couple classic shibori techniques -- sewing lines into the fabric, wrapping twine around peaks of fabric, etc. -- and also tried tying things into the knit fabric. These initial attempts were somewhat successful, particularly the tied-in items and the peaks of fabric. The sewn lines were not as visible, but that was probably at least partly due to the slightly bulky swatch made with boucle yarn. I think I'll try again with a flat fabric with a finer gauge. There's also clearly a benefit to the dying portion of the shibori process, since the contrast between dyed and undyed sections would help draw attention to the techniques. But fabric-dying adds another whole level of mess (not to mention cost!); I think I'll hold off on that until I am satisfied with the way the swatches look with just the felting.

Oh, I do wish I could post pictures of the felting experiments, but the one-and-only USB port on my ancient laptop is now completely dead. So no photos until later this week, after a Compact Flash adapter arrives. Once that workaround is up and running, I'll post some pictures.

 

Comments

[Julie]

Ooh! Thanks for sharing your felting and shibori experimentations. I felted my first bag a few months ago and had a great time. But I, too, keep going back to the article in IK about the shibori techniques. I don't know that I'll ever get around to trying it, but its beauty is magnetizing. I look forward to seeing your efforts.

[ellen]

where do you buy felting yarn in the UK? the only supplier i have is in Italy..and delivery is very expensive!!

[Catheryn]

Is there any specific book or books that you recommend to learn shibori techniques? I have been dying to try the form resistant knitting. Also can you achieve it with hand knit objects or does have to be machine knit? I am figuring if I use a tight gauge that will do the trick.

[Tiffany]

Do you have any tips for hand-felting? I've never tried felting before, but I have the same washing machine problem as you. Do I just put my project in hot water with a little soap and rub it a lot with my fingers, or is there more to it?
Thanks!

[Katrina]

I am looking for directions for handfelting Haki Sacks for a children's art class. Thank You!

[Carolyn]

Hi
I am wanting to know how to felt the wool without felting the bubbly bits made from doing the shibori. I have been doing some experiments with a fine mohair blend knitted jumper i purchased from an opshop - I am pleased with what I have achieved but am curious about how to felt these items without felting the bobbles.
regards
carolyn