Okay, so I’ve been holding onto this pattern for a felted kitty bed for what seems like ages now and I’m now committing myself to tackling it…But I have two questions:
A) the pattern calls for me to start off with 9 sts on size 11 DPN’s then increase till I graduate to using size 11 circulars. Okay, that part makes sense. But in the photos of the FO’s, I would expect to find a little hole in the middle of the bed from beginning with DPN’s. Does this hole disappear from the felting (I’ve never felted before)?
B) I’m supposed to have gotten bulky weight 100% wool. However Walmart, with their plethora of yarn selections (sarcasm), only had worsted weight. I fell in LOVE with this very sunset-like rainbow (oranges, reds, yellows, etc) so I couldn’t resist picking it up. Will the downgrade from bulky to worsted make a significant difference in the FO?
I’ve seen projects starting with dpns manage it without a hole in the middle. I’ve never done it myself, though.
Going from bulky to worsted weight yarn, though, will give you a smaller kitty bed unless you adjust the pattern. This will involve a lot of math based on finished (pre-felting) measurements and your guage. I would imagine that bulky and worsted yarns might felt together differently, but I’ll defer to our felting experts on that one.
It is likely that the hole in the middle will close up. If you want to make sure it does, though, just run the tail thru the stitches and pull it closed but not too tightly.
Don’t forget to change needle size, too, since you’re changing yarn size. Bot don’t go down to the needle size recomended on the yarn band - for felting you usually go up 3-4 needle sizes so your knitted stitches will be looseand floppy.
It sounds like the pattern startes in the center of the botton and you increase outward until your circle is “X” inches big. Hopefully it gives the diameter in inches before you felt it, not just in number of stitches. You’ll want to keep increasing and adding rows until you get to the “X” inches. But cftwo makes a good point that your yarn may felt differently then the one called for so it may be hard to decide when to stop knitting the bottom. But then again, you always have that issue with felting, even if you use the same yarn called for in a pattern - there is no guarantee when felting, you should always stop the machine and check for size often.
One question about the yarn you bought - is it 100% wool, or at least have some wool in it? I only ask because the selection of actual wool at my Walmart is, well, pretty much non-existent. If it isn’t at least 50% wool, it won’t felt at all.
One question about the yarn you bought - is it 100% wool, or at least have some wool in it? I only ask because the selection of actual wool at my Walmart is, well, pretty much non-existent. If it isn’t at least 50% wool, it won’t felt at all.
I figured I’d probably have to do some manipulating to the diameter of the bottom, since the yarn isn’t bulky weight. The yarn label said 100% wool surprisingly, and the ONLY thing that Walmart had in bulky weight was all acrylic. Here’s the URL to the pattern…prolly should’ve included that in my original post. Lol!