Felted Mittens: Take Three

I'm always looking for a new fiber project, so when my friend Deb showed me her mitten felting form, I decided to give it a try. I've had a lot of interest from people wanting to purchase mittens, and felting sounded quicker than knitting.

I checked around, and wasn't able to find the felting tool I wanted so I bought the whole kit from http://www.hookedonfelt.com which came in a very timely manner, so I jumped right in with a very fine tunis lamb fleece from my friend. It was just a fast slick shear at the fair, and it had a lot of second cuts, making it unsuitable for spinning. It didn't take long for me to rip the fiber on the form, and I had the same results when I tried with some merino. At least I was able to salvage the merino fiber.

Last night I spent the time to try again with some alpaca that wasn't spinning up so well, and I embellished it with some wool roving I had left over from some yarn I spun last year ( I still have that yarn, and may make a hat to match). This morning I once again attempted to felt some mittens.

This time I was much more successful. I think the key is to use tons of dish soap and keep it good and slippery. I finished the felting off in the washer. I left the mittens big, because I found when you put your hand in, they just sort of conform to your hand, plus I have tiny hands, so I didn't want to go too small. They are outside drying now, and will need to have some fuzzies clipped off and the thumb needs the wool tightened up just a bit with the felting needle, but I think for my first pair, they are very good, and maybe even sellable in my Etsy shop, especially if they have a matching hat.