Maggie Pace - Felt It!: 20 Fun & Fabulous Projects to Knit & Felt

Felt It!

20 Fun & Fabulous Projects to Knit & Felt

Maggie Pace

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing
practical information that encourages personal independence
in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Alison Kolesar and Gwen Steege
Art direction and text design by Cynthia McFarland
Cover design by Kent Lew
Photography by Nicholas Whitman
Photo styling by Robin Tesoro
Illustrations by Christine Erikson
Text production by Jennifer Jepson Smith
Indexed by Susan Olason, Indexes & Knowledge Maps

2006 by Maggie Pace

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

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Printed in Hong Kong by Elegance
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pace, Maggie.

Felt it : 20 fun and fabulous projects to knit and felt / Maggie Pace.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-58017-635-4; ISBN-10: 1-58017-635-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. KnittingPatterns.

2. Felting. I. Title.

TT820.P16 2006
746.432041dc22

2006023061

To Joan
my mom,
business partner,
and best friend

First, I would like to thank my husband, Steve Pace, who did double duty on the family front so that I could knit day and night to create and test the patterns in this book. His tireless support and enthusiasm for my work is the main reason this book came to life and our kids arent the only ones wearing my designs. He is the motor that keeps us all running, and for that I am eternally grateful. Id like to thank our children, Kendal and Callum, for their unconditional love and also for the use of their little heads to size my childrens hats. Id like to thank my mom, who somehow agreed with me when I said Im going to write a knitting book and wouldnt she like to test every pattern? She has been my biggest supporter, my teacher, and my friend, from the time she taught me to knit when I was 5 to today.

I would like to thank my technical editor, Dot Ratigan, for the hours on the phone ironing out kinks and in some cases major wrinkles in the patterns. Dot, your careful eye is unparalleled. Many thanks to my editors at Storey, especially Gwen Steege, who helped to guide me through the complicated process of transforming 20 patterns into a cohesive book. Thanks to Alison Kolesar for her careful editing of the patterns and final pages.

My heartfelt thanks to Rebecca Klassen, who lent hours of knitting and problem-solving to several patterns in this book. Her design input and consistent encouragement were essential to its completion. Thanks to Kathleen Lussier-West, who was integral in the structural design of the Night Star Wrap. Kathleen does amazing things with beads, as is evidenced on the wrap and the Star Choker.

The many knitters who tested these designs once, twice, and sometimes three times deserve a huge thank you: Joan Benson, Rebecca Klassen, Trish Egan, Jan Hanson, Joan Goldstein, Lisa Claybaugh, Claire Splan, Theresa Shoals, Mayumi Hughes, Lisa Stoeltje, Jasmine Castillo, Nita Sumrall, and Sarjan Holt.

Thanks to Kelly Wilkinson, my business partner, for her hours of work at Pick Up Sticks! that freed me to complete my manuscript. Kelly, thanks for taking this on! Without you none of this would be possible.

Thanks to my neighbor Joe (and his screwdriver) for rescuing the patterns from my failed hard drive the day of my manuscript deadline!

Thanks to my mother-in-law, Elaine Pace, whose quiet support through all of this has meant much more to me than she knows. My thanks to Gabrielle Mitchell for making me believe I had something worth pursuing. Thanks to Priss Ellingboe and Elaine Brody, who laid the groundwork for Pick Up Sticks! Thanks to Christina Stork at Article Pract in Oakland for purchasing my first pattern and helping me to believe in my designs. Thanks to Ellen Roosevelt at Stash in Berkeley for telling me I had something worth developing with my knit flowers.

Id like to thank the many yarn companies that supplied the yarn for the patterns. Finally, Id like to thank the retail store owners, who continue to take a chance on independent pattern designers.

Before you dive into this book, be forewarned: It could lead to a serious addiction. The first time I felted, I shrunk down an old wool hat just to see what would happen. I threw it into a pot of boiling water and beat it around with a wooden spoon. After about 20 minutes, that hat was small, stiff, and bowl shaped. I wasnt all that thrilled with the woolen bowl (though it did make a nice paper-clip holder), but I was thrilled with the process. I loved watching the fibers transform in front of my eyes.

Next thing I knew, I was felting everything in sight. I knit huge, grocery-bag-sized totes and shrunk them into dainty little purses. I knit clown hats that skimmed my chin and washed them into cute 1920s cloches with brims that I could shape as I wished. I knit complex Fair Isle flower patterns that felted into smooth, unpixelated images that really look like blossoms. Ive been developing patterns ever since, and Im more than happy to share!

Felting takes needles, wool, a washing machine and a little moxie. The first three are really the only objects you need to get started with felting, and a little later, Ill help you make the right selections. But first, lets talk about the felting essential thats harder to come by: moxie.

I admit that felting is a bit nerve-racking. As you knit, several questions arise: Is this pattern right? Doesnt this purse look disproportionate? Will the yarn Im using felt correctly? How will a hat sized for Andr the Giant ever fit my three-year-old daughter? And so on.

Because of its imprecise nature, felting requires a healthy dose of free-spiritedness, the willingness to break the rules, and the ability to throw the concept of gauge out the window. In short, felting requires guts: You need guts to slide ten hours of knitting and $30 of nonwashable yarn into steaming hot water. You need guts to knit without knowing how the measurements are going to turn out. You need guts to trust a pattern that seems like its flat-out wrong.

Some of us come to this book with the required moxie. If that some of us is not you,