I love herbal teas and I love to drink tea while at work. It helps to keep me warm as my office building is really cold. Add to that I’m usually cold when others are not and that my job is sedentary and you get a very cold me. I have a space heater, an extra sweater and a throw blanket in my office. I just recently purchased an electric tea kettle and I love it. However, I found that I had to keep reheating the water for my second and third cups of tea. So the crafty in me kicked in and I decided it was time to make a tea cozy.

I got up early Saturday morning and while having a cup of coffee with my husband, we heard a bang and the power went out. Great. No power = no water = no shower. Thankfully he was already ready for work so he left. Without power I had nothing to do. There was enough daylight coming in so I decided I’d start working on the tea cozy. Rummaging through a box of pre-felted wool sweaters saved for a throw rug I hope to eventually make, I found this really cute striped sweater.

I pinned the sweater together and cut around the arms and neck. I forgot to take a photo of this step so I drew on the cut lines, below. If you are making one, you would want to make sure you have everything pinned together first and make sure your cuts are as even as possible.

The cozy was looking like it was going to be too tall so I trimmed off the bottom ribbing. The sweater was originally a cardigan so I opened it and traced the shape onto eco-fi felt to use as a liner. This felt is very cool as it is made out of 100% recycled bottles!

At this point the electric company showed up and determined the cause of our problem was a poor squirrel. The little guy got on the transformer thingy and was electrocuted. 😦 They trimmed back the tree limbs that were too close to the pole and replaced the damaged part and our electric was back on in a jiffy. Thanks guys!!! FYI-save the squirrels and keep your tree limbs well trimmed near power poles. I know I will from now on.

With the power back I was able to steam the sweater and the felt so they were nice and smooth. I trimmed the edges of the both the sweater and the eco-fi felt so they were even then trimmed the liner so it was just a little bit smaller than the sweater. The next step was to sew the two end pieces together and across the top.

Next I turned the sweater inside out and sewed the opening closed and across the top. Then turned it right side out. This step probably would have been a lot quicker if I used a sewing machine. My sewing machine and I don’t always get along so I decided to hand sew it.

Next, the liner was inserted into the sweater and sewn together along the bottom seam. I decided to sew the ribbing over bottom edge of the cozy to add some stability. Last, some random buttons where sewn where the cardigan button holes were and a little tab was added to the top. Success! An adorable tea cozy made of recycled and re-purposed materials! If I had thought ahead, I would have added the trim, tab and buttons before sewing together and before adding the liner. This may have saved some time. But I was making it up as I went along and it worked out fine. The end result would have been the same. It was a fun project for a lazy Saturday. I tested it out with my stove top kettle and it works great! I can’t wait to use it at work.

Happy crafting!!

Felting Old Sweaters and Crochet

Hard to believe but we are already into September. It’s still hot, really hot, where I live but soon the leaves will start to change and the gift giving season will be upon us. Homemade gifts are gifts from the heart. Combining the gift giving season with crochet is something we crafters can look forward to all year. And if you enjoy repurposing as much as you enjoy crochet then I have a question for you. What do you get when you combine an old wool sweater, a washing machine and a little imagination?

Answer: Anything!

A few years ago I discovered felting (I believe it is called “fulling” when a wool item is already made and then fluffed up but it’s often referred to as “felting”). I had a beautiful partial wool sweater that I just could not wear. Even with a cotton turtleneck underneath, I was bothered by the itchy wool. But I loved the colors in the sweater so I held onto it. One day I decided I wanted a tea cozy. Rather than purchase one, I felted my sweater in the washer. This created a really nice thick fabric. I cut it to shape, sewed the two pieces together and lined it with an old dish towel on the inside to keep the wool fuzzies from getting in my drinks. Now I have an adorable tea cozy and enjoy my beautiful sweater every day!

Snowflake Ice Scraper Mitt

Felting is fun and easy and can repurpose just about any wool fabric into something new. So, what does this have to do with crocheting? Well, you can make a fantastic Ice Scraper Mitt by felting an old sweater, cut two pieces to size, embellish with an adorable crocheted snowflake, sew together and voilà! , you have a beautiful handmade gift.

Pizza! Pizza!

Back of pizza

I use felted wool sweaters to back my Pizza! Pizza! hot pads to protect my counter tops from hot items. Crocheted coasters can be backed to add additional protection from condensation. Or cut appliques from the fabric and decorate crochet hats or purses.

Felting isn’t just for old sweaters. You can crocheting anything and then felt it. Follow a pattern using a hook one or two sizes bigger than the pattern calls for (remember, the item will shrink as it felts), then felt it and enjoy the results. Here is an example. I crocheted this adorable Christmas Tree Stocking Decoration in a hook two sizes bigger than the pattern called for and then felted it in the washer. I love the result, what do you think? (Note, I added some white roving and needle felted it on the rim)

Great! How do I do it?

Well, it’s easy. Place your item to be felted in your washer. Turn it on and relax! That is essentially it. It’s best to place the item in a mesh delicates/lingerie bag and wash with your towels, sheets or other items you would normally was in hot. You can also use your cold cycle if you only wash in cold as the agitation of the items in the washer will also felt the fabric. After ten minutes or so, check and see if you have the desired effect. If not, keep it in until you do. Lay your item out to air dry. If you have a front load washer, never fear. Just use the shortest cycle as you will get to a point where you won’t be able to open the door to check on your fabric. You may need to run it through a couple of cycles to get the desired amount of felting.

Felting is fun but remember, once the items has felted (shrunk) you cannot undo it. Take your time, check your item a couple of times during the wash cycle and start with something small that would be OK if it didn’t come out perfect.

Important notes:

 The more you felt an item the tighter the fabric and the less the individual stitches will show
 Very thin fabrics may stick to themselves and they would be best not felted in the washer
 Only animal fibers will felt (wool, alpaca, cashmere)
 Synthetics and plant-based yarns will not felt (cotton, acrylic, bamboo)
 Most feltable fabrics/yarn will shrink 20-30%
 Should be at least 70% animal fiber to get a good felted result
 Superwash wool has been specially treated to NOT felt.
 You CANNOT go backwards, so go slowly!

Crochet By Darleen Hopkins

Crochet tips, tricks and patterns

Tag Archives: felting

Eco-Craft, an up-cycled tea cozy.

Using Felted Sweaters in Your Crochet Projects

Felting Old Sweaters and Crochet