Comparisons for Felting

OK let's see if I can get all the pictures and explanations in here. The bowl on the left of both pictures is the size of the knitted bowl prior to felting. The bowl on the right is the size the small bowl ended up fitting for a form once it had felted. The picture on the left is the size my original small felted bowl was when done with my Secret Pal's yarn which was 100% Rhythm yarn. The picture on the right is the size the small felted bowl turned out when made with two strands of fingering weight Palette yarn.














OK, to see the real comparison, directly above is the comparison. The orange bowl on the left is the size the small felted bowl, after felting, turned out with fingering weight yarn. The white bowl is the size my small felted bowl, after felting, turned out to be when done with regular 100% wool. The picture on the right shows the real difference. The bowl on the left was the bowl made with 100% wool and the blue bowl on the right was done with fingering weight yarn.

Personally, I like both of them but the smaller ones like the blue are probably cuter and nicer to give as gifts. You can fill them with hard candy or decorations or something when you give them. I will probably do that when I give them as gifts. It is obvious you can't put a lot in them and you wouldn't want to put anything edible (unless it was an apple which you can wash) but they're great for decorating.

But my experiment yields that you CAN use fingering weight yarn to make a bowl and felt it in the washer but it IS going to be small. BTW, I actually knitted about 6.25 inches of straight rows for the sides of the bowl instead of the 5 something it calls for. Glad I did. Otherwise I might not have had any bowl left after felting!

Experimenting is fun but also dangerous. I will take what I learned and use is wisely. That is why I wanted to share the comparisons. Just so YOU know before you try something like this, too!