Felted Pants Almost Done!

Here are the felted pants, almost done!

You can read about my previous progress with these pants here:

http://loomdude.blogspot.com/2011/04/felted-pants-and-other-things.html

http://loomdude.blogspot.com/2011/04/loom-knit-felted-pants-part-2.html

For the entire project I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool Natural color, 2 skeins (though I didn't use the whole second skein). For the legs I knit 1 over 2 stockinette stitch on the red round loom for 134 rows per leg. For the torso I knit 1 over 2 stockinette stitch on the long blue loom (using both corner pegs). To start, I knit off 3 rows on the 8 center pegs, then I knit off the entire loom for 64 rows.

I arranged the three pieces together,

then sewed them together. They measure 12.5" x 30.5".

After knotting every tail, I turned the pants inside out,

and felted them in the washing machine for 5 minutes, checking to make sure they didn't shrink too much. Finally I carefully wrung them out, shaped and blocked them. I knew once I felted them that the curl caused by the stockinette stitch would tighten up and flatten out, so I wasn't really that concerned about it. I also "guessed" that the shrinking process would straighten out the top of the pants also. I figured whatever the shrinking didn't fix I could fix when I blocked and shaped them.

I shaped and blocked them a little more after taking this picture. After felting they now measure 9.75" x 26.5". They won't truly be complete until later this year, when my daughter tries them on and I alter them for her size. At first I was going to add some felted flowers to the pants, but they look nice the way they are without any decoration, so we'll see. I'm thinking about adding an elastic lining instead of a belt, though a nice ribbon belt would probably work too. Once I fit and alter them I will add a light fabric lining on the inside so they won't be scratchy, and try not to panic if she spills anything on them. I can always make another pair!

Loom Knit Felted Pants Part 2

Here's the latest progress on the pair of pants I'm loom knitting: So far: two pants legs, and I'm working on the torso using all the pegs on the blue straight loom, 1 over 2 stockinette stitch. This is still an experiment for me, and I hope it will work out. I won't know until I put everything together and felt it. I feel pretty good about how it's turning out so far. Someone suggested that I line the inside of the pants to prevent them from geing scratchy, which is an excellent idea. I will start shopping for some extra soft fabric to line them with. But the only problem is I just glanced at the calendar today and I noticed that Easter is next weekend already! Where did the time go? So I will post my two Easter projects next week, and then post the finished results for the pants the week after Easter. Plus, next week I'll be posting a portion of an interview I had with someone who is a loom knitting phenomenon! Hope you'll check it out!

Felted Pants and other things

Now that I've learned how to felt, I'm going to try something a little ambitious: I'm going to make a piar of felted pants for my daughter! I'm using the round red loom for the pants legs, and I'm using fisherman's wool natural color for the yarn, since I got such great results from using it to loom knit a pair of felted mittens. So far I have knit one pants leg using a 1 over 2 stockinette stitch for 134 rows:

It measures about 20" without the curls at the end. It's too late for her to wear them this season since the warmth of Springtime is finally kicking in. I'm trying to estimate how much I think she might grow by next season, and allow for the shrinking process during felting. I've already started the next pants leg, and I'm making up the pattern as I go along, so if it doesn't come out quite right I'll try again and make corrections. Hopefully they won't be too itchy for her; the mittens I made for someone else weren't itchy at all. Once the pants are felted I plan to make some little felted flowers to decorate them with.

As a result of being given the Stylish Blogger award (thanks to Sharon of Sharon's Eclectic Retreat blog), I would like to present 7 things you probably didn't know about Loom Dude:

1. I enjoy rollerblading and ice skating when I get the chance.

2. I am a great cook (most of the time).

3. I like watching the Weather Channel (even before they started having more variety programming).

4. Christmas is my favorite holiday.

5. I used to make my own ice cream when I was a kid (using an ice cream maker).

6. I have more creative projects than I have time to do them all!

7. Magenta is one of my favorite colors.

That was fun; now tell me one thing about you!

P.S. - I added a bunch of new blog links to my website at http://www.loomdude.com/. Click on the links page and take a look!