Felting Yarn

I first knitted with Yeoman Felting Wool last summer, when Yeoman donated a large box of yarn to the eTextiles Summer Camp. It's easier to hand-felt than other wool yarns I've tried, so I ordered a half dozen colors and started to play. It's fun to make detailed colorful designs, and perfect for holiday gifts. But there are a few pitfalls in creating your design. Read on for info about:
  • holes between colors
  • uneven felting due to pattern and color
  • felting technique
Holes

The designs pictured are "single motif": the pattern does not repeat and the contrast yarn stitches are wider than 5 stitches in a row. This results in long "floats" of yarn on the back side. Normally you'd "wrap" the edge needles while you knit to avoid big gaps caused by the edge stitches "laddering." Instructions for this are often included in machine manuals under "how to knit single motif". 

The edge needles are not wrapped in this piece. This resulted in laddering: large gaps and sagging stitches at the edge of each color. This is particularly visible around the brown in the middle.

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Yeoman Yarn Samples

Color cards scanned on an Epson flatbed scanner, with a CameraTrax 24 Color Card for reference.

Photographing Yarn Colors

Photographing my yarn samples with a Colortrax color card for reference. My thinking is, if you have a copy of the card, you can adjust your monitor to match, to see accurate yarn colors.  

I shot the pictures by setting a custom white balance with the color card, so the color is consistent.  Next time, I'll have to use manual exposure/shutter speed to insure consistent brightness, as well.

The name of the yarn is under each photo set.

Key West Karibbean Kotton Yarn in DK and Worsted weights.

Jaggerspun Heather

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