Felt Jackets

[sallyinwales]

How would you calculate how much bigger to knit to shrink down to a predetremined size

A combination of experience and gritting your teeth and hoping! You can make a test swatch and see what happens, mostly I just cross my fingers and hope for the best

 

[copper_head]

My mother makes felt, she made me a pair of felt boots years ago, alas they are long gone but remember having to sit while shwe moulded round my feet with the wet felt. Might be a little difficult with a jacket tho. I guess youd have to make a sheet of it then cut and sew like with other materials. If anyone needs to know ill ask her about it

 

[maverick moocher]

Just out of interest what are duffle coats made out of? its a kind of woolen felt type thing isnt it? I keep looking out for a dark green one in a charity shop for about a tenner but I aint seen one yet, always thought it would come in handy for something

 

[Risclean]

It seems to me that the method for making felt hats and boots with different thickness is a bit like the make carbon fibre mouldings are made.

Fulling sounds like an interesting thing to try at home, though I think my mother might get tired of knitting hats if it took more than a couple of shots to hit the right size. Maybe I should learn to knit myself

 

[sallyinwales]

My mother makes felt, she made me a pair of felt boots years ago, alas they are long gone but remember having to sit while shwe moulded round my feet with the wet felt. Might be a little difficult with a jacket tho. I guess youd have to make a sheet of it then cut and sew like with other materials. If anyone needs to know ill ask her about it

You don't normally mould a jacket to be skin tight though so you can do all the work off the body, does help a lot!

As for sizing the hats, its not that hard really, if you use 5mm needles and aran weight wool, a 100 stitch cast on shrunk at 40degrees on a normal machine wash cycle will fit most adult heads in my experience.

 

[Graham_S]

this weekend while driving to aveimore I had to stop off.
went into a shop, and what are they selling?
a felted wool "fleece smock"
very cosy.
not cheap though,
however, just the thing for wearing under my ventile smock.