Jananas

This fall, Kerri (Jason’s sister) sent me an awesome Kerr-package full of yarn-y goodness. It wasn’t completely selfless as there was a ball of yarn and a pattern for a baby sweater in the box as well (I got the hint!), but there was more than enough yarn porn to make up for some baby sweater knitting labour. Part of what was included was two balls of Brown Sheep Lanaloft Sports Weight in their Autumn Run colourway. I pulled it out of my stash last week and started trying to think of something to make. I spent some time searching through Ravelry to see what other people had made in the same yarn, but almost everything was made in non-variegated yarns. Eventually I came across this project for felted coasters, which I incidentally already have a copy of in my personal knitting book library.

So I cast on and knit away. This pattern was fun. Partly because the coasters are a simple garter stitch and each one is so small that they knit up fast, which made me feel like I was accomplishing a lot (one done, check. two done, check). Even better, it was my first time trying to felt something on purpose [aside, I accidentally felted a cowl I knit last year when it went through the wash with my laundry. oops!]. I have a front loader, which apparently isn’t as good for felting (my guess would be due to lower water volumes and less soap = less agitation). Regardless, these didn’t have to be perfect so I threw them into the washer and did my laundry. Finishing a knitting project and doing my laundry at the same time is great. And efficient.

This is the coasters pre-felting. I had cast on with 26 stitches and attempted to knit double stranded until approximately square. Turns out that these felted down to be a little too big to be coasters (not by much though). Oh well, these are the sort of things that you learn on your first attempt! I ran them through the wash once and they came out felted. However, I could still see the garter stitch pattern. I ran them through again, but they didn’t change much. Oh well!

Still, they felted and I think that they look nice. The colours make these a good antidote to cold autumn winds. I wanted to add something a little more, so I pulled out my needle felting supplies and went to work. Needle felting the detail on these was easy and quick (probably because I didn’t try anything super fancy or finicky).

And this is the end result of my first attempt at felting and my first attempt at combining knitting and needle felting. Overall, I’m really impressed with how modern these look. Even better, because they are already felted I can just toss them into the washer when they get dirty and I don’t have to worry that they’ll shrink any more.

Plus, now that I know how easy (and fun) this project is I’ll definitely add it to my repetoire of last minute & housewarming gifts.