Thursday, August 13, 2009

Your Panties Rock!



Don’t get your panties in a knot. Unless your felting fiber rocks...
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

  1. Bag of office supply style rubber bands.
  2. Old pantyhose (if you use fishnet stockings, they will make a cool fiber indentation in your rocks).
  3. Yarn that can be felted.
  4. Washing machine with a HOT cycle.
  5. Laundry soap. 
  6. See note below 
  7. *Optional, bells to put inside your yarn balls before felting them.
**Optional, I used rubber stamp/ink pad to use as a guide for my needle felted word "KNIT" on one of my rocks.
If you decide to do this technique, only stamp one letter at a time because the ink will smear while you are needle felting each letter.


HERE'S HOW:
1. Gather up leftover yarn that will felt. Enough to make the size rock you are seeking. Remember
that there will be shrinkage.
2. Make sure that the yarn you use is a natural fiber that can be felted.
3. Make sure that you wind your yarn into tight little balls or big balls, it doesn't matter. Size is irrelevant.
4. Then grab a pair or two of some old pantyhose.
5. Take the yarn balls to be felted and start to knot them into your panties like the photo's to the right.
on the right. You will need lots of rubber bands to tie them with. Make sure your not wearing your panties at the time…
6. When all your balls are knotted up, throw them into the washing machine on the hottest cycle.
Run them through the whole washing cycle to get as much water out as possible. If they aren't felted enough after just one wash, do it again until your satisfied with your rocks.
7. Let them dry. Completely… Drying time will depend on the yarn and the size of the rock.
Display them as is, needle felt them, or use them as a pin cushion. Whatever you choose. Your
Panties Rock!
*NOTE
This is a PM I received from one of our creative minded Ravelry member PamelaBee. I thought the idea was brilliant and asked if I could add it as a bonus to this project.
She said of course, so here it is:
PamelaBee said: Just a random thought (you get a lot of these when you get older). If you stuff a bell inside your initial ball of yarn, you can transform these into cat toys and give them to cat-owning people who have severely hacked you off. The constant tinkly noise will get on their nerves but they’ll be stuck with it because it will, of course, become the cat’s favourite toy… :)
I said: Pamela, your brilliant. Can I post this with my pattern and of course you get full credit your name included? I love your way of thinking. Hugs, Gail
PamelaBee said: Course you can - glad it raised a smile. I’ve seen a similar type of ball at our local County Show and the lady had put beads inside one of those little plastic containers that Kinder Eggs come in - (don’t know if you have those in the US but any tiny plastic container will do just to increase the noise level) and stuck it inside the ball before winding and felting. You would then have a double whammy and combine the torture with both cat and baby … :)
I said: LOL, I’m going to edit my pattern right now with your add on. Hugs, Gail