Over the weekend, I made my first forray into felting. Fabulous!
I have always wanted to felt wool. I have felted wool sweaters, but I’ve never knit anything and then felted it.
So I started with a skein of wool.

I like this wool, because it’s quite bulky. I found a pattern from the wool manufacturer that I liked, for a felted coffee cup cozy.
I’ve recently renewed my obsession with lattes, and I’m trying to have Starbuck’s make them in the (Starbuck’s) insulated mug I bring with me, but on the days I can’t manage that, wouldn’t it be nice to at least not have to waste quite so much paper/cardboard. A little reusable cozy can be kept in the car or a purse, to have handy.

So I knit up my cozy. The pattern said to knit a rectangle then join it into a circle by sewing it together. I just knit it in the round as all one piece.
Normally you would felt your project in the washing machine. But I didn’t want to wash just one tiny thing, and I didn’t really want to put it in the washer with anything else, for fear everything would get covered with wool fibers. So I did some stovetop felting.

The first time I tried, I made two mistakes. One, I forgot to add a little detergent (this helps the fibers bind to each other). And two, I put a piece of cloth in with my cozy so that the fibers would get more agitated, but the green in the cloth came out in the hot water and kind of dyed my cozy green. Yeah I know, nice move on my part.

 
I ended up boiling it one and a half times – half way through the second time I gave up and ended up tossing it in the washer after all. And after a trip through the dryer, it’s still just a tiny bit too big.

 
The next one I knit will be not quite as wide, and not quite as big around. But I really like this look and plan to make some more! I think you might need one, so that you can cut down on the amount of paper you are using.