Bubble Felt

I have been working on a really great new sweater, pattern to be posted in a couple of weeks, but cannot show you (hush hush) due to the fact that it is a special birthday present for a special (nameless) sister, who watches my blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise!! (No peaking sis'!)
In the meantime....

I have been making small pieces of felt in the hopes of getting a feel for new techniques. This piece is wet felt, alpaca and merino in natural colours. Made the usual way with wetting and rolling, I got to the place where the small scarf was in one solid piece, but not yet fulled (shrunken).

At that point, while wet, I placed small stones on the back surface and tied cotton yarn around the pebble from the front to create a bump. It was tied fairly tight, with only a small gap showing at the back.

There were 15 'bubbles" placed near the ends only of the scarf.

Then I took it to the hot wash, (a sink full of hot soapy water) and alternated agitating in the hot bath with cold rinses and a few gentle throws in the other side of the double sink. I did this five times, then rinsed well in cold and wrung out in a towel....

While still wet, I gently cut the cotton yarn and released the stones (careful not to open the bubble any more than necessary to slip it out), then dried the whole thing.

You can see the pebble images are very pronounced and remain quite intact (although light and empty they hold the shape!)

Amazing how texture can add to the look of an otherwise mono-chromatic fabric. Just wait until I throw it into a colour mix!