Shibori Knitted Felt

by Alison Crowther-Smith

Knitters who already love knitted felt for its softness and durability take their skills to new heights with these wonderful projects for garments, accessories, and home fashions. By incorporating Shibori, the Japanese art of manipulating fabric to create unusual textures and color effects, these projects delight with their fanciful bobbles, pleats, ruffles, and embroidery stitches. Designs include a delicate frilled scarf embellished with beads, a pair of Turkish shoes, an embossed throw, a pleated cape, a water-bottle cover, and a striped "bump" bag made by tying marbles into the fabric before washing to create a bubbled texture. A guide to felting basics, lists of yarn types and equipment, and washing-temperature charts to ensure exact shrinkage are included, and beautiful photographs, step-by-step instructions, full-color illustrations, and sidebars filled with tips and techniques make the projects easy to envision and complete.

Genres: Nonfiction, Knitting, Crafts

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mckinley]

Nothing for me.

[Marsha]

I might be too much of a fiber purist, but I think the title "Shibori Knitted Felt" is misleading. Shibori is a Japanese term for dying cloth in patterns through stitching, folding, twisting or compressing it. This book is not about dyeing; it is about molding felt into new shapes by binding and shaping around objects.

The general concept of molding the knitted form into new textures with binding and stitching is an interesting one. The patterns also include other surface ornaments, such as beading (which is integrated into the knitting by prestringing on the yarn), embroidery, and layering.

Unfortunately, the designs just don’t esthetically please me. Many of these pieces are scarves; felt stiffens knitted fabric, and generally I just don’t care for these. The only pattern I do like is the twist scarf on page 84; it looks fun and it is a tempting project. Somewhat unfortunately, the entire book is knitted with Rowan brand fiber. The capricious results of the felting process would make me very nervous to proceed with this project with any other yarn other than this one. The cost of this project is approximately $48.00, plus the beads, which is a little too rich for my blood.

Still, even with my objections, this sort of shaping is an interesting concept, and for the more creative artist, it can provide interesting techniques for creative surface design. Not sure if I will actually use this, but perhaps at some point I might experiment with BOTH dye and shape with felted projects.