On My Hook - Felting with DROPS Eskimo

This week has mainly been all about Admin tasks, so today I decided to take a break from all the paperwork and have some felting fun!

Quite a few summers ago, my eldest daughter, was really struggling to sleep at night because she was far too hot in bed. Now a hot and bothered toddler is not much fun at all, so a solution had to be found. On talking to my sister about this, she remembered that she used to pop a freezer block, wrapped in a tea towel, in the bed on a hot Summer night and this really helped to cool the bed and the hot little body down, enough to aid sleep. I tried this, to great success and have been doing this every Summer since.

So here we are again, faced with hot sticky nights and I am back to wrapping freezer blocks. Only this time, I am thinking, 'there has to be a more aesthetically pleasing solution to the tea towel and hair bobbles' and so the idea came to make a little bed buddy that the freezer block slips into.

  Naturally I began with a simple sketch!

  Then the real fun - choosing the yarn.....

.........and the colour scheme...........

DROPS Eskimo in colours: 01 off white, 53 light grey, 46 medium grey, 24 yellow

   Then the hooking............

  Then the felting.....I added the crocheted owl to a 40 degree wash cycle. It is best to have clothes or a towel in the wash at the same time. The clothes agitate the yarn and help with the felting process. Also it is more economical to be doing your laundry at the same time!......I used the cool pack to help block the owl into the right shape and left it to dry out. A warm airing cupboard is perfect for this.

This 'ear' came out well, but the other was not so good, so I cut them both off and tied on a few strands of yarn to create nice fluffy ears instead.

  Then the finishing touches......blanket stitch eyes and a DROPS Cedar Button for the fastening.....

  Here he is, the completed Owl Cosy, nicknamed Bertie Bedtime Buddy by my eldest!

Felting yarn is tons of fun, if a little unpredictable. With this in mind you've got to be prepared to take a risk with your yarn stash, but that is part of the fun! You never can tell how big or small your piece will come out of the washer, but you start to get a feel for it after a couple of goes. You can also put your project back in the washer to shrink more, or give it a bit of a stretch when it comes out, so there is a little room for adjustment.

 DROPS Alaska, DROPS Big Delight, DROPS Eskimo and DROPS Alpaca yarn are all great yarns for felting, as they are 100% wool and not 'superwash' treated...so bear this in mind if you use these yarns and do not want to felt them! Remember to read the ball band for yarn care instructions or check the Garnstudio website.

  Footnote: you know when a project has been a success when the little one comes downstairs at bedtime and says 'Mummy? Please can I take that little owl you made me to bed to keep me cool?' :-)