Woolly DIY

 (Originally psoted on WP 11/5/21.)

In my latest attempt to expand the sizes of hand spun yarn I offer, I hand twisted 8, 100 gram hanks of the new-to-me US Rambouillet (French Merino) wool top. I hand felted 2 hanks, then thought that using the delicates cycle in the machine on the last 6 hanks would make the hanks look as good as Kate’s from Ashford, after they came out of the wool cycle on her machine.

But I was wrong. The hanks felted oddly, very well in some places, hardly at all in others.  So, once they were dry, I balled them up, and put them into a plastic lidded bucket (as all my fibers and handspun are stored), awaiting some inspiration for what to do with them.

Now, I’ve been aware of wool-filled bed pillows for awhile, as well as wool-filled comforters and here, but buying almost all these ready-made alternative/eco/non-mainstream products is outside the budget, so the idea goes into the DIY box.

Wool quilts are an easy thing to DIY, if one weaves or knits. I prefer wool blankets to quilts, anyway.

BTW, if you love all things wooly, do check out Clara Parkes’ new ‘The Wool Channel’. Here’s her post in June of 2021 on wool bedding.

Clara’s posts are making me think outside the usual wool boxes - as with the wool sponges  and wool PJ’s.

These wool sponges are made from felted wool batting, but I wonder how necessary that step is – am thinking of just garter stitch knitting a square with wool roving yarn, then throwing it into the washer and dryer – it would be a quick and easy experiment, to see if/how they worked. So, it’s on the To-Do List.

Now, those PJ’s are tugging at my purse strings – the fabric, warmth, comfort are all calling to me!

I’m no fan of flannel PJ’s - as the woven structure does not stretch. *Fleece* PJ”s are only warm in that they trap body heat and moisture, so after a while one becomes sweatily too warm.  Cotton stretch knit PJ’s are then what I’ve been wearing for many years - OK for summer, but not ideal for the colder seasons. LOL, but I am no impulse buyer. These wool PJ’s can tug at my purse all they want to, I can’t budge, and am not sure if i could even DIY this project for less cost (not likely).

But bed pillows are easy. They’re always getting worn out, then one is stuck with disposing of (or repurposing) the polyfill or memory foam bed pillow.

I have found that down pillows can last for decades (and I always wash and dry them in the machines), and when the feathers finally give up most of their fluffiness, I still repurpose them into throw pillows.

So, here I am with 2 memory foam bed pillows, one older than the other,

both have been surgically readjusted, but are now getting to that point of needing the seams opened up again and the filling repositioned. If you’ve done this as well, you know how memory foam bits stick to each other. It’s not just a matter of shaking the pillow around so the bits can resettle evenly - ha!

It’s too bad I never took pictures of what I had to originally DO to one of the pillows, before I could even use it. I had purchased it, lightly used, on Ebay, but everyone is scent-crazy these days, and we don’t tolerate scents. I sprayed it with unscented Febreeze, I aired it out on the line for weeks, nothing helped. I ended up opening one seam, pulling all of the memory foam bits out, soaking them in unscented detergent and vinegar, then maybe also a baking soda/water rinse, can’t remember – scent requires A LOT of effort to get removed. HINT: Please don’t use scented detergents, softeners, or fabric spray on clothing and linens!

These bits were then lain across a large old bed sheet on the basement floor, to dry, before becoming a pillow, again.

Although I will get to this chore, I detoured myself with the idea of turning my oddly-felted Rambouillet roving yarn into pillow filling.

The easiest way to do this seems to be by just cutting the yarn into 1-2” long snippets, then hand teasing the yarn into a loose mass. This last bit is not difficult, as the yarn wasn’t felted solid, whether done by machine or by hand – the fibers were just fulled enough to tighten the yarn structure.

This bowl is my largest, for making the Thanksgiving sage stuffing, which has been hubby’s favorite.

NOTE TO SELF: It’s been just the two of us for about 18 years – I really gotta retire this bowl. We don’t need two large trays of stuffing (as per the recipe).

It’s also the one I use for large batches of Martha’s stollen or Christmas cookies. So far, it is holding 100 grams of loosened up  Rambouillet fiber. I think I will prep 2 more balls of yarn into fluff, then stuff and seam up an old pillowcase, once I get the loft worked out.

Do check back to see how, or even IF! this Wooly DIY works out well.

Happy are those who play with wool,
Dawn