Rough and Ready

No…not thinking about my heart throb Trace Adkins. Well, now that I think of it maybe I am. What a hunk! Anyway, back to today’s post…

When I’m speaking of Rough & Ready, I’m talking about my hands. Geez, the weather gets cold and my hand immediately turn to sandpaper. The best thing to do is to slather them with lotion and avoid extreme temperatures and water.

Of course, I know this…but do you think I listen to my own common sense. NO! I just spent the last 2 hours with my hands soaking in hot soapy water. As the water cooled, I drained it and added more hot water to up the temperature again. I did use latex gloves, to no avail, the water just seeped under the latex lining.  Go ahead…I know I must be up for torturing myself. Or maybe, I’m inspired to do something creative. What do you think?

But of course you know I was being creative. I was experimenting with “fulling” wool. Fulling is often referred to as wet felting. The biggest difference between the two techniques, is that fulling using pre-made wool fabric and wet felting can use raw wool fibers (roving). If you ever shrunk a sweater in the wash, you have had experience fulling. Ah the price one pays for their craft.

Wool can be fulled from knitted garments or woven wool fabric. I tried a little of both this afternoon. I knitted a scarf with an entralac design and I wanted to see if some dyed wool fabric would felt.

Both experiments were worth the effort. I’m happy with the results.  But in the mean time, I think I’ll go find some hand lotion.