Okay, folks, I’m not handy in this way, but enough of you are.
My mother is a knitter, and showed me yesterday some small handbags she had knitted for gifts. They are GORGEOUS. She took mohair and wool and knitted them, then ‘felted’ the completed project. The process of washing the wool in hot, then cold water, then drying the bag shrank it down and tightened the yarn into a fantastic thick and dense felt material.
I figure I can knit a 1’x1’ piece then felt it to see how much it shrinks, then calculate what size I need to make a rectangle that I can fold over and sew pockets into for those whistles that I really want to have top notch protection.
Mohair isn’t cheap, but the results were absolutely marvelous! Have any of you tried knitting/felting a whistle bag? Any pointers for a beginner like me? I can knit and purl, and I think I remember how to ‘cast on’ but I’ve never finished a piece in my life. This just seems so ‘doable’!
After I sent tyg. a private message, I realized others might actually be interested in doing this…If that’s the case, speak up.
I knit even more than I whistle…
Couple of things spring to mind… First, I’d use a somewhat larger square, like maybe 4", to check your shrinkage. Too small, and the percentage of error rises dramatically.
If you use the tubing needles (a pair of needles connected back-to-back by a stiff cord) you could actually knit a cylindrical pouch all in one go, eliminating the sewing bit. … just an idea! (If it works, would’ja make one for me? )
Cheers
serpent
Sounds cool Tyghress! Just a question though, wouldn’t the finished product be a little “scratchy” to the touch? (I seem to recall that some felts are scratchy…)
OK-speaking of unique and weird whistle cases(or how I combine 2 interests into one)…the case that my Mollard baton came in is the perfect size for my Copeland D, fits handy into my purse and weighs next to nothing. The last baton I bought I really didn’t need (sound familiar?) but I wanted another whistle case!
Ok, how bout this. Jim D. just sent me a bunch of whistles to try out because I am considering purchases and in the bunch was the WW set of Eflat, D and C in a case that looks like it was made for them and in beautiful leather! Turns out it’s a two -piece cigar case for four cigars. The most sophisticated case for whistles I’ve yet seen. And since Jim is cool, I’m gonna copy him - already ordered the WW set from HMT and upon its arrival will get to the nearest cigar store. Thanks Jim. Oh, the whistles are neat too!
Since such ideas don’t come alone, and I don’t know of cigars the size of a low D, I’m also going to boil some old wool socks to line my plumbing PVC hard-cases
Since such ideas don’t come alone, and I don’t know of cigars the size of a low D, I’m also going to boil some old wool socks to line my plumbing PVC hard-cases
I trust that you (all) have not priced leather cigar cases recently? Careful, or they will cost more than the whistle.
Office depot has some nice mailing tubes that are 18"x1.5" ID that sell 4 for $3.79. They can be cut down in length, and the end caps still fit snugly. One can wrap the whistle in bubble pack before sticking in the tube. Crude, but protects the whistle quite well.
Serp, I said 1’x1’…not 1"x1"…I hope a foot gives me enough to judge by!
Bambi, thanks for the offer of help, because I’m probably going to need it. The nice lady at the store cast on 20 stitches for me to figure my proportions. I’m using whopping #13 needles (heck, I probably could use a pair of spare Gens and combine the two activities.) and it is clumsy going for me. I’m using this test piece to remember how to actually KNIT.
Okay, the ladies said don’t waste the money on mohair if you don’t want that fuzzy look, and for a first project, I don’t want to get too fancy. They said triple the dimensions, and use ‘stockinette’, which I seem to remember is knit in one direction that purl in the other. The last thing they mentioned was making it longwise, not shortwise…long enough to go around the whistle top to bottom, plus a flap overlay, then bind/cast off the stitches that aren’t needed for the flap and continue on for enough rows to go around the whistle. Lord…did that make sense? I have half a mind to do the circular needle thing and give up on the idea of these old hands managing to purl.
Anyway, I’m using good old wool, not anything fancy. I want something easier to handle than tubes…prettier. A cigar case isn’t a bad idea. I’ll take a look at that too! We’ll see how it turns out.
If & when you get around to felting, you may need to take precautions to prevent the whistle cozy from felting together in the inside! If what you’re felting looks like a really slim tube sock, I suggest you take a bit of one of those flimsy grocery store plastic bags and stuff it inside - you could probably secure it with a big ol’ safety pin at the bottom.
okay…here’s the scoop… I couldn’t figure if I knitted the last or purled the last, so I ripped the whole thing out and started again, and just knitted. The book said that if you just knit the piece has the same ‘give’ in both directions, and this sounded like a good thing. I made a hanky sized rectangle, and now I’m going to do the hot water thing to see how it 'shrinks. I thought the logical way about this was to make the thing, then sew it into a pouch with a flap.
BTW, I’m utterly thrilled with my hanky…its the first thing I ever completed! I LEARNED HOW TO BIND OFF THIS MORNING! WHOOO HOOOO!
Tyghress,
Congrats on the bind off. let us know how it turns out! BTW the agitation (friction) the knitted item experiences is actually a bigger factor in fulling (felting) the piece of knitting than the water temp. It’s possible to full an item in cold water, it just takes quite a bit longer.
About Cigar cases, I went into the local Cigar shop sometime last year and got a beautiful wood box that I converted into a whistle case for my Susato. Just take some foam rubber, cut it to the right size of the case and make the little indentations, cover it with fabric (the stretchy kind works best), then glue it in. Works great!, and I’ve had people ask where I got it from.
Looks even better when you sand off the logos and re-polish it.
Try one of those multi-pocket bags designed for holding drumsticks. Holds about a dozen whistles in a package small enough that it can be carried in one hand. Cheap too.
If your whistle case is hard and can scratch, Land Rover (yep!) have a part thats just the ticket, it’s an anti-rattle/chaff tape is 1" wide by about 10" black sort of furry stuff wich won’t scratch alli or brass.
It’s used on Range Rovers to stop surface to surface squeeks.
part no. STC3118k
R.
