Finished: felted slippers

Pattern: Felted DROPS slippers
Yarn: Anchor Wash + Filz-it, 100 % pure wool, 50 m/ 50 g, instructions say that it felts at 40 °C (didn't work for me though)
Color: red
Price: about € 3.50 a ball
Amount: 4
Needles: 8 mm
Gauge:
Dimensions: shoe size 37
Modifications:
Comments: Comfy, but ugly...

The yarn doesn't felt well at 40 °C in the washing machine, although that's the temperature in the instructions. I washed these twice at 40 °C and then twice at 60 °C and I'm *not* happy that the stitches are still visible. I stopped washing them with hot water, because the shoes seemed to be shrinking while the surface didn't change much.

I asked a shop assistant about a different felting yarn (Feltro by Lana Grossa, cheaper and softer than the Anchor, it was less than 3 Euros a ball) that I wanted to use for making slippers and she said that you should wash it at 60 °C even though the instructions also tell you to wash it at 40 °C. I knit another pair of shoes (http://lanagrossa.de/produkte/feltro.html Pretty nice. The heel needs some improvement - I would start with a couple of stitches less than recommended and then increase the number of stitches in 3-4 rows, so you will get a round heel - but the rest is ok, more or less. Three balls are enough for shoes the size 37.) and these looked right after washing them once at 60 °C.

I hated the DROPS pattern instructions (What? Huh??) and they're not very pretty. There's a couple of things I would do differently. I would knit the front part in the round and then do a three needle bind-off. All the sewing is just useless work.

I'm not really thrilled about the Anchor yarn. It's the most expensive felting yarn I have seen so far and it doesn't felt well, not for me at least. The range of colors is also small, maybe 7 colors, compared with Feltro, also mostly basic colors, but plus multivaried combinations, or the DROPS own-brand Eskimo (40 colors (!): http://www.wollkultur-shop.de/epages/15486368.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15486368/Categories/drops/Eskimo, I haven't ordered from this website yet though. I think Eskimo is not available in LYS. Of course, brick and mortar shops often carry less colors than online shops, there might be more colors available for the other brands, but they are the only ones I find in the local shops here.). I think Eskimo is not especially made for felting, but according to pictures I have seen it seems to felt well.

Before washing:

That's the wrong side out.

After washing:

I think that's after 40 °C - 40 °C - 60 °C


And that's after 40 °C - 40 °C - 60 °C - 60 °C

Ok, great. I just looked at the Ravelry project pages for this yarn and it seems that it does felt well (there's a very cute Christmas tree here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kaita/felted-trees. Just not for me! Maybe it's my washing machine? I actually felted the other shoes with my Mom's washing machine.