Felted Alien Egg

I know it seems forever since I have posted here. I finally have something new for you all!

Before I get into it I would like to let you know that I have still been designing bookmarks and dishcloths, and other cotton items you can find some of my newer patterns over at The Home of Peaches and Creme, and expect to see more there soon.

What I have for you today is not exactly a pattern, but more a guide. When I posted my Felted Alien Egg on ravelry I recieved a few requests for a pattern. At the time I had planned on making another, and promised to write up a detailed pattern as I made it. However as my project plans continue to grow I have pushed that way down the list. So, instead of a specific stitch by stitch pattern I am going to give you basic directions to make your own Felted Alien Egg.

This project was inspired by the "Alien" movies staring Siourney Weaver, or for you younger readers/knitters, "Alien vs Predator". It's a pretty simple knit, but I made the project slightly more complex by dying it after it had been knit-up. I actually found it much easier to deal with the dying process when I didn't have to worry about the yarn tangling and felting (since it is a felted project that past doesn't matter). I felt dying the project myself added to the finished product, by making the CC veins on the outside blend a bit better, but you could just use a dark green yarn, and skip that part.

Okay, on to the project!

Materials:

• White or a light-natural coloured wool. I used a bulky handspun, you could use a bulky yarn, or a worsted weight yarn double stranded. If you do not want to dye your finished piece use a dark earthy green.


• scraps of a bright green or blue wool-- if you are not going to dye your project these scraps should be a green one or two shade darker that your main colour.


• DPN's in a size large enough to make your STst rather loose.


• 16" circular needle in same size as DPN's


• Crochet hook (optional) the same size as your DPN's, or one size smaller.


• yarn needle


• stitch markers


• green acid dye (optional)- I used Cushman's Acid Dye in Army (I think) green


• a latex balloon or plastic bags

abbreviations/stitches used:

K- knit

P- purl

KFB- knit into the front and then the back of the stitch, increasing by 1

K2tog- knit 2 stitches together - decreases by 1

P2tog- purl 2 stitches together- decreases by 1

Directions:

Egg is knit from the center bottom up.

Cast On 8 sts- if you are using a double strand of yarn I would use a single strand for the cast on to eliminate a bulky lump after felting

divide amongst 4 needles, 2sts to each

rnd 1- knit all placing a marker after each stitch (you don't need to have markers in between the needles, but will need to add markers in those places when you transfer your work onto a circular needle)

rnd 2- KFB in each stitch around

rnd 3- K all

rnd 4- [K to 1 stitch before marker, KFB] around

repeat rnds 3 and 4 until desired width of egg is reached- remember that you will lose about 30% during felting so you want to knit your egg 30% larger than you want your finished project to be. Transfer project onto the circular needle when ever you are comfortable doing so. Remember to keep the markers in place- adding markers between needles

When you have increased to your desired width knit for several round straight. Knit all sts in all rounds until you have reached finished hieght you desire after felting. When this height is reached you are ready to start decreasing.

Since the top of the egg will taper more than the bottom you want to derease at twice the rate you increased. You you will have two decreases evenly spced between each marker. If you had 16 sts between each marker your decrease rounds would be as follows:

rnd 1- [K6, K2tog] around (you would do this 16 times- 2 times between each marker)

rnd 2- K all

rnd 3- [K5, K2tog] around

rnd 4- K all

and so on, until you have drecreased your sts by 1/2 to 3/4 (depending on how wide you want your top opening to be). Tranfer sts back to DPNs if necessary. Make sure that your final stitch count after dereasing is divisable by 4.

Now you will seaperate your stitches into four equal sections to make the top opening. Working each section seaperately form your flaps as follows:

row 1- K2tog, K to end.

row 2- P2tog, P to end

repeat these two rows until 1 stitch remains on the needle (your last row will be either a K2tog, or a P2tog with no stitches left to work) break wool, and pull through final stitch.

When all four flaps are complete weave in all ends.

Using scrap wool and crochet hook slip stitch "veins" along the outside surface of the egg. You could also embroider or duplicate stitch them on.

Dye and felt your egg. My egg took several runs through the washing machine before it felted to my liking. I dyed it before felting, but you may do it in either order.

When egg is felted sufficiently stuff it with plastic bags, or blow up a balloon inside it [this is so it holds it's egg shape] and leave it to dry. In the above photo you see my egg stuffed with plastic bags. I fleted it down once more after this, and used a balloon to shape it. I liked the balloon better.