Machine knitting and felting, attempt 2

I recently had a second go at felting some machine knitted samples. Learning from my previous attempt, I used more soap this time, with much better results. Some of the following samples were also made using punchcard patterns in the machine. I may try to make a video of a punchcard in action at a later date as they're great fun to use, even if Wikipedia does describe them as "an obsolete recording medium".

This first one has nothing to do with felting or punchcards though.

This was made using a punchcard on a tuck setting with two yarns worked as one. (And I have just written a sentence that will be incomprehensible to many people!)

At last, we get to the felting. Another sample made using a punchcard on a tuck setting, pre- and post-felting. It's not too easy to tell from the photographs, but the felted version does retain a lot of the textural quality of the original sample.

This was another piece knitted with two yarns worked as one. In this case one of the yarns was a lambswool, while the other was a red acrylic. The lambswool felted, but the acrylic didn't, leaving small loops of the acrylic projecting from the surface of the sample.





I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate my theme into my machine knitting. It occurred to me recently that I didn't have to restrict myself to bones, I could combine yarns and techniques to represent bones and the surrounding musculature. With this in mind, I set about trying to create something reminiscent of ribs.


The first attempt was alright, but I used acrylic yarns throughout so there wasn't as much differentiation between the red and the white as I wanted. I tried again using lambswool in place of the white acrylic yarn, so that it could be felted afterwards. Here it is pre- and post-felting.



I went on to make a much bigger version, this time making holes in the red stripes to really play up the difference in textures between the "bones" and the "muscles". About halway through I realised I would have preferred to use a burgundy yarn for the muscle sections, as that would have given me the opportunity to incorporate a bright red and a bright blue as arteries and veins. I did try to work this idea in anyway, but it wasn't what I wanted. Possibly the circulation system ought to be embroidered on top.