amazing thought here, I actually swatched for a future project. and I even abused the swatch. it’s kind of important though - I’m attempting to make a felted hat and I want it to a) felt properly, and b) fit afterwards.
I bought some Paton’s Merino at Michael’s yesterday (since when do they carry that? and hey, it’s $1 less than JoAnns was selling it for. bonus.) found the working end of the grey pretty quickly, only to find another end soon after that. what the hey? oh.
what the heck? oddly enough, it turned out to be the perfect amount for my swatch. go figure.
so I made my swatch, playing with fair isle (the bottom rows) vs duplicate stitch (the top row).
then I went downstairs and felted it, modifying Zib’s instructions here. I don’t have any bouncy balls of my own, and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice any of dh’s, so I used some film canisters instead (and filled them with water to insure they wouldn’t just float about in there). I made my first shake of the container over the sink, which proved to be a very good idea - apparently, there was too much pressure and it burst open right away. I made sure to “burp” the container after that. after a few rounds, I pulled out this:
the purple more or less disappeared, though it’s slightly (very slightly) more visible where I tried the duplicate stitch. and I can’t tell if the white felted or not (I even bought the ‘Aran’ instead of the ‘Winter White’ cuz I thought it might felt better.) oh, well… I’ll just modify the pattern a bit, I think.
the size didn’t change much (if at all). but I think I need to go up a needle size to get gauge. hopefully there won’t be much shrinkage in the final project.
I had the same problem felting as you. I tried 2 grey’s that were too close to gether in color, and they dissapeared into eash other. it was a purse so it wasnt’ a big deal. you were smart to test first though. can’t wait to see this hat.
btw, i am tagging you for the lastest meme. intrested to hear your answers.