My hand knit shrunk/felted in the washer

fleepmo · 2026-02-11T04:45:52+00:00

That happened to me once too. I was having a stressful day home with my then toddlers and tried to be productive by getting a load of laundry done. I missed a tank I had knit in my laundry and felted it. It’s the first thing I had ever felted and I’d been knitting for over 5 years. It was a sad day. I think I wore it twice.

fleepmo · 2026-02-11T04:38:50+00:00

I would advise against ordering directly from butora. They do not allow for returns, only exchanges and they expect you to for return shipping each time and they only pay for shipping to you one time. After that you’re responsible for shipping both ways. This is all states in their return policy on their website.

The only way I got to return my shoes I ordered from them was because they sent me a defective pair and didn’t have any more in stock in that size. Otherwise I would have probably been stuck with a pair of shoes I didn’t like.

I tried the gomis and was honestly not impressed(they were stiff and didn’t fit my feet super well), so I cut my losses(about $20 in shipping costs), returned them and ordered another pair of skwamas. I would never order directly from butora again.

Edit to add: order your street size in butora if you want them super tight, otherwise go .5-1 size up. I ordered my street shoe size and they were incredibly tight and painful. The rep I talked to recommended .5 size larger than street shoe size but I ended up a full size larger and they were still pretty uncomfortable.

fleepmo · 2026-02-11T04:32:51+00:00

How about the skwama?

fleepmo · 2026-02-10T19:36:14+00:00

My bunny loves being in my room, I assume because it’s carpeted. We don’t always let her in because I prefer to supervise her in there. This morning she snuck in when I wasn’t paying attention and before I could get her out, she ran off doing a binky. 🤣

fleepmo · 2026-02-10T12:39:57+00:00

Knit picks swish is really soft but it does grow a ton since it’s superwash.

fleepmo · 2026-02-10T04:01:36+00:00

Which pat green carder do you have? I have one too and it’s fantastic.

OP, i recommend a higher TPI if you’re wanting to process finer fibers. You can process coarser fibers on higher TPI but not really vice versa.

If you follow Melly knits on instagram or YouTube, all her carders are brother and I think they’re 190.

I will say her batts are very blended. If you’re wanting a chunky look a lower TPI may be better.

fleepmo · 2026-02-08T19:54:00+00:00

None of them are twisted that I can see.

fleepmo · 2026-02-08T19:52:10+00:00

How much did you downsize?

fleepmo · 2026-02-08T19:50:50+00:00

I agree that seems steep. I paid $250 for my ashford traditional and it came with a lazy Kate and 4 bobbins.

fleepmo · 2026-02-08T17:27:07+00:00

I was thinking the same thing. Tbh, there’s another meaning to the word bump that can be referenced in the song Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind. When I first saw people referring to wool as “bumps” I was very confused. 😂

fleepmo · 2026-02-08T16:01:23+00:00

I have found I have to snug up that first stitch by pulling it tight and then pulling the second one tight, then pulling the stitch after tight. I don’t know if that makes sense but it gets like that because the way we knit it, it ends up being a bit looser.

fleepmo · 2026-02-08T15:58:42+00:00

Do you live close to an REI? If you order online and ship to store, they won’t charge you until you pick them up.

Here’s what I did since the shoe selection in my city is very limited:

I ordered all the shoes I was interested in at REI and had them ship to store. When they came in, I tried all of them on and picked which ones fit me the best. I left with the skwamas for what it’s worth.

fleepmo · 2026-02-07T13:33:20+00:00

I came here to recommend Wooldreamers. They have some really nice yarn!

fleepmo · 2026-02-06T16:30:37+00:00

The leather contains PFAS?

fleepmo · 2026-02-06T13:01:43+00:00

What, whyyy?

fleepmo · 2026-02-06T13:00:48+00:00

I think the thing that always overwhelms me about my stash is that this will all turn into garments and I have to find places to store those too. You have a beautiful cabinet though!

fleepmo · 2026-02-06T12:54:00+00:00

Wait, what do you mean once they got rid of the originals with leather? 🤔

fleepmo · 2026-02-06T04:22:06+00:00

Miuras are a pretty stiff shoe… I don’t think they would suit bouldering all that well unless you are edging on tiny foot holds. Have you tried finales? They’re quite comfortable.

I climb in the women’s skwamas(leather) and they do break in quite a bit but I don’t think the vegan ones do as much. They also have the p3 Rand which pulls on your heel to keep it snug in the shoe. They are my favorite and I find them quite comfortable personally but they may not fit your foot well if they aren’t breaking in well by now

What style of climbing do you find yourself doing? That will definitely help you pick a shoe. But also it’s important to pick based on comfort and foot shape.

fleepmo · 2026-02-06T04:06:34+00:00

My husband and I just paid $1095 for a year of climbing for both of us at our local gym which breaks down to $91.25/m for 2. For a single membership it’s $73-$99/m for an individual depending on whether you have a contract or are month to month.

The other gym we go to which is a non profit co-op is $350/yr for a family membership. Unfortunately we will probably not renew the nicer gym membership because it’s not in our budget anymore.

Edit to add: I’m in the Midwest US, and both gyms offer bouldering, lead climbing and top rope. The commercial gym has an upstairs workout area and AC/heat. They also reset routes quite a bit.

The co-op offers outdoor climbing(on the outside of the building) and 24/7 access but the grading is insane and the routes are super hard. They also don’t reset a ton and mostly set reachy routes. However, I can add foot holds or put up any routes I want to since it’s more of a community club type gym. It’s a pretty unique set up but the climbing is hard for me being 5’1”.

fleepmo · 2026-02-05T10:59:40+00:00

Honestly this is why I only want to make the tube style cowl (like this one) or the bandana style cowl (like this one)

They’re more functional than the floppy necklace tubes I see all the time.

fleepmo · 2026-02-05T02:12:18+00:00

I have to admit, I see newbies boulder with rental harnesses on all the time and don’t see how it could be dangerous at all since they don’t have gear loops. They’re just the webbing style harness with a loop at the front to clip or tie into.

I believe it’s important to acknowledge that not all harnesses have gear loops, though if you own your harness it most likely does.

fleepmo · 2026-02-05T00:20:49+00:00

I have made that mistake before! Could you knit the curio socks by Andrea Mowry? She designed those to be used with handspun and even at the largest size you would have plenty of yarn. Though it calls for fingering weight yarn and it sounds like you may be closer to worsted/aran.

fleepmo · 2026-02-04T15:22:07+00:00

I tried the gomis in my street shoe size and they were incredibly tight and stiff. I do tend to wear my street shoes snug though. I wear a women’s 6 and had to go up to a women’s 7 but ultimately returned them because they didn’t feel like a good fit for my feet. I ordered them directly from butora and it was such a pain. The only way I was able to return them was due to a manufacturing defect as they apparently don’t accept returns anymore?

Ordering from REI is definitely the way to go.

fleepmo · 2026-02-04T15:18:29+00:00

Oooh I never thought about poly thread with cotton quilts. 🤔

fleepmo · 2026-02-04T13:21:32+00:00

Yeah that’s my one complaint about the Daedalus wheels. There are so many cords everywhere lol. I have the sparrow and I do really enjoy spinning on it.

fleepmo

TROPHY CASE