the wonders of a weekend of felting exercise

I spend the weekend with a lot of different things, but one of them was becoming an expert in felting. I figuered I should start with small objects so I knitted a few bracelets an a necklace of tapestry wool. The first bracelet came out very nicely, it felted just right and it kept its colour at 40 degrees (Celsius). I was worried about the colour because of what happened with the moebius basket. The next bracelet however, with beads on it, did not felt enough at all, so it still looked like a large piece of limp string instead of a nice sturdy bracelet. So off it went once more in the washing machine but little did it help.

Now WHY is this? it is the same type of wool as the first one! The only difference is the colour! Why won't blue felt, when red does? I do not suppose that the proximity of glass beads would keep wool from felting.

The necklace is a different story again. I decided to knit in 'bubbles' by widening the icord and inserting small wound amounts of yarn in the widenings, so they would appear as beads. Good idea don't you think? The only thing is, that I thought it would be best not to put wool but acrylic in the bubbles - since the acrylic would not shrink, but the knitted fabric around it would, it would become a nice taught bubble. Which it did, only it did not felt nicely around the bubbles. The knitted stitching is very clear, whereas the rest of the neclace looks like felt. So next time I'll try putting in wool, see whether it will become better.

Pictures will be shown later, and I am working on writing up directions for these felted jewelry pieces as they are my own idea. Just have to figure a few things out yet!