Friday, February 16, 2007

Felt me baby, one more time

Truly, to be sure, knitting is what I do to relieve stress, not cause it.

Remember when I talked about the UFO bag that I found in the yarn closet from last summer, well, it had always been my intention to felt it. I finished knitting it on Wednesday, and left the end sewing in until last night. So, in an uncharacteristic display of knitterly attentiveness, I actually wove the ends in last night and thought to myself, "Smart, fun, attractive lady, why don't you felt this bag tonight with some of your jeans you have to wash anyway??"

And so my adventure began.

I learned several things during last night's felting adventure. In random order, here they are:

1. Felting makes me nervous. I actually sat in the laundry room of my apartment building in a fold up chair so that I could be there to listen in case something made a weird sound or the washing machine caught on fire. The big lump in my belly, not a nice feeling!

2. If my neighbors had come into the building and seen me sitting in the laundry room, knitting a sock and watching and listening to the washing machine, I would have been very, very embarrassed. Thank mohair that didn't happen.

3. The yarn I wasn't sure if it would felt, didn't felt. I tried felting a strand of it, and it seemed like it would work, and if I had left the whole thing in longer, it may have, but I am impatient.

4. The other yarn did felt, quite nicely by the way.

5. You CAN put knitting in the dryer!!! (Don't try this at home kids, always get parental supervision)

6. My dryer only needs half an hour to dry three pairs of jeans an one hand knit bag; the other half an hour is just enough time to get all the fuzz/lint off a load of freshly washed laundry and get most of the wrinkles out so I can hang the clothes to dry completely. This will save me mucho dinero seeing as it costs me $1.45 for one load in the washer, and $1.45 for one load in the dryer. More money to put in the yarn jar!!!

7. Since the wheat colored yarn didn't felt so much, the strap is waaaaaayyyy too long, however, there are presently some options I am considering. Among them are:

A. Not care (not a good option)
B. Tie a knot in the strap to shorten it up
C. Grow so the strap doesn't seem so long (I like this one!!!)
D. Give the bag away to someone taller (snicker, laugh, choke! um, no...)
E. Do something I never do which is go back and fix a knitting mistake because not
fixing it will make me sad and not love the bag as much. I just need to take about
six inches off the strap and sew it back together. Totally within my knitterly skill
set to do.

And so, later on this evening, I will embark on my first project rescue mission, because people, I am in love with this bag. I am in love with felting and the possibilities it opens up and the way it beats the yarn into submission and makes something so very different from what you started out with. Washing machine as a cocoon for metamorphosis, kind of makes you wonder what else is possible in the world, huh, if your washing machine and a little soap can create so much change?

Peace out peeps, it's the first day in a while I don't need to shovel off the car, so I'm taking an extra long hot shower this morning. See you on the kniternet!

PS - Still having camera issues, hence the lack - o - pics, but I am working on it, promise. I have not forgotten to show you the Mod Podge goodness : )

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You forget that not all of us who read this knit and therefore we do not know what felting is. You also forget that people can't read your mind so if people saw you in your laundry room they would assume that you were doing laundry and not being a crazy yarn lady. Miss you much.