Everything craft... and Pod too.: I felt it........ and it felt good.

Ohhhh yes... I felt it, my knitting! I finally reached the culmination to my felting experiment. After being frustrated by a lack of real wool (and very expensive) in this island of mine, I gathered the wool I bought at a Michael's store on a trip to Miami. Yes, I brought in my suitcase skeins of wool. I had to. After I "felt" so stupid when I didn't purchase any wool in Delani (Alaska), this was the closest I was going to get to nice real wool. I thought I'd give fate a chance. So, I started knitting away a nice 8"x 6" piece, nothing fancy, just knits and purls. It was a paradox by itself, I was knitting anxiously but at the same time trying to keep my knitting loose. The only difference was that I was using a smaller needle (just one size) which I thought wouldn't make much of a deal. Nicely knitted, casted off and felting time is here.

Since my washing machine is not connected to hot water, I decided to, again, put my HGTV & DIY knowledge to a test. I remembered watching a show where a girl that was felting using hot soapy water, a heavy duty ziplock bag, a bamboo placemat and lots of brute force. Luckily, I had one of those placemats stored in one of my cupboard (for a nice place setting emergency) which I cut more or less to size and wrapped the piece inside like a tasty burrito. Added the soapy hot water and started the abuse... I mean, agitation. I hit, I rolled, I scrubbed and I felt it...... I felt the pain in my arms and burn in my palms. Took it out of the bag to take a peak with slow results. D@#&n it! It said on the label: GREAT FOR FELTING... not fast felting. So, I sat comfortably on my seat and like Ghandi, started a non violent demonstration. After much violent acts, I started rubbing it. It was strange.. soothingly strange.

Being a child of instant gratification I wanted to see faster results. After all the rubbing, rinsing and pleading with it I wasn't going to wait until it dried. Nooooo. I thought, if heat makes the fibers flare and get all tangled and needs agitation then, why not... Why not put it in the dryer. It's going to shrink anyways. So, with my blessing, I put it inside the pocket of one of my husband's trousers. And in silence I waited for the storm.To my surprise, the piece came out the dryer (and the trousers) soft and felted. OMG! I did it. Like Grissom (CSI) would've done, I inspected the sucker out. It almost blocked the light and was thick and super soft. Now comes the second part of the experiment. What should I do with it?

Something will come up. I was told that I could cut it just like a fabric. So I took the sharpest scissors I had and cut a small edge of it. It still looked as a knitted piece. I continued cutting hoping it wouldn't disintegrate in my hands. I kept it simple. I was going to stitch it nicely and make a pretty small, very small purse.

I secured the edges with blanket stitch and fastened a dorset button for closure. As always, it is never enough, so I tested further more with a little bit of embroidery. Yes, I kick a couple of stitches here and there. I "felt" like they where supposed to be there.