Felting

The felting craze is over a year old now. I have steadfastly resisted that slippery slope. After all, why would you want to shrink something that you've spent so much time knitting? Don't you want the even stitches, the exquisite needlework to speak for itself as to your skill? Huh? Don't you?

All right. Let me try a different approach. I am a knitting purist. The act of knitting is what turns my crank. The even row after row of stitches. The intricacies of a perfectly turned cable. The exquisite look of perfectly executed lace.

Still not buying it, are you? A tough audience.

So after a year of gentle sneering at the concept of felting, I've been forced to enter the fray. You see, I have a knitting class starting tonight. The project is a felted bag. I needed a sample. I needed a "before felting" sample. Because the samples previously used have moved away. After much deliberation, I selected six colours to make two bags. I cast on and knit. I finished the knitting and I assembled. And ... (deep breath here) ... I felted.

Doug laughed himself silly. You see, he has been privy to the musings over the past year of the attraction of felting. And knows that I just Dont. Felt.

Until Thursday, October 12.

The bag in the lower left corner is made with Paton's Bottle Green, Paprika and Sage. And felted. Twice through the washing machine. The bag on the right is the pre-felting sample. It is Paton's Navy, New Denim and Bottle Green. The upper left? Well ... here's where it gets really interesting. You see, I only NEED two bags. One pre-felting and one post-felting. That's it. That's all the felting I need to complete.

The upper left? You just won't let me forget, will you? That's destined to be a Christmas present for Brandi. It's also Paton's ... Royal Purple and the novelty yarn is On-Line Punta. Sigh. What's worse is that now I'm wandering around the house looking at mixing bowls, place mats, and coasters and wondering what colours I'd use to replicate them in felting.

If anyone is interested in having the pattern for the bags, e-mail me and I'll send it on.

On another side note -- does anyone know what has happened with the Ontario Knitter's Ring? I see twelve members, several of which are no longer active. 31 members waiting approval, and that number has been growing for a couple months. Do we still have a ring master?