Feltin' Baby

I'm a stubborn only child and thought, foolishly, that I could teach myself to knit just by reading a book. Ha! Baby's funny too!!

I have a handful of books but the one that was most helpful was Stitch 'n Bitch. By far, it was the most clear and entertaining book I'd laid my little hands on. It's also what my LYS's Knitting for Dummies class was based on.

Since my first class with my LYS went so well, I signed up for the Felted Bag class right away. Class was on Wednesday night and I finished the knitting Thursday. I'm a prodigy. ;)

I felted last night and while nervewracking, it went well! I'd done a lot of reading ahead online about what to do and what no to do, so I was well-prepared.

We knitted the Meema's Marsupial Tote from the Stitch 'n Bitch book for those interested.

Before felting:

After two trips in the short cycle:

As you can tell, it shrunk up quite a bit but I think I could have let it go more but I really didn't want it to shrink THAT much.

Up close of the felting:

And because I'm so effin impressed with myself right now, one more:

I'm a teeny bit disappointed I didn't felt more, but I think I sorta like how it turned out. I could always felt it more...we'll see.

Oh and for those of you who know what the hell you're doing, note my huge mistake in the form of a garter stitch band around the middle. Since I'd never worked with circulars before I screwed up. When I got home from class, I started knitting but did so backwards and was three and a half rounds in before I noticed. I made it an even four and then went back to doing it right. Al thinks it looks intentional and I like it. By some miracle of the Knitting Gawds, it's right in the middle of the green. Go fig.

Despite my lack of sewing skills, I'm going to sew a liner into this over the weekend. When Baby sews, she irons that stitch witchery stuff and calls it's a day. I'm pretty sure I can't do that with wool :) I hope to find a cute non-matchy matchy pattern of fabric that's cheap and see what happens. I mean, how hard can it be, right? I so have this.

Oh! And as far as the class goes...our homework was to get up to where we changed colors and then we'd tackle the rest this coming up Wednesday. Whoops. Baby's an overachiever and was OUT OF CONTROL. I couldn't stop myself. Fortunately, the teacher is a doll and the other woman in the class won't be there. I'm hoping I can either start another bag (maybe another pattern) or pick up some new skills. We shall see!!!

I'll post pics of the bag when it's all lined and ready for its close up!