Over the winter break, when I was supposed to work on my dissertation, I instead decided to do something with the yarn I had bought in Ecuador. After making one knit bag and felting it, I discovered among my patterns this beautiful and simple pattern for a crochet bag. The name, Good Vibrations, very attractive and auspicious for the new year, and the idea that I could use little bits of yarn left over from other projects was very attractive as well. I ended up using much more yarn than expected and stayed up many nights crocheting the repetitive pattern because I was so anxious to see the final project. Seeing the stripes develop was very exciting... I love the earthiness of the colors.
Felting went great. I was worried because people posted conflicting things on the web about felting with a front loading machine; mostly that it's impossible. I have to say that all my felted projects were a success. The thing is, felting with a front loading machine is slow. It will take several cycles to see some change in your project. But the good news is, you cannot overfelt. Because things felt so slowly, it's OK that you cannot open the door and check the progress. Just relax, throw a couple of dryer balls in the machine with your project to add some agitation and expect several trips to the laundry room. Be patient and you will be rewarded. I liked felting, this magical transformation of the knitted fabric to something solid and yet so soft, so much, that I made some felted baskets as well.
Somehow I felt like performing alchemy. Insert object in machine and let it be transformed...
If only I could do that with my dissertation.... Alas, writing is a much slower and painful process than felting in a front loading machine...
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