Almost Summer!

Okay, for almost everyone, it is officially summer. I've decided that summer will begin for me once this temp job is over and I'm back to serving (watiressing, and possibly bartending?!) full time. It's nice to have goals.

My summer plans include lots of laying by the pool, lots of knitting, and adventures in techniques heretofore unexplored. To begin this project, I've just felted/fulled my first project.

My washer is the epitome of what not to use for fulling. (I'm going to use the correct term even though I don't really understand the difference.) It's a front-loader, it's a stacked washer/dryer unit (read: really tiny) and it's temperatures settings are: Warm/Warm, Cold/Cold, Warm/Cold, and Hot/Cold. I tried Hot/Cold for about half an hour and only got cold, then switched to Warm/Warm and only got cold. After about 2 hours of starting, stopping mid-cycle, and restarting the cycle, all the while crouched in front of the washer alternating between reading Harry Potter and staring transfixedly through the washer door,  I realized that while my fabric was indeed starting to get the texture I wanted, the bag was NOT shrinking even a little. It was time to take more drastic measures.

Thankfully, I had found this article on felting/fulling on Knitty. It mentions pouring boiling water into your washer. Granted, it advises against it because your washer should produce hot enough water, but clearly my washer was not. So I started another cycle, put some water on to boil, then stopped it midspin, inserted the entire pot of boiling water into the washer's drum and quickly restarted the cycle before all my hot water escaped. I did that a couple of times, got the door lock stuck, and hoped against hope that while I was trying to convince the door to open again that the bag wouldn't shrink too much.

Success! It looked more or less like what I wanted. While it dripped profusely over my (thankfully, laminate) floor, I ran to get my blocking materials. I rolled it up in a towel, then proceeded to stretch and stab until I figured it was more or less what it should look like. Add a couple of Harry Potter books and Atlas Shrugged to give it shape and make pretty corners, and find some almost out of the way place to let it dry for the next couple of days, and I'd finished my first fulling project! Go me!

Alas, it does kind of smell funny. I think that's because of my washer. Every time I walk by, I spray it with Febreeze.

I was going to take pictures this morning before work, but I forgot in my hurry to get out the door. I'll get some soon!