Maiden Voyages

Good afternoon!  It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, literally...I've been walking around the Loop for the last hour until I saw a decapitated "Walk" guy, which made me need tea.

This morning, I finished knitting Axl's cat bed.  Now, I just have to entertain my maiden voyage of felting.  I mean, I have felted pieces before, but nothing this big and...nothing on purpose.  So that said, I did some reading up on the subject, and conveniently I have a copy of Tamara Mello's book, Heart Felt Knits, which gives explicit instructions on how to do it.  So here is the finished knitted piece:

And before we go further:  yes, yes that is my pair of Grover-colored slippers on the right and no, no Muppets were harmed in the making of the slippers.

So anyway, it's about the size of your average Welcome Mat at the moment, and I only need it slightly larger than an iPad box.  Huh?

See, this box didn't make the move from Texas to Illinois, and Axl currently sleeps in the recycling box.  So he needs his own bed.  And it needs to be iPad-sized.

Anyway, while reading about the process of felting, I saw that a lot of people use an old pair of jeans to agitate the wool so it felts more beautifully.  I was heading downtown today on an impromptu field trip in my old jeans, so I did what any normal person would do - I purchased two new pairs of jeans to replace the soon-to-be-wool-and-mohair-covered ones I'm wearing.  They are nine years old, so it's only if we break up amicably and they do me one last favor before heading to the Salvation Army box.

After the Blackhawks game, if I am too wired I'm going to go ahead and fire up the washing machine...the results will be posted here ASAP.  For now, though, it's off to enjoy the gorgeous weather.