So! I finished the knitting portion of Silvie today, and the seaming, and fudged the drawstring (because i just couldn't figure out what the heck the directions were trying to tell me to do with it), and have begun the felting process.

I don't have any pictures of the post-felting yet (the bag and strap are drying in the bathroom, and i may try felting them both more later), but i do have a pre-felting, post-knitting photo to share!


Bastet is of course, a brat. She insisted on lying on the bag the second i got everything laid out and the camera ready. And refused to move. But ,she does add some scale to the picture (considering she's shaped somewhat like a basketball).

The tape measure next to her runs from the top to the bottom of the bag, which is 18 inches. The bag itself in this state is very stretchy everywhere that isn't color work, and mildly stretchy everywhere that is color work. The strap is entirely seed/moss stitch, and is three feet long.

Things i learned while felting so far: I should have washed the yarn previously. Unfortunately, the evergreen bleeds, and of course, the cloud soaked up some of the excess dye--and now has a blue-green tinge. It's not bad, but it is not the off-white i originally had. However, the Knit Picks yarn does felt wonderfully, and gets fuzzy in the process.


I personally don't think it has shrunk too much (i haven't measured it yet to see for sure), but my boyfriend, Crazy Ivan, does think it has shrunk. Even so, i may run it through the process again later. It is a bit painstaking though; i don't have a washer or dryer of my own, and it costs $1.50 to run each individually if i use the washers and dryers the apartment complex has--and i have no control over the process if i do that.

So, i have to felt by hand. I used a five-gallon bucket, lots of hot water, some castille soap (Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap), and a brand new, clean plunger that has not (and will not) be used for anything else. I started by filling the bucket partly with water, squirting a bit of the soap in, and tossing the knitting in--and then plunging. A lot. Then scooping out the knitting and kneading and rubbing it by hand to push the felting process a bit further. then plunger again.

I also was using the "shock method" which involves swapping from hot to cold water; did that several times, and it helped encourage the yarn to felt. Once I'm satisfied with everything, I'll attach the strap to the bag.

bleh

I'm tired, and not feeling too wonderfully great from working all day in the heat. I probably didn't drink enough water, as is typical for me. And being outside all day, in a physically demanding job, well...it's not such a great idea to not drink enough water. I know this, but I've also always been pretty bad about keeping myself hydrated.

It also has been a somewhat rough, stressful week which just adds to my exhaustion. They changed the routes, added onto mine, but refuse to acknowledge that the changes they made means they've sucked up any downtime i may have had. So i keep arguing the point, they keep pushing ,and i keep pushing back. Meanwhile I'm waiting for my involuntary transfer to occur; we're overstaffed currently, and even though i have an assignment currently, it isn't permanent, and i am movable. Because it is being forced though, if something opens back up for me here in the next two years after i get pushed out, i can come back if i want to.

With all the stress and craziness, I'm sure some people would wonder, "why would she want to go back"--well, fact is, i know what I'm doing here, it is conveniently close to where i live, and i really don't want to have to start over somewhere new. Even though I'd be doing the same job, it would be in a completely different area, and one i am likely to be unfamiliar with, as well as it being a much further commute for me daily. And for all the stupid stuff that happens here on a daily basis, i know what i am doing and where i am going from day to day, week to week.

But, it is the weekend, and a holiday weekend at that! And thanks to a change in scheduling, next week will be an exceptionally short one for me; i have tomorrow and Monday off, work Tuesday through Thursday, and then have off Friday through Sunday. Of course, next week will be another long one, working Monday through Saturday, but it's worth the price for the relaxation time.

Enough about work.

Knitting: still working on Silvie; yes i know, I'm slow. The two sides are done, however, and the strap is past the halfway point. So far, I've used almost five of the balls of evergreen Wool of the Andes i bought, and only one of the cloud. I do still need to seam the bag halves together, and make the drawstring, but i am getting closer to those steps. Sorry, no pictures right now--I'm feeling lazy, and not particularly willing to dig out the camera, wherever it is.

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Once i have Silvie finished, i have two (or five) other projects i want to start; there's the little Sheldon ® turtle for our friends' little boy-beast-child; they've moved out to Texas, so we sadly will not be seeing them often anymore. There's the Vernal Equinox Surprise ® shawl i want to make, and bought seven balls of Kroy sock yarn ("Winter Eclipse") to use making it (the swatch came out looking good), and there is also the Veil of Isis ® , which i bought more knitpicks yarn (shimmer hand dyed lace in "spice") to use when making it.

Yeah, that's only three projects there. I do have more in my mental queue, from a pair of fingerless mitts using stranded knitting to create a winter forest at night scene, a little knitted sheep with removable fleece, and the Reverie beret because although i made it once already, i learned that trying to finish a project (and weave in ends) while under the influence of NyQuil is a very bad idea. I was in the process of soaking the hat for blocking, when it began unraveling in my hands. And i was too out of it to be able to salvage it. So, i frogged it right then and there, and hung the yarn out to dry.