The felting experiment went…erm..swimingly :)  See I decided to circumvent the standing at the sink thing which would have meant uncomfortable things for my back and legs.  So, on Sunday, I took the bag into the bathtub with me!

Initially I was a little alarmed at the extent to which the thing grew once it had gotten well and thoroughly soaked and all the little ridges where the entrelac blocks connected with each other had relaxed.  Fortunately I had read about this at least once and so wasn’t entirely unprepared for it.  So I sloshed and rubbed, pushed and pulled and generally abused the shazbott out of it and when my arms got tired, I threw it to the end of the tub and mashed it against the side with my feet.

This was one hairy yarn and man did it shed!  I pulled enough fiber out of the water to make wigs for the gerbils.  Hmmm…  Nah - finding little wig caps that would work gracefully around their little ears would be well nigh impossible…  Fortunately I was able to keep most of it from going down the drain although Myria did remark on the sizeable hunk of stuff in the wastebasket :)

The finished dimensions are 11” x 11” so it shrank a little more over the height than along the width.  I could probably (almost certainly) have gotten it to condense a little more than that but the fabric seemed very solid, most of the stitch definition had disappeared and the size was more than acceptable.  So I left it at that…

Besides, my arms were tired :)

I was enchanted by what happened with the seams.  They’re still there and fairly obvious, but the edges kind of melted together, inside…

...and out.

The front flap is a bit askew asymmetrical but I’m going to consider it panache and not worry about it.

The only thing remaining is the strap and decorative cord.  I have begun to suspect that I’m not going to have enough yarn left to make the strap out of I-cord - especially if I felt it, and I can’t see not felting it if I was going to go this way because it would be so much stronger and less elastic.  But not enough yarn would be a bummer and I am not investing another penny in this particular fiber.  So there’s purchased cord which is a real possibility, or I could forgo the decorative elements (entrelac is decorative enough on its own) and just concentrate on straps.  Or I could purchase leather straps, I suppose…

Still mulling that one over.

Oh yeah…

I found this yesterday in the supermarket.  It’s a robin (ahem…) and it even sings if you squeeze it gently :)  I know, I know - what can I tell you?  I was definitely in the mood to be amused yesterday and this guy did the trick.  I believe I’m going to permanently attach him to the bag via whatever I decide to do about the straps.

In the end, I guess I have to admit that the Patons SWS does felt extremely easily and well and if this is your end goal, perhaps the price, the rough feel and the extremely knotty balls are worth dealing with.  Me, I’m just grateful I lucked into something productive I could do with the stuff.  While the felting process was interesting - even fun - it’s not something I’m ever going to have any real affinity for.  My immediate reaction to the thought of intentionally shrinking my knitting is - Over my cold, dead needles! - and only my sincere and profound dislike of this yarn kept me from being too disconcerted about it.

I have picked up the circular shawl again to work on a bit at a time and the cowl needs only another couple of repeats to be good to go.  More on those things next time!