I am a bad blogger. There, I’ve said it. I can’t remember when my last post was but it must have been at the beginning of the summer but I just don’t seem to have the time. Maybe it’s because I am approaching it in the wrong way. Lots of blogs I follow have little snippets of info on a daily or three times weekly basis. I don’t seem to do this but wait for months and then (hopefully not) bore people by writing the equivalent of War and Peace! So I must try harder!
Crocheting has taken over my life (along with work) so every waking free moment is taken up with me sitting on our kitchen sofa, hook in hand, glass of wine in the other (well not during the day, obviously) making a new project. I am however, one of those people who starts something, gets bored half way through and then starts something else. The good thing is I do go back to the unfinished projects so I guess it’s good to have a few on the go at a time.
And this brings me to the subject of today’s tome! I’ve felted a bag. There are two firsts for me here. Number one, I have crocheted (and finished) a bag project. Number two, it looked totally rubbish so I decided to try and salvage the situation by felting it! Luckily the yarn I used was 100% wool, otherwise no dice in the felting department, but I was quite scared as the yarn had cost quite a lot of money and I didn’t want to ruin it.
Taken from a brilliant book I have purchased – Cute & Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench, but me, being me, I decided to change the pattern – Why? I don’t know. Anyway I decided I needed a gusset which I thought I could do with granny squares, which was another pattern in the book that I liked so I kind of just mashed them together. It was fine but a bit large and a bit saggy, and as I wanted it to stand up on its own I thought I could line it and then stiffen it with interfacing. But that seemed too much like hard work so I decided to boil it instead!
Some hours later, after trawling the net on how to felt things in a washing machine, I bit the bullet and just shoved it in (inside a pillowcase), put in an incy bit of hand wash liquid, turned the machine to a 95 degree wash, and prayed. Then I saw that lots of people had put tennis balls, jeans, large objects into their washing machines at the same time to help with the ‘agitating’ but by then it was too late as the door had locked on the machine. So I was in the lap of the Gods!
and my granny squares have meshed into a really nice pattern as well.
The crocheted flowers have really finished it off, so on the whole I am really pleased with the outcome. Anyway, onwards and upwards – more crochet to do (and wine to drink) and more blogging on a smaller scale. See you soon (I hope).