Felting & Fixing

I was thinking about felting yesterday. Since felting essentially creates a fabric out of the wool,why would you need to reknit something? Couldn't you just shrink the sweater you were planning to unravel first and then cut and shape it into whatever you wanted to make?

To answer a question like this you need to go to a place where the frugal fold gather. I started by checking Dollar Stretcher but had no luck. Next stop, Thrifty Fun where I hit the jackpot. Check out the Cheater's Felted Purse if you're a non knitter and still want to give felting a try.

Here are instructions for felting using a washing machine, which is the prefered method. Here are hand washing instructions for felting.

My project is ready to be washed but I'm having a hard time finding the time to do it. (I feel guilt about running the washer and I don't have time to hand felt.) There's a good chance it may sit until next week sometime. I didn't really look at what I was knitting as a whole before finishing it off and I've just noticed it looks like my purse will be very wide and very skinny. Maybe I subconciously made a knitting needle carrying case instead! I'll see what happens when I actually felt it.

I feel this urge to create things right now. I'm just enjoying seeing projects begin, come along and finally come together. Sometimes short term projects, like last nights backpack zipper repair, are really gratifying.

Kyle has a double zipper on the top of his backpack. Both of the ends of the zipper had begun to unravel and one zipper pull actually fell off yesterday. Getting the zipper pull back on and the teeth of the zipper lined up again proved the most time consuming and frustrating portion of the process. Once it was reattached, I sewed across the zipper so the pull couldn't go that far down again. Then, I proceded to sew in all the frayed edges. After half an hour, we had a functional backpack, a happy child and a victorious mother.

When I embark on a repair project my mantra goes something like this:
I can do this!
I mean I should be able to do this.
There's got to be a way to do this!
Isn't there some way to do this?
If _____ can do this, then I can do this!
Oh, this is how you do this!
Next time, I'll be much quicker at this!