Happy 2007 to everyone! Hope you all had fun ringing in the New Year in your own way. I spent a quiet evening at home with hubby and the minions on New Year's Eve, which was fine with me!
Had fun working on a few little fun projects between Christmas and New Year. I loved the felted mini-baskets I made a couple of months ago so much, I'm making more in larger sizes to see if they come out as well as the tiny ones. Made this one in "manly" colors for my hubby, which I think came out pretty. He put it on his desk at work with candy in it. I again used the Paton's SWS soy/wool blend, which felts up beautifully and very solid.
For size comparison, this basket is the equivalent of one size larger than the original, business-card-sized basket. In fact, the original mini-basket nests into this slightly larger one perfectly. I'm going to increase the size again on the next one, to see if the walls of the basket hold up in a larger size with the way it is constructed.
I also knitted these hot pads, which are from a free pattern on
Knitpicks called "Hot out of the Oven." I used the yarn suggested in the pattern, which is Wool of the Andes Bulky. I also used the color shown in the pattern, called "spumoni." (It really does look like spumoni ice cream...).
These were very quick to knit, but I'm not real pleased with the way this yarn felted up. If you look closely at the square hot pad, you can see the lines where there were decreases on either side. I felted these for about 1-1/2 hours, and this was the tightest it was going to get. It is actually more noticeable in the photos than it looks in person, so no big deal---they are only hot pads, after all! I do think they are cute and funky, though, so I will probably make another set and see if they turn out differently.
I also worked on a moebius bowl that has been lurking as a UFO in my knitting basket since last April. I have finished all but cutting and applying the fringe, and then it will be felted as well. It is knit from some beautiful Fleece Artist yarn in a bright turquoise-blue/green blend, which I'm hoping will retain some of it's vibrant color when felted. Don't have a picture of the basket yet, because right now it looks kind of like a really large, floppy hat with twisted brim---not a very good subject for picture-taking in it's current state!
>^..^< >^..^<
|