no beauty contest

This is just about the ugliest thing I've ever made. But I'm not disappointed. Nope. Why? Because this ain't no beauty contest, baby. This was an Experiment in Felting Homespun Yarn.

The pattern was Julie Anderson's wonderful Sophie, modified by putting a 32-row two-colored block of pattern in the center. Not a good modification! Ha! The yarn is all various lots of my homespun, thick and thin, dyed here at home on my stove using Gaywool dye.

I've learned a lot from this project:

1. Different wool felts differently - The Finn wool used in a small stripe towards the bottom of the bag really shrunk during felting, while the old wool used elsewhere didn't shrink up much. This caused some real wonkiness in the bottom of the bag.
2. A good vinegar soak *does* help keep the color from running. Thank goodness I soaked this hummer in vinegar water. Otherwise the raspberry color might have bled into the white, making the already busy Maze pattern that much more unappealing.
3. Sandy was right - working with two colors is pretty easy. I've been avoiding colorwork, thinking that keeping everything untangled would be a real pain in the ass. The Maze pattern was a piece of cake. I don't like the looks of it, but it's not like it was really difficult, and THEN I didn't like it, you know?

So there you have it. A lot of spinning, dyeing, knitting and felting. Even though I don't like the finished product much I feel pretty good about it. If you can come out of a project having learned something, it's a good thing, right? Right!

Hey! Enjoy your Friday! Try something new today--something you can learn from. Even if the results aren't what you planned, you just might get some satisfaction from the process.

Side note follow-up: Thanks for your comments yesterday about the evidentiary hearing. Things went well at court. Turns out that Michael wasn't the only kid who received a subpeona, and that made us feel better. The gang kid pled guilty to a lesser charge--so instead of having a charge of battery on his record he now has one of disturbing the peace. Community service and probation for him. I watched his mom---she looked sad and worried. Guess we have something in common.