all’s well that ends well

Friday, December 17, 2004

There were many possible contenders as title for this post. for example all of the following crossed my mind:

“Perhaps I was a little too enthusiastic”
“Perhaps I should felt a swatch next time”
“oh my god it SHRANK!!!!!”

But they all convey a certain sense of distress or panic that I am not actually feeling. This was not what I was expecting, in more ways than one. This is not what I expected the end result to be and I most certainly would not have expected to be so happy about it, should I have had even the faintest inkling of what was to come. Life, it seems, is full of little surprises. In short I finished and felted the French Market Bag and it is now blocking.

And I could leave this post at that. But the thing is that I think everyone really needs to get a bit of perspective here. First of all the felted bag is pretty much 9 inches cubed, if you need to then get out your measuring tape. Have you got a good sense of how big it is now? If so, then you are ready to see this:

….and this….

When wool shrinks that much it makes really STRONG fabric. It’s now half the size it started off and about 3/4 of the size I expected it to be, but my fears of it not being strong enough to support a load of goodies appropriate to it’s size have been well and truly alleviated.

3 Comments

Comment by Cara on 17/12/2004 @ 10:10 pm

Jo - it looks great! So nice. And I love the Isabelle pictures. I’m glad you feel better about the weight issue. It is a strong bag - so amazing what fiber can do. I was thinking about you last night - I got home from my sister and my Swallow Caseins were waiting for me - made in Australia - so I thought of you - my favorite Aussie knitter!

Comment by alison on 17/12/2004 @ 11:21 pm

Great pictures! I wouldn’t have thought that felted fabric could be so strong either. I guess the critical part is the straps. And they look nice and wide, especially at the joins (unlike our dear Sophie). Hooray for felting miracles!

Comment by Emy on 21/12/2004 @ 1:25 pm

Trust the little one to be so imaginative to play hide and seek in the bag. Perhaps that’s her other way of asking mommy to carry her? LOL

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