The madness continues

So I felted more of those little spheres I've been knitting tonight, or tried to at least. My setup this evening consisted of two buckets in the bathtub - one hot, one cold - a plunger and rubber gloves. I alternated agitating the knitted spheres with the plunger in the hot and cold water hoping to shock them into submission. I didn't want to dump the wooly water down the tub drain and end up with a clogged tub, so I poured the buckets out into the toilet. I don't know if you've ever poured water into a toilet before, but it basically force flushes the toilet without the bowl refill; it's designed to work that way. What was left was a near empty toilet bowl with some grayish water. I didn't get to do a final flush to clear it out before my wife got home. All of this led to the quote of the night by my wife: "Did you plunge your balls in the toilet?"

Thank you, I'll be here all week, try the veal. Goodnight.

Here Comes The Sun

A brilliant, angry, yellow sunrise, originally uploaded by Camping Jason.

And so it begins. This was a test, to see how big my balls are. Turns out my balls will be bigger than Alice's. (Ok, I'll stop now.)

I followed the Oh Balls! pattern as written and ended up with a 2" diameter ball after felting. I used some crappy, fuzzy, acrylic yarn for stuffing and I don't think I used enough. I was wary of the ball shrinking too much, but I probably only lost about 1/2" in size. Next time, I'll have to stuff the balls so they're nice and firm. (Sorry!)

I felted it by hand in the tub, and switching from hot to cold water seemed to produce the fastest results. Everyone knows balls shrink in cold water. (Alright already!) I popped it in the dryer for 20 minutes to suck some more moisture out. It wasn't completely dry, but I didn't want to run a full cycle for just one ball. It did make a rather pleasing sound, tumbling through the dryer, I can only imagine how 50 would sound.

Why do I get the feeling I'm going to have lots of little felted balls all around my house... it'll be like some sick kind of Easter egg hunt.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who commented on my changes post. It's good to know who's reading and that you're so supportive.