Ever Just Keep Knitting When You Know You Should Stop?

Here's a tip: If the stitches are so tight it hurts your hands to knit them, they're probably not going to felt much.

See, I know that. I even had that thought as I knitted: "Oh wow. These stitches are really tight. Maybe I should frog this and go with a different gauge? Maybe I should use one strand of wool instead of two?" And yet...

My plan was to make a hat. A nice black hat that I could put my bobcat pin on. Oh, I'd look so sassy, struttin' around in my black bobcat hat! So I just ignored that inner voice that told me to start over. Especially after I'd knitted a couple of inches. And when I finished, it looked pretty much the way you'd expect a felted hat to look, pre-felted.

Then I tried to felt it. And tried. And tried.



Okay. It did felt. It actually felted a lot. Just not enough. Here it is, back on the lovely Notpatwoman's head. As you can see... Not so sassy.




But Katie had a great idea. Just turn it upside down and put handles on it and viola! Purse. So these are some nice Purse-n-alize-it! handles from Joann. And I still got to use my sassy bobcat.



Close up of the bobcat. Grr. Get away from my purse!