Yesterday I stuffed the basket with plastic bags, tied it closed, popped it in a lingerie bag and threw it in the front loader with the towels. Ten minutes later I went back and pressed ‘stop’ on the machine.

That’s when I remembered that, while I can stop the machine mid-cycle, I can’t open it. So I set it going again and left the basket to the mercy of the felting gods.

And the felting gods decreed it a good yarn/shape/wash duration/planetary alignment/day to felt:

After searching the house for something suitably ball shaped and sized to put inside while it dried, the obvious answer hit me like a territorial magpie: a ball of wool, wrapped in plastic. It worked perfectly.

As the beau said, now that I have a cute little felted basket… what the heck do I do with it?

My Wild Things socks weren’t being anywhere near as co-operative yesterday. When Wendy of Wendy Knits knit up a pair in this yarn she had no flashing or striping problems. As you can see, I did. But then, I have stupidly narrow feet which must match up amazingly well with Lisa Souza’s dyeing pattern. I’d heard of a method to prevent this so I frogged and started again:

Method:
Divide the yarn into two balls, one ball wound in reverse to the other. Knit alternate rows from each ball.

Problem solved!