FO 17: iPod cozy

Actually, it's two, two, two knitting projects in one.

As a FO, it's an iPod cozy. After visiting the Apple Store yesterday and being told by a genius at the Genius Bar that probably none of the cases on the market would fit my iPod (really?!). Hey who am I to doubt a certified genius? So I had to whip out the needles and create something.

But, the iPod cozy doubles as a swatch for the White Buffalo Unspun yarn. The Knitter's Review article warned of color bleeding, but as you can see (maybe), that wasn't a problem. It felted into a nice, firm, thick fabric.

A funny thing happened when I unwrapped the unspun and started to unwind it off the block. I found a loose strand and thought, "Doesn't look that bulky to me." As I pulled it around and around the block, it kept getting stuck under other strands. So, I pulled it through, seemingly untangling it, only to find it underneath yarn a little later. I couldn't possibly knit with it if it wouldn't unwind cleanly.

That's when it hit me--or maybe it was when another cut end popped off the side of the marshmallow. Either way, I realized that the yarn that I was taking off the block was only 1 strand of the 6 stranded yarn. Duh! Once I found all 6 strands, the yarn unwound cleanly.

Bulky? You bet. It's easily 2 stitches per inch with size 15 needles. Yowza.

So, my first felting project took me into the wee hours of the morning. Not knowing what to expect, I followed the instructions of my felting books and checked the progress every 2 minutes. Then it was every 5 minutes. After that, I let it go for 10 minutes at a time.

One hour and 3 changes of water later, I had a lovely felted finished object.