here is a curiosity-born precursor to the "big" project i have in mind for that copper-patina handspun of mine. this is a felted bowl, made with my somewhat labile (and unfelted) singles. i threw it right in the washing machine and even let it go through the spin cycle. the white that rose up out of the felting process was not so apparent to me when i swatched and felted previously. but i'm okay with it.
i had been wanting to make bowls and open vessels for some time, and had been asking around, but no one had heard of any specific "patterns" for such. then i stumbled across a post on another knitting blog that addressed felted bowls as discussed in a recent issue of "spin-off". i didn't buy the magazine, but i loved the bowls i saw in this particular post, and took away from it an idea that i surely could have used during the disappointing days of making shuler and zooey's felted cat "basket": a square bottom is better than a round bottom when you want something to have sides that stand up.
utilizing this knowledge, i knit a square, random in size. then i picked up stitches around its four sides, without even bothering to count, and worked in the round. near the top edge i decreased on K rows: once every five stitches (then purled a row), then once every ten stitches (then purled a row), then did a double decrease the whole way around and bound it off.
there is no question, that straight upon pulling it out of the washer, i did have something that would have easily doubled as a hat. and this knowledge, too, i believe i will utilize. this just isn't my color.
as it stood, i turned down the edge to give it a tighter lip and sewed on some "button pie" buttons that look like triangles of sea glass. i used colored embroidery floss to sew these on. i think it looks lovely, and i think it will be a gift come holiday time -- i have a few individuals in mind, it's just a matter of choosing. it is a shallow bowl, but perfect for holding: bananas, lemons, pinecones, soaps, mail, stamps, postcards, candy, dog biscuits, buttons, cat toys, etc....
i got a lot of learning out of this one little off the cuff project!