The Hot Seat

I have finally finished my felted seat pad that is the gigantico version of the hot pad that I made recently following a pattern in the "Alterknits Felt" book.  Once again, I forgot to take a "before" picture....grrr.  This looked like a large sheet of colorful bubblewrap before it was felted.  All of the circles were originally domes.

For the record, this piece started out 16.5" wide by 19" tall.  After the first wash it was 14.25" x 14.5", and after a second wash it ended up 13"x13".  It is pure luck that the stripe pattern that I wanted to do worked out to be a perfect square.  Knitting shrinks more vertically than horizontally when you felt it, as proven to me by this piece!  And I guess you can see why I will call this "the hot seat".  I was lucky that my yarn stash included all of the fire colors that blended together so well.

I am finding that my knitting-while-riding-my-bike (on the trainer, not down the street, in case you missed that earlier blog entry!) exercise plan is working out quite well.  I'm getting more knitting done.  And even though the darn Wii said I gained weight yesterday and today, at least I know that I'm exercising!