Felting Part II and Boys vs. Girls

Crafts:
The bowls have been felted and shaved and I’m feeling better about them. Shaving makes a world of difference. I would have to say good grooming matters as much in crafts as it does in person.

I have a bunch of things to felt tonight. I crocheted a bag for my work Santa gift and I have another bowl and a bunch of small baskets. I am going to use the baskets and a couple bowls for the book club ladies. I can fill them with nice little treats and be good to go. I did have a lot of fun making them. I even had fun shaving them. But I sure don’t think they will come in all that useful.

Tonight I’ll post the picture of the felted bowls, and take and post pictures of all the stuff waiting to be felted. Then I’ll work on felting a ton of stuff. I do find that it takes a while to felt Lopi. Last time I put it through 3 wash cycle and added boiling water to the last 2 cycles. But it could be that adding a cup or two of boiling water has very little impact. Tonight I’ll try adding a kettleful. I also read about someone using tennis balls to help with the process. I think I will try that too. The boys will never know I took their balls.

Next on my knit list is the Mason-Dixon felted boxes. And of course I should get back to the blanket and my sweater I put on hold when I hit the felting craze. Every knit crazy girl needs to have at least three projects going at once. Right?

One of my most loved bloggers recently posted about the line she straddles with her almost grown daughters-finding the right balance between the girls loved, protected daughters and being loved young women allowed to find their own way. Much of her post was about communication and how communication has changed over the years. She writes about how some of the communication is hurtful because she is struggling to allow her daughters to grow up and they are struggling to grow up. Her post made me ache. In my heart I don’t see the boys maintaining (or for that matter ever having) the same level of communication with me that a daughter would. I am happy that when they really need my support they come to me and tell me what is bothering them, but they don’t talk that much about their feelings, or what is going on at school. They are boys. I love them. They give me joy. But I am afraid that has they grow up and move on. I think I would have a bigger part of their day to day lives if they were girls. But all in all you get what you get and I sure love what I have.