What is this? A lesson in felting...

What is this?
It's a purse, silly! Actually, this is a purse. I refelted this one after cutting off about 3 inches because it was too wide. It refelted quite well but now it's almost too small. Oh well, you can't always win.
This mess is a purse gone mad. I tried making a purse with 2 very different types of wool. The plain red is briggs and little while the stripped is paton classic merino. Yes, I did know they felted differently but I went ahead and knit them together anyway. Then I proceeded to felt them through 5 agitation cycles without checking the progress. Needless to say the paton's felted up waaaay to much. The briggs and little is just right. And the purse is a freak of nature. Lesson learned.

On a slightly more positive note.. I'm working on some cotton cable booties in Blue Sky Alpacas organic cotton. I love this yarn. The booties are turning out nicely but I've made 2 mistakes... How I am making mistakes on such a simple pattern is beyond me. And no, I haven't been hitting the wine hard. You can't see them but I know they are there. These are for my grandmother, and trust me, she will find the mistakes pretty quick. However, that's what makes them homemade! (or at least that's my story)
I'm also working on a pair of heavy wool socks for my sister in law. It's made from the briggs and little wool and it's their sock pattern. I find it hard to knit with this stuff because of the wool content and the roughness of the yarn but I keep washing my hands and keep cream on while I knit to try and minimize the impact on my allergies. I also have some of this to knit up a bag for my aunt so I'm really trying to make it work for me.