Your smile seems softer than it was

Okay, I'll admit it. I am on long service leave and have been for a month. Not that you would know it from my output. I seem to be doing just a little more of everything (reading, sleeping, socialising, exercising, knitting, felting, mooching around), none of which adds up to anything substantial to report.

But I do have some nice before'n'after photos. Those are always fun.

One small idea that wafted into my head was to do a felted rainbow something. This little grey pouch wasn't carefully planned, as you may be able to tell from its slightly odd dimensions. I didn't want the flap to obscure the rainbow, the stripe sequence needed a certain number of rows, and then I needed more grey at the bottom to balance it. It probably should have been wider to balance the length.

I used these instructions for travelling jogless stripes but I think the execution is flawed. It looks really messy to me. Maybe I wove in the ends too tight.

However, felting hides a multitude of sins. Actually in this case it only almost hides the mess, though it may not be obvious in the photos. Felting is great for hiding messes. I think with the right simple project, felting might be ideal for beginner knitters. I certainly take advantage of the opportunity to be slack with things like weaving in ends (I don't really bother for most projects) and keeping tension even on DPNs. I often use really large ones - 8mm or more - and don't fuss about the loose stitches at needle changes. For any other project I have to keep an eye out for ladders and tend to constantly move the stitches around the needles. And this has resulted in annoying spirals more than once.

That pear has been stuffed but won't have its stalk and final shaping added until it dries.