'Mom, you're weird' (and now an egg-shaped bowl)

So what became of that lovely top that my children dyed with the leftover Easter egg dye?  After much consideration (special wool deserves a special project), it has been transformed into a felted bowl, destined to hold our eggs during Easters yet to come:

So how does a pile of dyed wool turn into an egg-shaped bowl with funky edging?  It all started when I asked my ten-year old if I could borrow his football.  Setting aside his  sceptism and concern for a precious possession , he brought it to me, after first making me promise that it would not be Harmed in any way.  ‘It will be fine, just a lot cleaner.’ “You’re weird, mom.”  Okay, what else is new. 

Anyway, after giving said football a good scrubbing, I duct-taped a small plastic bowl to one end to make it more ‘egg’ shaped. I then layered wool over it starting with a neutral color and ending with the wool we dyed.   I didn’t cover the laces, but layered the wool in different directions until it was about an inch thick.  Then I put the wool-covered football in a garbage bag along with generous squirts of dishwashing liquid and several cups of water, and tied the bag shut.  It looked like this:

And then I rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed, occasionally pounded and rolled, and rubbed some more, until I could tell that the wool had tightened up into felt around the football.  I took it out of the bag, shocked it a couple of times with cold then hot water while rubbing more, until it looked like this:

At which point I removed the football and returned it to its rightful owner, who took it to the back yard to dirty-up again (after another ‘Mom, you’re weird).  Next step – rinse out the soap, squeeze out the excess water, and trim the edges smooth (my six-year old promptly turned the trimmings into a headband.  she’s weird too).  At this point, you could let it dry and call it done, but I still had some of that dyed wool left and it wasn’t quite weird enough for my liking.  So, I spun two yarns — one an ordinary two ply, the other with nice big juicy coils:

To create an edging on the bowl, I first used a large tapestry needle to make a row of holes around the top.  Using the plain yarn and a small latch hook, I put in a  row of single crochet.  Switching to the coiled yarn, I went around twice with loops of chain stitch, letting the coils dangle.  Now it’s weird enough – and done!  And next Easter, we’ll have an egg-shaped bowl in which to keep those dyed Easter eggs!

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