great expectations (while felting)

i'm listening to Cat Power- specifically "great expectations" while felting. it's appropriate, and an appropriate phrase to describe the apprehension, the excitement, while work is out of my hands and being agitated.
and by the way, if you've never listened to Cat Power, give her a listen. the playlist i've got going has all my favorites on it- my ears were craving to hear "king rides by" - i know ear cravings must be common, right? it's also got "fool", "rockets", "werewolf" and "free" on it- some of the ones i like to listen to the most by her. Cat Power is good working music to me, pretty and interesting and kind of introspective. i really love having music in the house, and it seems like we're listing to it more as of late. the shorter person of the house is certainly going to have unusual taste in music as her pater and i listen to some weird stuff at times- working music, stuff to pace our brainflows. i have a hard time ignoring sounds at times, particularly music, since a lot of the adults i was around when i was younger were kind of particular about their music. so things like dentist's office music drive me crazy, the sounds must have personality. and having spent no small amount of time around musicians, and my own decade with the trumpet are all compounding factors.
back to cat power though, it's some of that music that i was exposed to a couple of years before getting really into it. a lot of things are like that, so i tend to acquire music and then put it aside for a while. i also get great mileage out of my wardrobe by doing this; unless i donate it or give it to a friend first. the major exception there, is things that i make for myself. i tend to finish the ends and wrap it around my neck or plop it on my head or what have you. i hooked up a pair of those handwarmer things, kind of a test pair in this hemp/wool i bought last summer (and was kind of disappointed with it) last weekend and put the left one on and wore it while i made the right hand one. i also slept in them, and woke up with bluish palms. needless to say the quest for the right hemp yarn continues.

and i'm distracting myself from my original point; the tenterhooks of waiting. this is another step in the week of destash, and unlike a lot of previous projects, i know that it's not that close to the end for some of them. for example, the washers i use do not have adjustable cycles, so i know right off that most of them will have to go through again. i like sturdy felt; that takes agitation and time. all the things going (8 pieces!) will need buttons- and i'm going to head to a recommended button mecca hopefully tomorrow and will have details about that! i'm going through a button phase at the moment, loving the combination of aesthetics and functionality. and a couple of the bags in there are intentional test pieces, that will have embelleshment- pretty much my first foray into that. i think i wanted to have the structure down, and will still do unadorned bags, but i really want to explore some new techniques.
i'm happy with the shapes i did in this go 'round, some chubby little pouches and some cool bags. i really like the handle attachment i did on one of the bags, i think it's going to look snappy finished up. hopefully.

of course, not content to work on one set of projects at a time, i'll be finishing this awesome, cupcake sprinkle inspired set of bangles. and starting to brainstorm projects for the new stash. i think i'm not going to allow myself to work from the new stash until i've finished with these in progress and am starting to list them. that should keep me motivated and encourage me to be sure and give these pieces the best attention than i can. they deserve it.