While I have yet to put the finished touches on the now five-year-old crochet granny square fat bag project, I am done felting it.

In my last blog post, I detailed how I had put it through two wash cycles.

Then yesterday, I squeezed in one more.

With an overwhelmingly strong sent of wet wool, this is how the bag looked this morning:

And while it looked way better than it smelled, it was somewhat floppy in places and there were still slight gaps between the stitches, and it was these gaps that persuaded me that more felting was in order.

I searched through the available laundry, found a pile of towels in need of washing, threw in a few tennis balls for good measure, put it all in the washing machine, and ran it again.

When the bell that rings at the end of the cycle chimed, I was ready.

I pulled the bag out and examined it.

There had been progress, but the progress was small.

It was almost done felting, but there was, in my estimation still just a bit more still to be done.

So I put up the laundry from the first cycle, and then another load of towels later, this is how the bag looked:

There was no longer any space between the stitches and the fabric of the crochet was now very firm.

The overwhelming scent of wet wool remans.

Now that the bag is fully felted, I need to attend to the details of this bag while it is still damp.

There is a felted hyperbolic crochet curlicue tassel to be attached, and then there are the particulars of the tie closure that I finally settled on to be attended to, and then I will need to make use of some of those freshly laundered towels to stuff the bag while it dries to give it its fat bag shape.