Where's the fire?

I finally got our guard dog properly outfitted for his holiday job as the front-door greeter. Though I must confess, I didn't knit the whole hat. Just the white band and pom-pom. I was having so much fun with the swornament-knitting that I just couldn't put it down long enough to knit a whole Santa hat. I think greeter dog would much rather go for a ride on a firetruck than sit here day after day by our front door. Maybe he could hitch a ride on the hook and ladder when the firemen go shopping for their chili fixins'.

So now let's talk about felting. I crocheted a flower long ago--while we were still in the old house--and I tried to felt it in my washing machine. You might be familiar with the Murphy Laws of Felting. It works something like this: When you put your nice wool sweater in the wash by mistake it will felt into a wonderful tiny doll sweater. But when you put a crocheted flower or a knitted bag, or some other fiber project you want to felt in the machine, not even a hint of felting happens. That's what happened to my flower. So I banished it to the curio thingie and labeled it a dismal failure.

Then, the other day, I decided to give it one more try. I took it out of the curio thingie and put it in my new front-load washer without an agitator (usually a requirement for felting). I threw it in with some towels and t-shirts.
And what do you know! It felted ever-so-nicely. I sewed a pin to the back and passed it on to Santa to put in Big City Girl's Christmas stocking. Maybe it will make a nice accessory for her dustmop sweater, or all the handknit dustmop scarves I've gifted her in recent years. If BCG reads this, which I don't think she will, she should rest assured that I'm just kidding. Now that she's a grown-up business woman living on her own in the big city, I'm sure she hangs up her clothes. But maybe just to be on the safe side, I should knit her a mop.