Yesterday I felted wool using hot tap water, mild soap, and lots of agitation. The piece felted well, but due to my inexpert knitting, it was neither square nor as small as I anticipated. Plus, after I'd felted the wool, I found another pattern that said to stitch the sides of the bag together *before* felting.

Today I knitted a smaller version of the clutch purse and tried boiling the wool. Once again the wool did not shrink as much as I expected, but the other surprise was how much dye bled out of the fabric while it was boiling. I'd washed the piece in hot tap water with mild soap before boiling and had it bleed about as much as yesterday's project. But when I put the cloth into the boiling water, it turned a vibrant purple. I was sorry I didn't have anything on hand in need of a color change, or I would have dunked it into the boiling water after I'd removed the wool. I'll have to keep this in mind for next time.