Simon's Felted Coasters: Before & After

I finished Simon's coaster set yesterday. Here is the knitted set:

To felt them, I threw them in the washer (in a lingerie bag to protect them and keep them together) with an old pair of jeans, a cup of detergent, and lots of hot water. The process takes a while, because you have to pull them out and check to see if they're the desired size every five minutes or so, and you can't let them stay in there for the spin cycle or the cold rinse cycle. This works a lot better when you're not using a coin-operated machine! But my washer is cheap, so I only spent about $2. Next time I might try just doing it in the sink, although the thought of standing with my hand in a piping hot sink of water agitating the coasters for a half hour isn't that appealing, either.

When I finished knitting Simon's coasters, I started in on some new ones for myself. I wanted to make red ones to match my red and white living room. The red yarn felts a little differently than the brown, so I'm not sure if these are going to work out as well. More on that later.

The final coasters are below, to be presented to Simon ceremoniously at his pre-New Year's brunch tomorrow. Or unceremoniously in the car on the way to IKEA today, if I can get him to come with me. Gotta wait till he wakes up at 1pm.