Tonight I felted the three other bags... I felted the Noro first. It took almost an hour. I was shocked! I expected 20 minutes. But everytime I looked, nothing was happening. Finally, I boiled some water, pulled the purse out of the washer, poured in the boiling water, let things agitate, and put the purse back in. Finally, it began to shrink. FINALLY. It's still not quite as small as I'd like, but I think it came out ok. I forgot to take a pre-felting picture. That made me irritated. The Manos felted within 13 minutes. That was what I was expecting. I'm thinking that the handles I have aren't going to work because they are too wide. I'm going to see if I can exchange them at the yarn store. They fit in the bag, and they look great, but you can't open the bag with the handles in there. That's no good. The Goddess yarn felted like a dream! The purse is beautiful. It took about 20 minutes. I was a bit worried because I used the same water for all three bags. I thought things might be too cold in the washer. Nope. It is perfect. I'm very glad I took the chance. Today I got some more hand spun yarn from Uraguay. The color is Oceana. It's blues, light, dark, almost white, almost black. I couldn't wait to start knitting with it, so I've done about 5 rows of the next purse. I bought it on eBay. There is no maker. The only description they gave was that it was good for felting. All the feedback said good things, so I went for it. I'm also making a purse in Knitability Bulky Sagacity that I bought at the knitting convention last February. It's a light heather gray. It's not going to have a flap, but I'm going to give it a snap or button or something. I'm such a knitting fiend lately. Don't want to date so I'm knitting. Makes sense to me.

Things at work are getting a bit weird. My boss is going to retire in June (unless something else happens before that). One of my co-workers is also thinking of retiring. She is out on vacation for the next 5 weeks. Can you imagine, 5 weeks vacation, all at once? I can't. My boss and I have been having interesting conversations about my future in the department, and where she sees me going. I never thought I would want to get into management at the university level, but it seems that may be in my future. So, I've been convinced. I'm enrolling in the Spring for my masters in Instructional Technology. I've applied, I've turned in my paperwork, and I have my letters of recommendation. I'm not really sure I'm excited to lose my personal time, but I think it is the smart thing to do. Besides, you can't be management without it. And just think, next time I'll get to have a thingie on my gown when I graduate.