First step, knit the items

I have decided to knit and full a tea cosy and matching hot pad, as there isn't enough of any one yarn to do a purse or clutch. For the tea cosy I used US #13 needles and the art yarn, since that was the most yardage of all the skeins and also a good bulky yarn for quick knitting and easy fulling.

I started with the Felted Tea Cosy pattern by Janet Renouf-Miller which I downloaded from Ravelry. However, I found that it would be too small, was knitted in 2 pieces and seamed--I hate seaming and avoid it like the plague! I had to make some radical changes to fit the yarn available, so I ended up knitting in the round and doing the top as double decreases at 4 points to give it a rounder shape. I would have liked to make the cosy longer but have only 4-5 yards of yarn left. Here's the result, although I really wish I'd thought to throw a ruler in the photos for size reference:

Dang those curling edges...

I then started on the hot pad, using US #8 needles, the worsted-spun singles tog and the semi-woolen thel. The pattern is Felted Coasters, Hot Pads, and Beverage Jackets by Knitting at KNoon Designs, again downloaded from Ravelry.

Singles tog yarn

2-ply thel yarn

First I needed to ply the tog so it would be of a similar weight to the 2-ply thel. And in case you needed light conversation for your next cocktail party, tog does not like to be plied. It fought me every step of the way, trying to unply itself despite the light amount of twist I ended up using. It IS the long outer hairs of the sheep and naturally doesn't like being twisted in any direction. Plying it more tightly resulted in hairy thin rope! I started with the now-2-ply tog for the center of the hotpad and finished up the purl edging with the 2-ply thel since I had less yardage in that skein. Again I have about 4-5 yards of tog and 8-9 yards of thel left over. And here's the hotpad, waiting for a good hot wash:

Top view

Side view. Look at that curled edge!!

Next, we full the knitted items.