The Felting that Will not End!

The day starts off with all the dreads in a Walmart bag.  They're just waiting for the perfect time to be felted up to be used.  I was inspired at the beginning of it all.  This shouldn't be too hard!  It's just felting a little wool.  That doesn't take too long and I'm sure I can knock them all out in a sitting or two!  The roving was so incredibly soft that I didn't have a single doubt about getting it done.  I would love working with this stuff!  It didn't even look like that much.  Of course, in this picture, it really isn't that much.  It's about half of the roving I started with.  I'd already managed to finish half of it before even thinking to take a picture of it all!

Then came the work of felting.  The first twenty were done in no time.  I was sitting outside in the sunshine, talking with my boyfriend.  We were just enjoying the day.  It was peaceful and calm.  With every dread worked up I was inspired to jump right in and do the next.  I kept thinking that I should take a break, but no, I had to do just one more.  I mean, look at how pretty they were turning out,a and how quickly they were drying!  When it got too cold, I went inside, figuring he and I would sit outside another day and work them through until I was done.  If the twenty went up this quick, the rest should be done in no time!

Wouldn't it figure, the next day was cold and miserable, and the few days after that.  I would have had to sit outside alone as my boyfriend was at work by the time it was nice.  I just wasn't feeling motivated.  I did a few in my room mate's bathroom while talking to her, which seemed to go up pretty quick, but the ones I did in my own bathroom, sitting in isolation, working away were the worst.  It was a long, boring slog through felting.  It seemed to take forever, even though each dread was felted in five minutes or less.  Each time I pulled out a dread, I'd count the ones I had already drying and tell myself, "Just five more and I'm finished with the next set of ten, then I can take a break".  Last night I got to the point of bribing myself after every three done.  I'd hang them to dry on hangers in the bathroom.  One would think seeing them up there would give me some sense of accomplishment, but no.  Instead I just look at them and think about how many more I need to do until I'm done.

I have to admit, I'm making progress.  It may not be as fast as I had hoped.  I may not have had them all pounded out in one day, but I'm getting there.  Through bribery, grim determination, or hopes of having these infernal things in my hair soon, I'm going to finish them.  I've already surpassed the half way point.  Things should be getting better from here, right?  I should be able to count down and be excited about how quickly they're getting done.  Well, I somehow think that's not going to be the case.  I have a feeling it's going to be a long, hard slog, right to the end.

However, I have made myself a promise.  All I have to do is finish three quarters of the dreads and I can start installing them in my hair.  That's ninety-six dreads that need to be done before I can start sectioning and installing.  I'm not far off that count!  So far I've got seventy-two!  To finally be ready to start installing, I need to have twenty four more done today.  I think I can do that.  I hope I can do that!  Then the last thirty-four or so should be nothing once I see how great they look in my hair!  After all, there will be all that excitement about getting it done!  So maybe things will pick up once I'm able to reward myself with something like that.  I mean, two more hours of work and I should be able to start the hours and hours of installing the dreads...and three more hours of felting to go...thinking about it that way...yeah...I'll never be done...