Fuzzyfeet update

Well after some more excellent advise from the Knitty coffeeshop, I knitted a test swatch of some undyed yarn and felted it so that I would know exactly what this yarn would do. Ingenious! Why didn't I think of it?

The swatch was 22 stitches by 15 rows and measured 7" by 3.5". I washed it with a load of towels at 140 degrees for an hour and a half and I got the swatch on the left. It measured 6" by 2.5". I was concerned by the fact that there was still stitch definition, so I put it back in the washer with towels at 175 degrees for the same amount of time. I got the swatch on the right. Very little difference.
So now I know that I should make the fuzzy feet 14 inches long from heel to toe and not to really expect to felt away the stitches. By the way I have a front loading washer that I can control the temp. of but it is a real pain to check it every few minutes because it drains out all the soap & water and then has to refill & heat the water. When I did the Kitty Pi beds I found that the agitation of putting some other clothes would felt the knitting just fine.

So after frogging I of course ended up with tons of loose yarn which I wound around my hand, stuffed back in the middle of each ball and contained in yogurt containers. This yarn was way too bulky to fit in my normal bottle cozy container system.

This is where I am as of this morning, at about 7". I will go 1 more inch then begin gusset increases which should be another 3" then the heel should be another 3 inches.