More Explorations in Felted Crochet

These are some observations I have on felting crochet:
Although I have another floor mat in progress, below, I wanted to make a few smaller items using this technique.  (The "technique" is a single crochet stitch using multiple strands of shrinkable wool yarn, and then felting it in the washing machine)
So I crocheted several little bowls.  Before felting they looked like caps.  Basically they are flat bottoms with short sides.

I washed them once, dried them in the dryer, washed them a second time, and pushed them into the shape and allowed them to air dry.

I crocheted them as a spiral, and so there is a bit of a lump where the stitches end on some of them.

 They really do shrink up into quite a pleasing thickness.  And there is no problem with the walls flopping inwards.
I will need to do a larger one now! 

This is the mat that I am currently working on:

 I started with a section of back and forth rows for the center.  Then I started to go in rounds around it.  It became a little too squarish, and so I added a few extra rows in yellow at either end.

 I am still using my 15mm hook!  and I'm holding many strands together.  I like the blue.

I started to wonder what would happen if I added in accent colors with thinner thread pulled up in the spaces using a smaller hook and a chain stitch.  So.....
 
I decided to make a little test swatch (what? just now after making several projects?)

this shows the back of the chain stitch

this shows the front of the chain stitch

this shows the swatch washed once.

I really like how the chain stitch blends in so well when it is felted, so I will pretty surely add it to the mat.  You can also see on the swatch how some combinations shrink quite a bit more than others.  The green is a lot bigger than the yellow, although it might have more strands to start with.   This is not a particularly scientific process, (but the intention is to use the yarns productively)