Making a Felted Bag

Knitted, Felted Bag with Decoration and Snap Closure

After having family around for nearly a week, I'll have to admit it's sort of a letdown to get back to 'normal.' It's wonderful when the kids and grandkids are here, and the house seems very big and very quiet when they all go home. Then again, this is why we have dogs and cats. :-)  One can hardly feel lonely with dogs underfoot all day and a cat wrapped around one's head at night. Do you suppose that I'd get better sleep at night if there weren't a 22 pound cat resting his chin in my ear and purrrrrring??

Okay, on to the felted bag...

This bag was guesswork when I first knitted it. After finally getting it small enough through felting it many times in the washing machine, along with a friend taking it home and running it through HER washing machine, it became a nice size: about 7 x 9 inches. (It's already been given away as a Christmas gift, so I'm once again guessing at the size.) If you missed the first blog post about this bag, you can read it here and see the needles and yarn I used for the project.

As you can see by the date of that blog post, the poor felted bag sat around, feeling neglected, because it just didn't thrill me - until a few weeks ago, when I had a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself). What made all the difference was purchasing a pair of earrings and a large sew-in snap. I cut the hook from one of the earrings, then affixed it to the front-middle of the bag with needle and thread. On the inside, at the top-middle, I sewed a large (3/4"?) snap so that the bag now has a nice decoration and will stay closed when you want.

For the instructions, CLICK HERE and scroll down until you get to 'Taos.'  When you read the instructions, you will see that I followed them somewhat loosely. Still, I love the final outcome. I'm thinking about making a pair of slippers and felting them, but I'll admit that's a little scary. Somehow I just can't imagine that they'd come out the same size. That could be a problem.

I know that some of you are knitters. Have you made any felted projects?? Anything scheduled for 2012?

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 This post is linked to some or all of the following: Amaze Me Monday and Skip to My Lou and What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and Overflowing With Creativity and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and  Home and Family Friday

Knitting a Felted Bag

I was trying to replicate a little felted bag my husband had bought for me at the farmers' market last summer, so I bought some inexpensive Lopi Icelandic wool at the local discount store and a pair of size 15 knitting needles. I already had a crochet hook.

Having knitted the bottom in a garter stitch, I set that aside (which is not how I'd do it another time) and knitted the body of the bag, adding in a couple stripes of a plum color. I finished off the top with the plum color crocheted in, and made two 28" handles of I-cord.

The bag at that point was 13" tall. I was hoping it would shrink down to about 7 inches. I threw it in the washing machine along with a couple pairs of jeans on hot wash and added a little Gain detergent. I had been told I should run it through maybe as many as three cycles.

After felting

I ran it through EIGHT cycles and the thing didn't felt down like I'd wanted it to. I was so annoyed. Not only didn't I get the dense, thick bag I'd wanted, but using all that hot water didn't help our electric bill either!

I showed the bag to my friends at Bible study the other day and they all commented on how wonderful it smelled! At least it smelled like Gain detergent and not dog, which is a nice change. Gail offered to take it home and run it through her washing machine which has a heavy agitation action. I'm hoping that will help. But then again, maybe I'm expecting too much out of that yarn. Maybe my needles were too big. And I really hope Gail doesn't run up her electric bill trying to solve this problem for me.

I do like the cool I-cord handles...

...and the garter stitch bottom

Believe it or not, I'm eager to try a felted purse again, but I suppose I should stick to a pattern and use the recommended wool and recommended needles. Sigh.

I'm still battling this stupid headcold/sinus problem and trying to avoid going to the doctor. Sleeping and knitting seem to be the only things I have energy for right now. Yesterday afternoon I worked on a hat and after making the body and then decreasing for about 6 rounds, realized that somehow I'd dropped a stitch a few rounds back. So I guess it's time to learn how to pick up a stitch. And that's why there's www.knittinghelp.com.

Hope you all have a good week!

Author, Second Chance - A Tale of Two Puppies

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