Scrappy Felted Bag

Scrappy Felted Bag

Here's my latest finished project.  I made this bag mostly from yarn left over from other felted knitting projects.  The pattern I sort of followed is from a book called "Knit One, Felt Too" and the project is called "Soft-and-Thick Shoulder Bag."  The pattern calls for super bulky rug wool.  I used worsted weight yarn and held two strands of yarn together while knitting the entire bag as well as the bag's handles. I also cast on a larger number of stitches and knit more rows since I was working with a totally different gauge.

It's hard to know how much yarn a project like this will use.  I was using up yarn at an alarming rate and realized I was going to run out of yarn in coordinating colors far before my bag was long enough. Lucky for me, my local yarn shop had some yarn which had been donated and the shop owner allowed me to have some to finish up my bag. The bottom of the bag, as you can see above, is aqua and white.  That's the yarn I got from Ann at the yarn shop (Yarned & Dangerous, Canon City, Colorado). Thank you, Ann!  You are the BEST!  I used many brands of yarn in this bag. Kraemer Nazareth, Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, Cascade 220,

Below is a close up photo after felting. Sorry, this photo is a bit blurry.  The project has an interesting "heathery" look since I mostly held two different colored yarns together while knitting.



At the very beginning of this post, you can see the bag BEFORE felting.
Below, you can see the bag AFTER felting.



And below, you can see a photo of the back of the bag.
I have not been able to take great photos of this bag yet since it is still VERY wet and VERY heavy.  I left it outside to dry yesterday.  We went out to pizza for dinner and it rained while we were gone.  Whoops!

I have just one more felting project I am working on.  I'll be sure to post some photos when the project is complete. After that, I am done felting for awhile. But first let me tell you a few random things I've learned about felting recently.

1.  White wool felts more slowly than the colored wool.  No idea why; it just does.

2.  If you would like to felt wool at home, it's best to have a top loading washing machine with an agitator.  The front loading washing machines don't work as well for felting apparently.  

3.  When you are felting, it's a mess because wool fluff sluff off of your project while felting in the washing machine.  Probably not good for your washing machine or the drain, pipes, etc.  At the store in the area where you purchase linens, you can find pillow cases with zippers.  They typically cost less than $3.00 and are called "Pillow Protectors".  You can get them in various sizes.  Just go for the cheap ones.  I almost accidently purchased "waterproof" pillow protectors so be careful about that. Just throw your knitted item in the pillow protector, zip it shut, and then felt your project in the washing machine.