Felted Bag

It took me until Friday last week, but I did finally get my "Knit Mitt Kit" in the mail to my swap partner, Trish. I overnighted it because I was so late, and Trish received it on Saturday. Since you all might not remember, this swap required us to make a bag and fill it with everything one might need to make a pair of mittens. So, with Trish's permission, I want to show you pictures of the bag I made and talk a little bit about my first attempt at felting.

I used the pattern for the "Americana Tote" from Pursenalities by Eva Weichmann. I liked the shape and size of this particular bag. I used Cascade 220 Quattro in the colorway Amethyst. I miscalculated how much yarn I would need at first, and by the time I had figured that out, it was too late to get more in the same dye lot. So I ordered a couple of skeins in a solid color, Plum, and finished the bag with that. I think it worked out better than if I had made the whole bag in the variegated. I wasn't entirely happy with the bottom of the bag when I was finished, but I hoped that the felting process would take care of that.

And it did! Felting is an amazing process. I have never had a strong desire to try this before, but now I can see why it is addictive! I followed the instructions in Felted Knits by Beverly Galeskas, and I had no problems whatsoever. Now I want to make a bag for myself. I have enough yarn to make a Lucy bag, so that's on my to do list. I would also like to make a hat with the leftover yarn from this project. And my dh would really like a felted vest. He wants to design it himself, though, so that might be beyond my skills at this point in time! But I can definitely see more felting in my future.