Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Another Felted Bag

This is definitely the last felted bag that I am going to make for a good long while. I mean, just how many felted bags does one person need? I think I've made three new ones in the last couple of months.
The first one was a modular knit bag that used up most of the left over odd balls of lamb's pride worsted from all of the felted clogs that I've knit over the past few years. The bag was freakishly huge before I felted it. I know that most felted items are huge before you toss them into the washing machine, but this thing was a monster! After I felted the bag, it was a reasonably normal size, but the bag is so thick and heavy! It weighs about six pounds. The I cord binding along the top edge was too tight and the straps felted all wonky so I had to cut them off. I intend to add fabric trim to the edge and make a couple of nice straps for it, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. So that bag resides on my sewing room floor and functions as a fancy felted feline futon for Big Kitty to lay on:The next bag was the felted Fair Isle tote which I use all the time. I used up some stash yarn for that one. I wrote about it a few blog posts back.
The third and final bag was an impulse project. I saw the pattern and sample at my local yarn shop and fell in love with the simplicity of it. I bought new yarn for this project from Knit Picks. I used 10 skeins total of Wool of the Andes yarn in the colors avocado, fairytale and blackberry. The fairytale yarn is really more of a dark berry color and not the weird hot pink that shows up in the pictures. Knit Picks has really affordable basic yarn and I buy from them when I am feeling frugal. Wool of the Andes is great yarn for felting and is similar to Cascade 220 or Brown Sheep worsted . The pattern is by Theresa Gaffey and is knit in modular garter stitch squares. It's a really easy pattern and has some fun design features like a cool mitred bottom. The pattern called for putting the bag into a pillow case before felting it in the washing machine. It was the first time I'd done that and I must say it worked beautifully. The bag felted really fast and there was no fuzz to shave off. I just wish I didn't use a white pillow case with dark yarn though. Well, at least now I have a designated felting pillow case! I really do love this bag. It will be a great library book bag or knitting project bag. I still need to find a fabulous button for it.I'm not going to start any new major knitting projects for a while. I'm kind of in the mood to knit silly and frivolous things that take just a few hours to make. I do have a sweater that I want to finish up and maybe I'll knit myself a new hat, but for the most part I am going to work on fun little projects knitted from my stash of oddball yarn.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Pam, never fear having too many felted bags. I am certain that your mother,friends or sisters would love to take a few off your hands. They are beautiful, love the choice of colors. You are very talented.

Sue Thomas said...

Yep - felting creates wonderful gifts, Pam - lol!!! The bag is gorgeous, Pam!!!

Tracey Leeder said...

Love the felted bags. This is something I have wanted to try but I am afraid of it for some reason! eautiful work!

Anonymous said...

LOVE THAT BAG. I HAVE FELTED 200 + bags BUT THIS IS A GREAT INSPIRATION FOR ME TO HAVE ONE FOR ME.