Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Exciting experiment #1

And now I will attempt a felted bag, Sophie from MagKnits.

The following factors will contribute to the drama of this plan:

  1. This is my first felted bag
  2. This is my first bag
  3. The yarn is some generic wool I got on eBay.
  4. I am making up my own fair isle pattern to go on the bag
  5. I have never done fair isle before
  6. I have 1.5 weeks to complete this project
  7. The bag is for my MIL
  8. It is my MIL's 70th birthday
  9. My dad is coming to visit this weekend, which will drastically decrease my knitting time
No pressure!

I did a swatch last night. This yarn is scritchy! Ow!



This evening I hand-felted it with hot water and soap, here it is still wet:

Okay, I'm starting to enjoy this more.

My plan is to make the bottom and handles with the dark pink color. I am also going to double the yarn on the bottom, just to make it more sturdy. I had read a few other comments about the bag needing this if you want it to sit on its own. Since I am going to have a 8-stitch repeat pattern, I am going to not do the decreases. There is probably a cool and clever way that I could accomplish the decreases, but I do not have the time for that kind of mental anguish.

MIL is a very sweet woman, I want to give her a nice present for her big day. Wish me luck!

4 comments:

Penny Karma, aka the F-Bomb Mom said...

I wanna do the Sophie Bag too! My first Felted Bag was the famous BOOGA, which was great fun.

Most recently, I completed the Lucy Bag, which is ok, but it ended up kindof an awkward shape, like a tomato on a leash.

I think I might actually be a Boogaholic.

Anonymous said...

Oh, this is going to look great - I love the colors you're using, and the design is gorgeous! Looking forward to seeing pics once you've finished it!

Anonymous said...

Good luck! Sophie is great! I have made two!

LadyLungDoc said...

Very nice - the design looks great felted and unfelted!