Felting Fun -

Saturday I took another class at my LYS, Anacapa Fine Yarns. The class was called, Introduction to Felting . The class combined with those who knit and those who crochet. We all brought in a 4"x4" swatch that we had prepared as homework before class. At the beginning of the class we all had a chance to felt our little swatches. It was amazing to watch the transformation of all the different fibers from their original sizes to its much smaller felted piece. The shrinkage in class was about 25% consistently. Which I thought would be a handy little tidbit of information; and would be very helpful when it came to designing my bag.

The class pattern was for a very small drawstring bag. I knew before taking the class I'd wanted to revise the pattern; since I wouldn't have any use for a bag that small. So I doubled the increasing rows and ended up with, what was appearing to be a nice large rounded bottom tote. With my calculated 25% shrinkage - it would be perfect. Well................ instead of felting it by hand or controlling the shrinkage by using the washing machine, I decided I'd rather be able to throw my bag in the washer whenever I wanted. I knew my shrinkage would be greater - but how much, I wasn't sure. The width ended up about 50% smaller and the height about 25% changing the shape of the bag quite a bit, but I'm very happy with the end result. The pinkish section on top was crocheted with a Q hook so there are large gaps allowing me to open the top nice and wide and see the bottom of my bag, as well as lace a felted drawstring cord through it for easy closure. I used a felted crochet rose instead of a button and the inside back of the drawstring hooks over the rose to "latch" the top closed.













I have been so hesitant to use my handspun yarn, but I decided this was the perfect opportunity to use a small amount. So the light gold is my handspun alpaca, that I just finished plying with a metallic binder. The pumpkin colored stripe is an alpaca single that I crochet together with some S. Charles Ritratto. The pattern actually calls for the S. Charles Ritratto to be combined with your yarn choice. Since that is one of the yarns I use as a binder when I ply thick alpaca singles - it was a perfect choice, and blended most excellently.

;D

I'm very pleased with my first felted project and can't wait to do more.