Felted Bag

Here is my finished felted bag, the third one I have made from this fantastic pattern from Knitty.com.  It's called a French Market bag.  I use two strands of 4 ply because that's what I have, (my good friend Joan has a mega stash of knitting yarn which she generously shares)  but you  must use pure wool.

 

This is the bag in it's pre-felted state.

I felt in my washing machine, and to get a good result I have to put it through 2 cycles, a colourfast cotton wash and then a white cotton wash.  You need to be able to put it on a 'mini load' programme, use a tiny bit of detergent, and put something in the wash to give the knitted fabric a bit of a thump.  I used to use a pair of denim jeans I had grown out of, but our granddaughter is now wearing them, so I use two very old, thinnish bath towels that had been relegated to garage use, tied in a knot, the knot held in place with string.  The knots come undone otherwise. I put the knitting in a laundry bag so it doesn't get out of shape.

This last stripey bag was knitted four inches longer than the pattern, and I extended the handle length by knitting 12 rows instead of 4 at the end of each bag handle.