Score!

Well, my first experience with wool and felting was a success!!

Whenever I've gotten the chance over the last three days I've been knitting to try and finish this little beauty -- I so badly wanted to see how it would turn out!

Here's a picture of it before felting:

I crocheted the little flower to go on it for decoration but didn't sew it on before felting. I wanted them to felt separately in case it didn't turn out well. I'm glad I did it that way, because the flower didn't felt at ALL. The same thing happened to the sample swatch I made to felt first. I crocheted that and was terribly worried when I pulled it out of the washer and it looked the same and measured the same size.

But knitting with this wool felted beautifully. I mean, first try and I'm in love with it.

The bag before felting measured 11" wide x 13" high. The bag after felting measured 6 1/2" wide x 7 1/2" high. I think that's perfect!

Here's a pic of it after felting:

Isn't it cute? It wasn't fully dry when I shot this (and probably won't be dry until tomorrow) and when I put it down on my table, the bottom sides pooched out a little bit.

I just love how it looks. The idea of felting scared me a little bit - so many variables and wool is expensive! If it didn't turn out that's a lot of money gone.

But now that I've done it once, I want to do it AGAIN!

One of the biggest things I worried about was the red wool. I thought for sure in that hot water that those reds would bleed all over the place and that beautiful autumn leaves variegated wool would be ruined. But no bleeding whatsoever! YAY!

And here's a close up shot of the handle:

For the handles, I used a Knitting Knobby made by Susan Bates. That was so easy to do and I think the handles worked out great.

Speaking of cool handles, take a look at Brandy's bag!! Isn't hers gorgeous! I just love it. We should definitely "team up" on another one!





And finally because I'm weird and enjoy looking at pics of things from start to finish, here's a recap: