Suzie's Easy Felted Bag

Well I've done it and its finally finished - just needs a button which I will buy from town later. Here's the pattern for anyone who would like to have a go themselves. Any problems please let me know!

Suzie’s Easy Felted Bag

Materials
100% Aran Wool from Kerry Woollen Mills. Comes in 200g skeins but only the following amounts required.
Dark Jacob approx 50g (MC)
Brown approx 20g (CC1)
Light Jacob approx 20g (CC2)
5mm straight knitting Needles
2 x 3.25mm double point for I-cord fastening
4 markers
1 Button
Gauge not important as felting.

Bag (Front, bottom and back knit in one piece)
Work in stocking stitch throughout.

Cast on 40 st using MC and work 12 rows in st st.
Change to CC1 and work 12 rows in st st.
Change to CC2 and work 12 rows in st st.
Change to MC and work 12 rows, placing a marker at each end
Work a further 8 rows in MC , placing a marker at each end of eighth row (these 8 rows are the bottom of the bag)
Work a further 12 rows in MC
Change to CC1 and work 12 rows in st st
Change to CC2 and work 12 rows in st st
Change to MC and work 12 rows in st st
Flap
Continue with MC and cast off 3 stitches at the beginning of next 2 rows (34 st)
Change to CC1 and work 4 rows
Change to CC2 and work 4 rows
Change to MC and work 4 rows
Keeping to colour pattern of 4 rows, decrease 1 st at each end of every row until 14 stitches remain.
Knit 1 row
Cast off pearlwise.

Strap and side panels
Cast on 7 stitches.
K1, P1 to last st, K1
Repeat this row forming moss stitch and knit until work measures approx 120 cm which is about 270 rows.
Cast off.

Finishing
Sew strap to sides of bag using the markers as a guide, being careful not to twist strap
Make I-Cord by casting on 3 st onto DPN’s . Knit but do not turn. Push stitches to end of needle then knit, making sure the first stitch is pulled tight. Once the I-cord measures 6cm break off yarn and pull through stitches then attach to flap of bag.
Felting
I just felted mine by putting it in the washing machine with a pair of jeans at 50 degrees for two cycles. Once felted, shape whilst damp then dry flat.

Approx size before felting: Height 23cm, width 23cm, depth 5cm, handle 73 cm
Approx size after felting: Height 20cm, width27cm, depth 5 cm, handle 79cm
I thought it would shrink a bit more but its grown in places but the fabric is nice and dense which is the effect I wanted, hence using the 5mm needles.

Please feel free to use this pattern for personal or charitable use but please don’t try to pass the work off as your own!

Cardigan Finished!!!

I finally completed the cardigan on Sunday night, much to the delight of my daughter who was obviously keen to model it. The pattern was taken from the April edition of Lets Knit and was called Sundae. I only followed the basic pattern though as it called for a different yarn and had embellishments on it that would have looked odd with the crofters yarn.

Now comes the task of making my felted bag. Its taken two days to unwind the skeins of wool and make them into more user friendly balls. Too many knots and finger aching work to unravel them all!

Kerry Woollen Mills

This weekend I visited Kerry Woollen Mills. What a wonderful place full of beautiful garments and of course, WOOL!
I wanted to buy some 100% pure wool so that I can make a felted bag as all of my stash contains blends of wool with 95% being the nearest. The wool was Aran weight with a variety of natural colour ways so I bought 5 different toning skeins so that I had plenty of choice as I want to do stripes.
Hopefully if my project goes to plan I will post pictures and the pattern.
Happy Knitting!

Crofters Cardigan

Hello there!

I started knitting a cardigan for my little girl a few nights ago using Sirdar Crofter Yarn in Shetland. Its going well and I absolutely love the stripey fair isle effect the wool creates. I'm due to start the left front today but I think I'm going to get two balls of wool out and make sure I mark the pattern repeat on the yarn on both balls so that my stripes for the front of the cardigan match.

Hello!

Hello there!
This is my first blog and I would like to introduce myself.
I'm Suzie, I love knitting and I thought it would be great to share my trials and tribulations in the knitting world!
Bear with me as I'm new to this but hopefully I will have something useful to say soon, as well as life in general.

Suzie x