Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Felted tote for Miss Cultured Purl - Felting away to glory!



After finishing my red low back lelah top I wanted to make something mindless and easy. Something that I didnt have to keep trying out and ripping out because it was either too big or small. So, I got some Wool of the Andes yarn from knitpicks. (Although I love splurging on lovely yarn, it is not possible for me to do for every project - so knitpicks has become one of my favorite sites for shopping for less expensive yarn). I also couldnt decide what color I wanted to make my tote - so muh man stepped in and helped me make the executive decision that I should choose avacado green. As you can see from the above picture, I wear a lot of earthy, warm colors - so I think green was definitely the way to go for a bag.



So, I followed the pattern and knit the bag in stockinette stitch (mostly). Before felting the bag, it looked basically like this:





And then after felting in the washing machine, the bag decreased in size significantly, and looked simply lovely. I added the wooden handles which I purchased from amazon for a steal of a deal. And I added the flower embellishment using seed beads (after a lot of ugly embellishment experimentation, I fell upon the cute flower pattern by chance and went with it). Overall, I love the bag. I still need to add the inner lining and a magnetic button to complete the bag and give it the right finish - but that will have to wait till the end of the soccer world cup!






















Finally, what I absolutely love about this bag is that it is spacious enough for me to sneak in snacks like popcorn and my water bottle into the movie theatres! wooohooo! Also -  I have finally added a lining to the bag and magnetic snaps and am absolutely loving the finish! Highly recommend adding a lining to any bag - even though the felted bag is thick and nothing could poke through it - the lining just makes it so cute and luxurious!









For more technical information about the bag and its pattern, visit my ravelry site

3 comments:

  1. WOW...you girls are talented. Me, am slightly allergic to knitting and sowing. Would devise ingenious ways to avoid it in school and ended up doing "detergent making" and "clay modelling".

    Btw your avocado tote will go wonderfully with your red lelah top.

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  2. Hey! Thanks for the comment. Yes - thats why I made it in avacado - since I have sooo many things in red and orange! I love the tote - it is so spacious! And works so great to sneak popcorn into the theatre *muahahaha*.
    I too used to allergic to knitting - what with those cold hard metal needles. yikes! it felt like i could poke my eyes with the needles much easier than actually knit a stitch. But I guess I grew out of it. And am so inspired by the "fancy" things you can actually knit now. as opposed to the baggy boring shapeless stuff!

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  3. Hey! You have learnt all tricks of knitting. It appears, knitting has become your passion. Very good work! Great job! I love your designs. Cool work!

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