My First Intentional Felting

I've always wanted to try making an intentionally felted project.  (yes, there is a spectacular sweater FAIL in the UNintentional category, but more on that another day.)  There was a lot of Debbie Stoller's Full O' Sheep yarn in my stash, just begging to be a tote bag.  I wasn't sure about felting crocheted fabric, but checked out an article from Annie's Attic and made a few swatches of my own.  I didn't love the results, so I went with the recommendations of the article, and decided on a larger hook for a looser fabric, with a half-double crochet stitch.  When I was done with the crocheting, I washed the bag 3 times.  My 4 1/2 year old, M, stood looking in the window of the front-loader, watching it go around and when I pulled it out he was so excited to see the difference in the bag.  I was amazed at how much the bag shrunk during washing!

Above, you can see for yourself.  The bag is sitting on the same off-white textured pillow.  Totally hidden in the before picture, you can see quite a bit of the fuzzy pillow in the after picture.

Before                               After

14"            Height           9 3/4"

22"             Width                15"

2 1/2 x 29"     Straps       1 1/2 x 20"

4 x 18"         Base            3 x 12"

I washed it 3 times, the 1st and 2rd time with other clothes and the second time alone.  All with warm water, on high spin, in a front-loading washer.  The bag went through the full cycle each time, 50 minutes.  I gather, from reading other Yarnies' notes, that they would check their felting every 10 minutes or so, but I am not that patient.  Maybe if it were slippers or a hat, but for the bag, I didn't care about the finished size, just the look of the felting.

Pattern to follow!

Here We Go

What do you say when you know that no one will read your first post?  Just that I'm finally ready to start my crochet blog.  I hope to help, to inspire, and maybe even to entertain my readers.  My Gram nurtured my creativity and taught me to crochet as a girl.  I thank her for giving me this gift.