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!