Back in January, at the ACS Mill shop, I asked the lady serving me which yarns would felt, as I had an idea growing for my Aussie Bag Swap recipient’s bag. She said none of those in the shop would, but ‘come out the back’. Turned out she’s an enthusiastic felter and her source of yarns is a huge cardboard box the size of a small skip, full of cones like this:

My recipient likes green, so it had to be a green bag. But what sort of embellishment? I knew that she works with stage lighting. I looked up stage lighting symbols. Not really interesting enough to use on a bag. But then I remembered reading a post on her blog about visiting a medieval fair. Hmm. Some sort of celtic knot, maybe? Or scrolls reminiscent of ironwork?

I knit a swatch, embellished it with black yarn (leftover Nundle 8ply) and felted it. The first run through the wash didn’t produce a dense enough fabric (I have a front loader, so it’s a bit gentle) so I threw it in again. Perfect. Taking advice from Beverly Galeskas’ Felted Knits, I’d sewn in cotton markers 10cm apart to let me know how much it would shrink lengthways and sideways. Then I sketched out a design and calculated how many stitches would get me a bag about A4 sized, and deep enough to not fall over. I noted that Beverly had used garter stitch around her work for a thicker edge, so I did that, too.

I knit up the bag:

Then crocheted around the front and back, made crocheted chains and sewed them on, plaiting them for the handles.

Then I felted it, and nearly fell over in shock when it not only felted evenly, but fit exactly over two A4 reams of paper (wrapped several times in plastic).

Now that the fun part was over, I procrastinated over the sewing for some weeks, but finally made myself sit down and get it done. I had some sturdy cotton in my fabric stash, and some facing. I sewed and sewed and sewed, adding pockets…

Lots of pockets, because I like bags with pockets…

Then I reinforced the handles with some cotton tape and sewed the lining in. By hand. Urg.

But it was all utterly, fantastically worthwhile.

Because, darn it, I really liked this bag and didn’t want to give it away!

But when projects work out like that, they’re always the best gifts. They’re the ones you know you’ve outdone yourself with. And my recipient has given it her stamp of approval, which means I’ve achieved the goal of the swap, and I can go a long time on that sort of satisfaction.

Now I just need to pop back into the ACS mill shop and get me some red feltable yarn, so I can make my own variation. I’m thinking a curved top, like a bowling bag shape. And white edging and handles, so it matches my mini…