Felted Purse

I finished my first felted purse awhile ago, here's the info finally.

Yarn 1:	Galway by Plymouth (100% wool - worsted) / #19
Yarn 2:	Mardi Gras by Euro Yarns (100% polyester) / #214
Pattern:	Garter stitch
Gauge:	40 st on size 10 needles
Size:	114 rows

Purse as knit


Stitched together


Being blocked


All done!


p.s. My friend Terri calls these "Muppet Skin" purses. *grin*

Felt Swatch

For my next project, I'm making a felted purse. It's a pretty basic purse, shape-wise, so I didn't really need to create a swatch for gauge, but I thought it would be good to make one to practice felting. (I also put a "buttonhole" in the middle of it, to practice binding off/casting on, which will be used to make the handles.)

I'm glad I did, because I learned a lot about the actual felting process.

• You only need a little (2 T or so) detergent. I had so much foam I had to fish around for the swatch whenever I checked it. (It was fun, though, watching it sort of "surface" every once in awhile through the bubble, like a spawning salmon. *grin*)


• Use the 'heavy duty' setting, which agitates on 'fast.' Originally, I had it set to my usual delicates setting, which runs a lot slower. Apparently, more agitation = faster felting.


• Put the item in a zippered pillow case or something to help keep loose fibers out of the motor. I read about that online while waiting for it to felt - I don't think the small swatch I made is likely to cause problems, but the actual purse has "eyelash" yarn in it, so I'll want to be more careful then.

Before felting

After felting


Tonight, I'll start on the actual purse. Maybe I can get it done by the weekend (it's not that large).

Baby Afghan

I got a very belated birthday card from my friend Jenny a few weeks ago, which reminded me that she was expecting her second child. So I started this project on the 18th and finished it last night.

Yarn:	Softee Baby by Bernat (100% "gentle soft" acrylic)
Colors:	White - 2 skeins; Her Jeans Ombre - 2 skeins
Pattern:	Patchwork with st st and reverse st st
Gauge:	93 st on size 15 circular (29") needles
Size:	32" x 44" (166 rows)

The thing I am most proud of with this project, other than getting it done quickly, is that I knitted three stitches I should have purled at one point but didn't notice until about 20 rows later. I was able to fix them, though, by knitting to the column with the first wrong stitch, dropping stitches down to that row, then picking them all back up with the crochet hook in the right way (knit or purl). Repeat for the next two columns, and voila! No more mistake. :)

p.s. Jenny had a baby boy last Thursday, so now I need to package it up and mail it off to her!