Baby did a bad bad thing

A few months ago I won Elspeth's WIP it out competition and scored amongst other things 120 grams [ 4 and a bit ounces ] of frogged Noro Silk Garden in just my colours... but what to do with it?

Silk Garden comes in THE most luscious colours but is more than a bit itchy scratchy. 120 grams would be enough for a hat or a scarf but I'd go nuts with them next to my skin and so would DD or DDIL. So what to do?

Then the light came on.

A bag. A felted bag ... yes my darlings I was seriously contemplating felting $14.50 a ball Noro.

Can never have too many bags, right? Tell me that Elspeth isn't going to have my guts for gaiters. [ Stop that. Conniptions are unbecoming in the mature Blog reader ] Okay already, I'm hanging my head in shame. It's right up there with sloth and gluttony. I am a bad person. Can we move on now?

Bags don't make you itch... and they're practical.

120 grams won't make you a very big bag though, so I had a rummage through the tubs and

I gathered together a collection of similar weights in black, teal, green, purple. Amazing really just how much I had in those precise colours that was feltable : BMW Alpaca, Rustic, Colonial and Charisma plus some other odds and sods. The unknown odds and sods got swatched and test felted to be on the safe side.

So onward and upward. I double stranded on 8mm needles and just knitted till it looked about right. The base was done in garter stitch then picked up all round and transfered to circs until I got to the flap which was back to garter stitch. So far so good. Up to this point it was all stash but I really only had pale-ish colours left which wasn't all that practical for the strap so I had to fork out for a couple of balls of dark green Panda Woolbale which was about all that I could find locally. Anyway one strand of that and one of purple came out sort of greyish. I only used one ball so there's an extra ball of green added to the stash. Oh well.

Then into the machine. Felting with a front loader is part science, part good luck. This time I lucked out. It is luxuriously thick and sturdy... and about a quarter of its original volume.

Now this is my terrifically sophisticated method for drying extremely thick felt in the middle of winter. Two towels in front of the woodfire. Towels changed frequently.

Sophie thought that some added weight might help. She's so generous that way.

and 2 days of drying later, it's not 100% dry but patience is not my middle name so after the manipulation of the biggest. sharpest needle I could find, the strap is on.

Oh and to prove that anything is possible: Ms Sophie [ mine ] and Suki [ Nadie's ].