Westport, CT
Want to make your own felted bag? Check out my Felting 101 Pic-Tutorial at http://majorknitter.typepad.com/major_knitter/2004/09/how_to_felt_a_b.html#comments
If you make a bag, please send me a picture so I can post it and share it with others.
Happy felting!
Here it is! The much awaited primer on how to make a felted bag. I hope you like it.
These bags are made by knitting 2 strands of yarn at the same time with a size 13 needle. Start with about 5 skeins of worsted weight wool in a variety of colors. Whichever color is your base color, use 2 skeins of that. Otherwise, you can pull the yarn from the outside and the center to create the double strand. It's a little messy, but it will work. If you have a ball winder, you might prefer to wind some balls with double strands to start. I generally use Paton's Classic Wool - Merino or Lamb's Pride, or Plymouth Galway. You will have leftover yarn, but it will allow you to make a second bag (maybe even a third?) with the same stripe pattern.
Cast on about 30 stitches or so. Knit in garter stitch for 16 rows. This will create 8 ridges. Generally, for various bag sizes, you should make the bag approximately half as wide as it is long. KEEP IN MIND THAT BAGS SHRINK MORE IN THE HEIGHTH THAN IN THE WIDTH. If you knit a rectangular bag, it will shrink to a square when felted. If you only knit a square bag, it will shrink into a smaller rectangle when felted.
Bind off all the stitches except the final stitch.
Pick up 8 stitches along the edge of the base of the bag. (HALF THE 16 STITCHES - adjust accordingly if you use a different number of stitches).
Pick up 30 stitches (the same number as the length of the base) along the length of the bag.
Pick up 8 stitches along the next edge of the the bag.
Pick up the final 30 stitches along the final edge of the bag.
Place a marker and knit in the round for about 2-3 inches.
Start adding in alternating colors in stripes of 1-6 rows at a time. Experiment. Combine colors in ways that you feel will look nice. I recommend at least 3 colors for a striped bag. For the Tree Series bag, I used 5-6 colors.
