Oh Boy did it shrink!

Oh how I wish I had taken a picture of this bag before I felted it! This bag was made on the Yellow Knifty Knitter Loom with Paton's Classic Wool Merino in Peacock. This yarn is very soft and pretty good to work with. I used two strands held together throughout in the e-wrap stitch. After felting the bag stands 5" high and the base is 2 1/2" by 5 1/4". This is less than half the original size. Before this, I have only felted with Lamb's Pride Bulky... so it was definitely an experiment. The Lamb's pride never shrunk this much.
At first check from the washer (about 5 minutes into agitation) the bag looked very lacy- the bars of yarn between stitches had big spaces in them. I rinsed with cold water and tossed it back into the washer. My little one was in the bathtub while felting, so I had to wash her hair and such. Once we got her finished, the washer was already on the spin cycle. So, I let it go through the rinse cycle. The bag is very sturdy and thick. On the bright side, it'll probably keep it's shape very well once completely dry. But, I was hoping for a thinner, lighter weight bag for summertime. (and one that is a little bit bigger!). So goes the learning process of a new craft!
This is a larger version of the flat bottom bag (see first post of this blog). Here are the specifics...
I e-wrapped 18 pegs in flat panel method until it stretched to the opposite side of the loom. I hooked 17 pegs on the opposite side of the loom (using the 'bars' created between the stitches). There were 3 pegs on either side empty- I hooked them with loops from the sides of the piece. Then, I knitted in the round until it was as long as I wanted, probably about 10" high. I added the handles (stay tuned for info on how I attach handles - plans for another blog in the future). Then, I knit about 4-5 more rows and bound it off with the crochet method. I folded the piece inward so that the handles were at the very top and whip stitched the top edge down--- creating a 'cuff'. The button hole/strap was made by double crocheting with a single strand of the yarn. 3 stitches across and about 8 inches long. A loop was made by crocheting a chain and attaching it to the other side. When it was done felting, I stitched a crystal pendant onto the bag as a button (but this is much easier!). This is kinda my trademark... I put a quartz crystal pendant on every handbag that I make. I used to make and sell fabric handbags. I guess that's why I'm drawn to make bags with my looms!

Oh- by the way, I made that mesh laundry bag... it's nice and big--- ready for any felting project I can toss into it! It worked great!
Happy Knitting!