My.first.ever.felting.project!!and, I am really proud of myself.. and, its my first entrelac project too.. Its a well-written pattern and very easy to follow..and working on it was a pleasure as I took it one square at a time.. Work was hectic last week and I couldn’t think of working on my Ravelympics shawl as I was too weary to work on a 300+ stitches and growing shawl.. this fit the bill perfectly.. I will work on a few squares before going to bed and I finished the knitting in 10 days! Then, I hand-felted it in my kitchen-sink.. I followed this tutorial on hand-felting to the dot. It took me an hour and a half to get the final result.

Pre-felting dimensions: Height: 16 inches; Width: 17 inches
Post-felting dimentions: Height: 14 inches ; Width: 15 inches

When I tried felting the swatch, it felted in 15 mins and this bag took a LONG time to felt! and, hand-felting is tiring if you don’t have the right place to felt. My kitchen-sink is lower than my hip-level and I had to bend and scrub and I was tired by the end of it!

This is how I felted:

1. Filled the kitchen sink with boiling water and added lifebuoy liquid hand wash and soaked the bag in it. I kept agitating the bag around the sink every 5 mins with a ladle. -> photo # 4

2. When the water came to a ‘bearable’ temperature, I started scrubbing the bag ‘dhobi’-style. Felting took more than 45 mins to start. I got my doubts if its gonna be a disaster but I persevered!-> photo # 5 (Excuse the BIG.FAT.ARMS!!)

3. Then I decided to switch to regular detergent for clothes as lifebuoy liquid hand wash seemed to mild for felting. I used Surf Excel.. and thats when it started felting like a charm..

4. When the water started to become lukewarm, I drained some and added HOT water again and continued scrubbing. I took the bag out of the warm water now and then to pound on it and knead it on the kitchen counter. -> photo#6

5. ETA: Dunk the FO in cold water now and then between the scrubbing to speed-up the felting process. Learnt this in the buttonhole bag project later.

6. and, after it came to the size I wanted(or rather after I got tired of the exercise), I quit and rinsed the bag in clear water and dried it by rolling it in a turkish towel and jumping on it! Hubster had fun watching me jump like a clown in the middle of the house! Alvin has gotten used to these eccentricities,surprisingly! -> (and, you thought there will be photos for this step!! bwaahaahaa!!)

7. Then I stuffed the bag with plushy pillows and towels to plump up the shape and started clicking photos! -> photo # 8

8. Then, I came online on Ravelry to tell the world about my felting adventures!! :-)

So, here I am tired and loving it cos I have a new bag! Its true that I can never have enough bags.. I haven’t decided what to use this bag for.. maybe as a clutch when I go out or as a knitting tote for knitting projects..