First, thank you all for your kind words about my risky felting, but to misquote a phrase, reports of the death of my washing machine are greatly exaggerated. After some enthusiastic but inexpert effort, I managed to unblock the beastly machine, and whilst it’s still spitting out occasional gobs of pink felted fluff, it is at least functioning sufficiently to deal with the laundry generated by two potty-training toddlers. (We’re talking a lot of laundry, here. Like, really, a lot.) Here’s the finished bag, a shadow of its former enormity dimension-wise, though eight times the thickness and possibly nuclear-bomb-proof:-
But enough about that, before I start growling quietly…
Y’know, there’s been some weird light around here, lately. Within a day, we’ve gone from this early morning misty strangeness:-
…to this:-
…as the autumn weather fails to make its mind up. But the second picture at least justifies pink and orange together…. Taking me back to that pesky bag.
Anyway, now that the bag is done, I’m working on the second prototype of a forthcoming pattern. Here’s the ribbed cast-on in a delicious blend of wool and alpaca.
Yes, that is a wiggly train track in the background. *sigh*
What a stunning sunrise! A fabulous view at sunrise is the reason we bought our house, but that’s another story…Love the way the bag turned out and the heather-coloured wool is delicious:)
Sounds like a good story, though? What a wonderful reason for buying a house.
Oh, that bag is lovely. I especially love the flower you’ve pinned to it 🙂 It should definitely be forgiven for technically-not blocking your machine!
Naaaah, I’m still sulking with it. But thank you. 🙂
Pink and orange together is absolutely justified!
Well if nature can do it, it’s definitely justified. 🙂
I would say going through one washing machine per felted bag sounds reasonable to me if the result looks that nice.
And how about some lovely felted trousers for the potty training?
🙂 Your comment made me giggle! Imagine the size of the trousers I’d have to knit in order to felt them down for the toddler twinnage?!
The bag – meh! I think I liked it better before it was felted. But I love the flower 🙂 Did I tell you I have purchased both – BOTH – the books you recommended recently and expect to be making flowers and other garden paraphernalia ala Carlos and Arne [Arne and Carlos?] and joining bits up in altogether exciting ways just as soon as they make their way across the great oceans of the world to my tiny letterbox!! I see the knitted mandala doing a touch of photo-bombing above the train track too. Nice!!
Excellent that you’ve bought those lovely books! (Am I a bad influence? Sorry. I probably shouldn’t tell you about another wonderful book that I’ve been looking at…) Enjoy your happy crochet and please post lots of photos.
Yes – you are a bad influence! Please desist from mentioning any further books for a while – please feel free to mention free on line sites though whenever the feeling takes you!
Glad to hear the washing machine is recovering and that the toddler twinnage are not going to have to be hosed down in their clothes to keep them clean.
Go on, make it up with the bag… you know you want to!
Well we’re on grudging speaking terms now…. and the bag is quite useful for holding very small knitting projects…
Love the bag! Love the Mist! (Could you send some my way?) Sunrises never disappoint, colors are spectacular! Love the color of your Alpaca Wool blend, can’t wait to see what it grows up to be!
Ha, you’re welcome to our mist! I have some big storage boxes – I could fill them with mist and post them to you… 😉
And thank you for your lovely words.
I’m glad to hear that your machine is working, however it’s a bummer that the bad didn’t turn out. I must say, though, at least you’ll have something to carry your things in for the (possible zombie) apocalypse, right?
Yup, the bag is definitely zombie apocalypse-proof. Very useful. We do have a lot of zombie apocalypses round here. 🙂
I love how the bag turned out! Don’t be mad at it for too long 😉 x
Thank you. 🙂 We’re on grudging speaking terms.
Love the sky – very Turner-esque. Like contentedcrafter, I didn’t see railway track – I saw Mandala! Felting is a mystery to me but very clever. Can you imagine the look on the face of the first person who ever felted-by-accident then decided it was a useful thing. : O
Ha ha, yes it must have been a bit of a shock, the world’s first felting incident! Where have my stitches disappeared to? Why is my jumper half the size it used to be? What is all this fluff??
Wiggly train track but also smile making Mandela 🙂
🙂
Well, that’s a relief! I only have a dog and can’t imagine what I would do without a washer.
I know, I know. Take away all my other gadgets (except laptop) by all means, but LEAVE ME THE WASHING MACHINE!!
The bag is fab, I love the bright colours. I am sure that your washing machine will make a full recovery. The train track brought back happy memories of my little brood as children, they would set up the wooden track and them spend hours making lego houses to create little villages, then place plastic animals and dinousaurs. I would end up having to hoover around it as it took so long to build. I am sure I still have all the stuff in the loft ready to get out when they have children of their own.
Oh, that’s lovely, especially that you’ve kept it all for the next generation. I love versatile toys like Lego and train tracks – you can see the children using their creativity so much more than with toys that look impressive but don’t ‘do’ very much.
Your bag turned out lovely! Most days our floor is more train track than walkable space haha!
Yup, sounds familiar. You have to do a sort of dance to cross our living room floor without stepping on anything. *sigh*
The bag looks great! And, it probably is bomb-proof. Lol. It’s crazy how thick the felted fabric can get. 🙂 I really enjoyed your post and pics.
I love your little bag. Very nice, even tho your machine threw a fit!
Thank you. 🙂
Felted things make good oven cloths/mitts. 😉 And good protectors for small teflon frying pans. It doesn’t have to be a bag.:D
Oooh, good idea. And that ALMOST makes me tempted to try felting some more….. Almost.
Your little bag is adorable! I love the colors!! I want to try felting now too! Looks like fun!! Glad you got your washing machine back in order!! Hugz Lisa and Bear
Thank you. Go for it, but don’t make my mistake! As others have said on here, felt it inside an old pillowcase. Have fun. 🙂
The bag is so beautiful. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with felting! Your photography is always so stunning, serious photo-envy going on over here!
Thank you! (I’m usually the one envying other people’s photos.)
Are you happy with the outcome, after everything you went through? I’ve never tried any felting–it sounds fraught with danger . . .
It is indeed fraught with peril. I’m sure I have several new grey hairs this week. The outcome is OK, but probably not worth the grey hairs.
You can’t stay angry with that beautiful bag, not when it’s all pink and orange and stripey!
It’s all right, I suppose, and is actually quite useful for carrying very small knitting projects.
What lovely colors in the sky and on your bag! I tried to felt some slippers this past weekend, but one of my slippers FELL APART in the washer and died a terrible death. But I am forging on. I have already knit half a pair of replacements!
Oh no!!! That’s so wrong! I hope the replacements don’t suffer the same fate. How do you ensure that your slippers felt down to the exact size of your feet?
At the knitting retreat, the woman who had the portable washer also had the brilliant idea of collecting flip flops in every size and cutting off all but the sole. After a the slipper came down some in size, she slipped it around the flip flop sole and put it back in the washer for 15 minutes at a time until it fit the flip flop form. Genius? I think so!
The bag is cute as anything. Some of the best projects cause a fuss on their way in. 😉
Ha ha, that’s a nice way of putting it. Thank you. 🙂
It’s pretty! (Hope I didn’t say the wrong thing 🙂 )
Ha ha, no I think I can forgive you that comment. 😉 Thank you. 🙂
Love the cushion cover, it is so beautiful. 🙂
I do like the bag —sorry for your trouble, but please start speaking to it again. It’s sorry, I’m sure, 😉 I have been sidetracked by the arm on your bench. My parents had a wing-chair with very similar arms, so I tripped down memory lane and got a bit lost. Yes, back to the bag — it really is lovely and the little flower is adorable. Good job. Smile! 🙂