knitted purple furry monster felted ipod bag

Okay, it’s really more of a purse that can also carry an ipod. But it’s more than that, too. It’s the bag I’m making instead of getting an expensive, spiffy, 2nd gen ipod touch. Like those periodic episodes in a woman’s life when a rush to have a baby (hormonal?) becomes oddly intense…and instead she gets a pair of shoes, or a gym membership, or a new job, or a pet fish. I’m knitted a bag. Whatever works.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, I went through my aging, dusty stash, and came up with several balls of complimentary purples. And I discovered that the brain is a very strange thing. Although I had no conscious memory of how to knit, after staring at the cast-on stitches for a good five minutes, the file in my brain on ‘how to knit’ finally booted and, boom, I was knitting like it nothing. Heck, I could do it without looking. Muscle memory is awesome. And not only that, I took one look at my yarn, a chunk skien of lopi icelandic wool, and thought: this will knit up at 3 stitches per inch on a #10 needle, and shrink 30% when felted, so for a 6 inch wide bag, I should cast on 24 stitches in order to end up with the desired width. Freaking weird! Even weirder, that robotic knitter’s voice was absolutely correct.

So, after a couple of days of knitting, I had this:

Time to felt! I’m so crafty.

First, you put your knitted item into a zippered or rubberband-closed pillow case. This will protect your washer from all the fuzz that is generated by felting. Next, put your washer on the lowest water setting and fill with hot soapy water. Then throw in your pillow case and a pair of jeans (something that won’t be bothered by the dye that will come off of your yarn). The clothing item helps increase the agitation on the yarn and speeds up the felting. Put your washer on high agitation and set a timer for five or ten minutes. Go! Yarn abuse! That’s what we’re about here!

At five or ten minutes, check your felting. It’s probably starting to get fuzzy. Put it back in. Reset the timer for another five minutes, or switch to three minutes if things seem to be moving quickly. Check it again when the timer goes off. You might want to start measuring your items when you check them, if you have specific sizes you want. Keep turning the dial on your washer back—DON’T let it begin the rinse cycle.

As you check, you can do a little blocking, too, to help it get into the shape you are looking for. For example, the strap on my bag kept wanting to roll, so I would stretch it back into flat when I pulled it out. Keep checking until your item is just the size and level of feltedness that you want.

Here is my bag after twenty minutes. It’s shrinking and the knitted fabric is felting into a tough, but soft, fabric.

And it’s starting to get fuzzy! But it needs a little more….

Things can happen all of a sudden towards the end, so you may even want to check every one or two minutes when it starts to feel close to ready. On the other hand, sometimes it can taking for-freaking-ever and you stop when you’re too bored to go on with it. But just about everything will felt eventually, so hang in there.

Okay, once your pieces have gotten to the level of feltedness you like, or have shrunk to the size you want, rinse the soap out. Some people do this in the washer, some in a sink, some spin dry, some don’t, for fear of damaging the pieces. For a piece this small, I rinsed in the sink, rolled it up into a towel, and stood on it.

After you’ve got most of the water out, you’re going to block it, that is, mush in into the shape you want it to ultimately keep, and use other objects to hold it in place. The wet felt is quite malleable so you’ve got a lot of maneuvering room. A bowl or bucket for a hat, a book for a rectangular bag (wrap it in plastic), or a bag full of beans, mushed into the right shape, all can work, depending on your project. Stretch and mash the felt until it’s just right and weigh it down or prop it up with your objects. Don’t be afraid to get pretty aggressive with the felt. It’s tough stuff.

Here is the felted bag with a plastic wrapped book inside to give it some depth to it.

I tugged on the strap (hard!) to get it the right length, and I pulled the flap down to the right spot and pinned it in place. Sophie helped. Aren’t her toes cute?

Finally, you wait for it to dry. This part is really, really boring.

But finally, you get your felted item, fuzzy, tough as iron, and cute. A strange, but winning, combination!

The completed bag with the addition of a silver heart button:

And hidden ipod pocket:

Sophie said it looks like purple monster fur. She’s exactly right, of course.

For an excellent description, with photos, that I wish I had read before I had done my bag (for tips, and for confidence) go here.

Happy felting!