Serendipity

I knit this bag for my SFBE partner. She said she wanted something BIG. She likes to make a statement with her bag…so I considered making ZOE (from MagKnits, I tried to link but it's not up in the archive yet). The description of the bag was perfect for a mom of toddlers. (At the time I still had another ruffle OTN.) When I finished my Ruffles to Riches from Pursenalities, I knew I knew ZOE wasn’t for her. Well, at least not for me to knit for her. The ruffle takes a bit of attention to get it to lay right. I couldn’t handle the responsibility of knitting a ruffle for someone else, especially when I know how my perfectionism might bring me to reknit/refelt said bag. So I found the Market Bag from Knit Picks. (Okay, so they’ve added new free patterns to their site, and the one I printed is gone) I started with this pattern, except when I wanted to CO I couldn’t find my #13 circ, and all the pursenalities patterns use #15’s, so I just went ahead with the 15’s. I CO 60 stitches for the bottom of the bag, and knit in garter for 30 rows. Then I picked up stitches around and knit slipping a stitch at each corner of the bag, every other row. At the end of my 5th ball of yarn…this bag was HUGE.

I couldn’t get more yarn in the same dye-lot. I definitely didn’t have time to start over. I BO and decided to felt. Then came my felting disaster or serendipitous moment…depending on how you look at it. It shrunk only in height…none in width. Usually felting isn’t even in height and width…but there’s some width shrinkage. By my calculations, the bag should have shrunk 3” more in the width and 1” less in the height. Now that I look at the finished bag, I’m thrilled with it. It couldn’t have turned out better. When I pulled the bag out of the washer, I sort of freaked. The wet felt looked more like a window box planter than any sort of a purse. I blocked it over a box…and prayed while it dried. When it was partially dry, I added binder clips to pinch the folds at the top. 6 clips total. 1 at each corner, and 1 at each end to pull in the pleats. When the bag dried, it was the finishing that gave it’s shape. I used doubled wool to satin stitch the pleat inside the bag. (I wish I had a photo of that) Then satin stitched the corners together. I needed pliers to pull the needle through the 4 layers of felted wool. I made a small I-cord and felted it to use as the loop for the button. And finally I attached 30” leather braid straps. I love the denim yarn! Perfect for the jeans and T-shirt wardrobe of a mom. K.Anne, if you’re reading this…could you add the finished dimensions in a comment. I totally blanked on measuring the bag.