A scarf is a traditional first knitting project, but I like the idea of doing a felted item because the felting process will eliminate some of the issues with inconsistent tension that a new knitter may have. I offer this felted bag, my own pattern, modeled on a leather knit bag I bought many years ago at a department store. It was a favorite of mine and I'm sorry to say that it was stolen out of my car while parked in front of a sign that said not to leave valuables in the car. I was in the highest park on Mt. Tabor in Portland and I suggest that you heed the warning if you ever visit. The bag pictured measures 6" tall by 8" inches wide not including strap.
Felting involves washing the knitted object, which mats the yarn, usually until you can no longer distinguish the stitches. Often felted knitting projects are knit to a giant size with huge needles and then shrunk down to normal size. We will knit a bag that will be just slightly larger than the finished project. You can adjust the size and shape of the bag to your liking in which case you may use more or less yarn than I specify below. We'll discuss felting and fulling on Tuesday.
Supplies:
- about 220 yards of a worsted weight yarn that can be felted, a natural fiber like wool, make sure it's not labeled "superwash" or "washable" as those won't felt
- US size 7 or 8 needles, EITHER a circular needle (about 24" long) OR a set of straight needles and a set of double pointed needles
If you need information on yarn weights (like what worsted weight means), yarnstandards.com has a nice reference chart.
12 comments:
So far I like the first project. My only complaint is that the process seems so slow and it never looks like I am making any progress. I think once I am done with the main part of the bag it will be different.
The previous comment about the lack of progress is mine. - Mary Pearce
as of now, im not a big fan of the pressure im under to complete the projects on time. i think that beginners should be awarded more time for projects since they can't knit half the speed as advanced knitters
I finally feel I am making progress on my bag, but I have a long way to go! I am very slow at this and get frustrated when I screw up. Tonight I am excited that I am making progress and I think I will feel very accomplished when I finish this project. I am very nervous, however, that I will not be able to finish this and start a hat at the same time! Cassie
I think that I had really high expectations for my bag and that I maybe should have made it smaller than what it turned out as. Given this, I do like the end result.
-Stephanie Soiseth
I didn't think the bag was too bad for our first project. It was very time consuming, however. But it was really nice practice for our other projects...especially with purling. I thought that purling was the hardest and slowest part of this project and was where I made all my mistakes. Overall, I didn't think the project was too bad, just a lot of work.
Ashley Koepp
After completing the first project, I was really happy with the outcome and how it looked. Throughout the week, it definitely became easier to do, as well as, quicker. I discovered different techniques that I could use that sped up the whole project, for example, the way I held my hands made a huge difference. Also, I think the felting worked tremendously and my errors no longer show.
I really liked that the first project was felted because it hid any mistakes I made. In the beginning though it was very frustrating getting used to alternating between knitting and purling. Other than that, the felted bag was pretty simple.
I like the hat much more than I liked the purse. I think it was more fun to do because there are different colors and you are doing more than just knitting the whole time.
the last comment again was mine haha, Mary
I think that I like the mittens the best. They take a while to get going, but they are the most fun and after learning all of the other techniques it is simple to make the mitten. The only trouble I think I will run into is trying to make my mittens look alike. After doing the first one I think I know more of what to do and what not to do. Hopefully it will work out for me.
-Mary
I liked doing the final project the most. I liked how we could choose to do anything that we wanted. I just wished we had more time to complete the project because I had to alter my pattern but overall I am happy with how it turned out.
Mary
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