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Oct 02
2007
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Pattern: “Booga Bag” from Black Sheep Bags
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in colour #178
Yardage: 3 skeins
Needles: 7.00 mm bamboo 24” circular
My Booga Bag is finished! This was a really fun project. The knitting was simple and colourful and the end product is great. The long colour transitions in the Noro yarn are fun to watch as they emerge and I like the gradual striping they create.
I forgot to take any pre-felting pictures (I’d completely meant to but didn’t get the camera out until after it was in the sink) so you’ll just have to picture some basic stocking stitch with a slightly loose gauge in the same colours as my finished bag. Pre-felt measurement were 25 cm x 12 cm for the bottom of the bag and 31 cm for the height. I felted the i-cord handle with the bag.
I decided to felt my bag in the sink instead of in the washer since I live in an apartment building and don’t have a lot of control over my washing machine. There is something a little surreal about putting a piece of wool knitting into a sink of hot soapy water and then smashing it around with a wooden spoon.
Booga Bag and i-cord in the sink.
It spent about an hour from start to finish. Most of the agitation was with the spoon but I did some rubbing by hands when the water was cool enough. I rinsed the felt with alternating hot and cold water which tightened it up a bit and then left it to dry over a shoe box. Measurements were 23 cm x 12 cm for the bottom and 25 cm for the height.
I-cord after the first felting - stitches are still slightly visible.
After it was dry I checked out the felt. It looked nice - not too fuzzy and the colour transitions looked good - but it was still a bit stretchy and I could see through the stitches a bit.
I decided to have a second go at felting and dropped the bag into a sink of really hot soapy water and let the fibres soften up until it was cool enough to put my hands in. This time around I felted by rubbing the fabric between my hands and working methodically around the bad to make sure no spots were missed. It might have been better to rub a little less vigourously - I had to trim a good number of pills off the outside of my bag when I was done - but I managed to produce a nice sturdy felt that was dense but still flexible.
I-cord after the second felting - stitches are no longer visible.
Once again my bag had to dry over the box. Measurements this time were 22 cm x 11 cm for the bottom and 24 cm for the height. This evening I pulled it off the box and, following the pattern directions, made holes in the sides for the handles. I cut my i-cord in half and threaded it through then spent a while standing in front of the mirror trying to determine the perfect handle length.
Katy, Liette and I are doing a Booga Bag Knit-A-Long - yesterday we met in the pub for some knitting and dessert. This has been a long awaited project - Katy had to come back from school, I had to get married, Liette had to find her needles - and now that we’re started we are just whippingalong. After just one evening of knitting (and a few minutes after we finished winding all of Katy and Liette’s new yarn on Monday) all three of us are finished the bottom of the bag and starting to work our way up the sides. The yarn is Noro Kurayon (or Silk Garden in Liette’s case) and the long colour changes make knitting it up really fun. We’re planning to meet again next Wednesday to knit some more - we might be half way finished by then!