Felting results

So, I had a chance to felt my purses the other day.  I learned a TON, hah!  So, lets start with the before picture, just as a reminder.

So the knit bag is on the left and the single crochet bag on the right.  As you can see the knit is just slightly wider than the crochet, but because it is felted, that doesn't matter.  They were both 10" high from bottom to top, plus the base which wasn't very wide.

Last night I put both into a pillow case, tied it up (to keep the loose fibers from getting into the machine) and put them on a hot/warm washing cycle.  This was a top loading washer with a center agitator.  The hot water loosens up the fibers so that they are open to one another, and the agitation makes the little microscopic hooks within the wool fiber catch together and result in shrinking the item.  That is what I wanted it to do.  Every few minutes I checked to check on the progress.  What I think I failed to do was check on both of them every time.  This is the final result.  The knit bag is on the left, the crochet on the right.

As you can see...I screwed up.  Apparently stockinette-stitch knit items felt A LOT faster than single crocheted items.  I should have taken out the knit bag much earlier, or I should have felted them separately.  So, that is a good thing to know.  The crochet bag isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but it is close.  I'm not positive if I screwed up on that one or if that is just how it comes out. I expected it to be slightly wider, I suppose.  The crochet bag shrunk, length wise, about an inch.  The knit bag shrunk about 3.  Either way the crochet bag it is cute and nicely sized.  I am thinking about turning the smaller one into a wallet - adding a zipper or something so that stuff doesn't fall out.  But we'll see.  When I decide I will show you that, too.

In any case this was a really good learning experience and I will take away lots of lessons from my mess up.  I am slightly annoyed, but I can't really beat myself up too much over it.  Things happen.  And honestly, I only need one bag, I only made the second because I had more yarn.  If I wanted I could make yet another because I still have plenty of yarn left over.  I will think about it!

In the same load I decided to put the new baby bonnet that I made as well.  It was exceedingly stiff and kind of rough.  I didn't add any detergent, just the hot water.  Apparently it was enough to "kill" the acrylic, because now the hat is floppy and super soft.  Killing acrylic yarn is what you do rather than blocking.  Because it isn't wool it wont keep its shape (especially in stockinette) unless you kill it.  I have heard of people using an iron over top of a piece to kill the acrylic - apparently washing in super hot water has a similar effect.  Also a great thing to know!  Now the item that I "killed" in the wash wasn't in stockinette stitch.  I am not positive that it will turn out the same way, I will have to test it some time.  But in the meantime I am really happy with how it softened up the baby bonnet, now it is super cute and soft enough for baby.  

This is where a baby head goes!

This is the opposite side view.  The circular pattern actually goes up onto the baby head, otherwise it would not come up far enough on the head.  I will try to get a baby to put this on so that you can understand a bit better, perhaps.