my creative space: a new bag for a lovely friend

I made a great little bag for my lovely friend, Maria! She had been eyeing off my bag which I made ages ago. It's a bit worn and much loved now but she has always really liked it, so she asked me to make her one! Of course, I was happy too :)

She bought the fabric from IKEA... love their fabric designs! She requested a slightly bigger bag than mine, so I altered the pattern to about 5cm bigger, end result - width 38cm x height 30cm. It's a great size and I think I'm going to make myself a new one!

:: Maria's bag - front with a front pocket

Maria's bag - back

Maria's bag -  happy fabric inside

I am so please with how it turned out and so was Maria, so much so that she sent me a photo of her and her new bag out, having dinner... too funny!

Maria and her new bag at dinner :)
photo - courtesy of Maria

 I am so glad she loves it :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

post note: Maria comissioned me to make it for her :)

Oh dear... can I please cry on your shoulder....

Remember the bag I was knitting the other week....this one... well... I finished knitting it and it looked excellent, ready for felting! It ended up being quite a big bag (height 52cm x width 56cm) but was confident that it would shrink a lot after felting!

:: knitted and ready for felting

 And I loved how the i-cord turned out too... a very helpful tutorial here.

:: I love my i-cord

I couldn't wait to felt it - which basically means chucking it into the washing machine on a hot wash! I had no idea how it was going to turn out... I was excited, scared, petrified and crossing my fingers for 2 hours while it went through the washing cycle!
When I pulled it out of the washing machine... argghhh... felting disaster!!! I'm quite (VERY) upset/devastated! All that knitting ruined...
sob sob sob... sorry I'll wipe all those tears off your shoulder! :(

:: felting disaster...

:: the middle section didn't felt :(

The top and bottom felted perfectly (love those bits) but NOT the middle section... the section of wool that I dyed and it faded a bit too! I have a feeling that the wool may shrunk a bit from when I dyed it, so I think that's why it wouldn't felt! Drat!! :(

I am rather devastated... I've tried to think of ways to rescue the good felted bits.. I've unpicked the bad section and tried a few things ie. like a fabric section, but it just didn't work!

Oh well... things can't turn out perfectly every time, hey! I have learnt a lot! So now it's back to the drawing/knitting board for me... I REALLY want to make this bag! This time I have done a felted test patch of the wool I've bought, so I know it will work! I am, again, the crazy obsessed knitter in my house!

Hope you are having a better day!
Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder  xxx