Booga Bag

First off I'd like to apologize for the poor picture quality. Taking pictures at night isn't the best idea but I was so excited when it was finished that I couldn't wait! Plus the days have been gray and dreary here lately anyway. Now... to the booga!

This was my first felting project and I have to say I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. I knit it with Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Mist, Fog, and Blueberry. Much cheaper than Noro Kureyon and I still got the nice stripey effect.

Here's a shot of me hard at work. Dell is hard at work too. Catching up on his beauty sleep. Such a good kitty! Look how he could care less about all that dangly yarn!

This was my first experience with Knitpicks and my first time knitting with wool. I think I'm hooked. I've felt wool in the LYS before but it never appealed to me. I have sensitive skin and thought all wool would be too itchy. Even the merino blends felt rough. But I have to admit... this wool didn't bother me at all! I loved the feel of it and couldn't stop rubbing the bag against my cheek. I'll definitely be a returning Knitpicks customer.

Dell seems to agree :)

With a lot of spare time on my hands, the entire bag only took me about 4 days to complete. I thought the I-cord was going to be a pain but it went really quick. This was my first time knitting stripes too so I got to learn how to carry colors up along the side of my bag and up through the middle of the I-cord. Fun stuff :) I'd read comments from other people who have made Booga Bags in the past and saw that it came out smaller than a lot of people expected. Since I like bigger purses I cast on a few extra stitches and did a few extra rounds. Here's the unfelted bag..

I made hubby come down to the laundry room with me to felt it around 8 o'clock Monday night. I quizzed him for an upcoming test he has and kept an eye on the felting progress. I was checking it every 5 minutes. Almost two wash cycles later I had a felted bag. I couldn't believe how easy this was! It was like magic. I blocked it over some VHS tapes, gave it a buzz with hubby's electric hair clippers to remove some fuzz, did battle with some dpns and scissors and voila! My first felted bag :)

It came out a bit more square than the one pictured on the pattern but I don't care! I suppose I could have stretched it out to make it longer while blocking but I like it just the way it is. Imperfections make it one of a kind :)