Saturday, January 29, 2005

Cute as a button

I had a great time with a new little project this week. I was feeling the need to felt something (after all, I hadn't made any felted object in over a month!) and decided a cute little purse would fill the bill. Then I found myself blog surfing, and came across the perfect answer to my felting craving.

It's the Buttonhole Bag, designed by the multi-talented Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting. She so graciously shared a darling pattern, (or "unpattern" as she calls it) and it's a snap to make.

Here's the bag before it hit the washing machine. At this point, it measured about 13 1/2" wide and 11" tall.



And after some time in the hot suds, here's what came out.



Oh, how I do love it! It's the perfect size for me, (11 1/4" x 8 1/4") and just so fun to look at. It may be hard to tell from the photos, but the bottom is knit in a medium shade of lavender, and the trim around the top is a little leftover teal I had from another project. All three colors are Lamb's Pride worsted, which I knit double-stranded. (Note: Kay's pattern calls for Lamb's Pride BULKY, also doubled!)

Anyway, I love that it knit up so fast...but now I have the urge to knit it again! Next up on the needles: brown and turquoise for my daughter. I think I feel some late-night TV knitting coming on...

10 comments:

Jessica said...

That is a really cute bag. Great job.

Donna said...

That is an adorable little bag! I'm going to run over and take a look at their pattern. I'm in a felting mood myself.

Lisa P said...

So cute!

Kyra said...

I trotted right over there and copied off the pattern. I've been browsing for a new felting obsession ever since Sophie, and I think this might be it!

Hillrunnergirl said...

Leslie,

Thanks for posting this...I had a great time making mine. And guess what...TAG, you're it...check out my blog on 2 Feb to see what's been going around the Knitty world!

Leah

General Ginger said...

Fantastic bag! These fun, festively felted handbags are addictive, aren't they?

Judy said...

Yes you are famous!!!

I love the felted bags, what a great style. I want to make one now.

tina said...

that bag is beautiful!
I have a few knitted bags that I will try to felt just to make them a bit stronger.
can't wait to try it :)

Anonymous said...

Clearly I'm WAY behind the trend, but looking at your bag and that on the M&D site (another trend I'm just catching on to after picking up their book), I would love to make one as well. I have some Lamb's Pride Worsted in my stash and was very happy to see that you were able to reproduce the bag fantastically with this doubled, rather than the bulky. I just had a quick question. Did you 4x the yarn for the bottom panel? From what I gathered from Kay's pattern, she doubled up the Bulky yarn to make the bottom of the bag more durable and I was wondering if you did the same (4x the yarn, since the rest was 2x worsted, I'm guessing). Thanks! I hope to hear from you. Sorry for the very, very late post. Your bags are beautiful and are inspiring me to jump on the bandwagon - better late than never!

Leslie said...

Ellen, my notes are a little sketchy but I'm pretty sure I just doubled everything throughout. With all the felting I've done, I've found that it's all trial-and-error. I did add some rows to make the bag a bit taller but you can play with it any way you like! Good luck!