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FO: Cable Top Buttonhole Bag

Project spectrumI am glad to finally have a new FO to post about. It's my cable top buttonhole bag for Project Spectrum April.

Cable Top Buttonhole Bag

Yarn: Plymouth Galway (3 skeins), scraps of accent yarn
Needles: US 10.5 24 inch circular
Pattern: Original

I had a vision of this bag in my mind as I was knitting it and it did't quite pan out the way I had hoped (hmm it looks a lot like the before picture!), but that's the fun of felting (especially untested patterns). I'm quite suprised really, I thought the cable top was going to shrink a lot more given the orientation of the stitches. Anyway, this experiement has given me the material to make a better bag pattern for the next one.

One of the things that you rarely here of when felting, especially bags, is the problem of the fabric felting too fast. I usually expect to run two complete washes with every project, but when I pulled this little bag out of the cold rinse it had already felted *too* much. Incredible. I've felted with Galway before and new it was a Champion Felter, but this was ridiculous. The second problem was uneven felting. I fixed this as best as I could during blocking. The third little irritation is the flaring about the buttonhole. My caston was too stretchy there and I knew it. So I SCed around it to tighten it up but it wasn't enough really.

Anyway, I think the next iteration of this bag will have two cables at the top with the buttonhole between them. This will ameliorate the flaring issue. There will be more crocheted accents on the body fabric, as well as some different shaping to get the effect that I am looking for.

Isn't the Kitty button cute? It's hand carved from applewood by a local artisan.


May is Green

Comments

Anonymous said…
I really like it! Especially the cable detailing on the top!
May 20, 2006 at 12:21 PM
Teyani said…
I think that the bag is WONDERFUL !
I love the cabled top - and the flower w/kitty button is so cute!
You designed this pattern??? whoa - that's so cool. Rock on girl.

and btw - I love the little photo at the end of your post of the leaves - you take some amazing pictures.. I'm betting that this was on your porch. :-)
May 21, 2006 at 10:10 AM
Craftybernie said…
I love the bag - and the cabled top is very creative! I'd love to have a go at a border like that. Regarding the 'saggy' handles, have you tried just re-felting that specific area? I had a similar problem and I fixed it with soap and a nail brush. Providing the wool you used to SC it is the feltable/same as main bag, it should tighten the area up.

Good luck. Hope your pattern works out and look forward to seeing the finished article.

Thanks for your comments re shaving felted bags.

Best wishes....Bernie

www.craftybernie.blogspot.com (my knit blog)
www.fairystuff.blogspot.com (my handmade flower fairies)
www.beadingbernie.blogspot.com (my beaded stuff)
May 21, 2006 at 5:06 PM
Anonymous said…
I love, love, love the bag! So cute with the crochet accent & the kitten button. Very cool origianl FO!
May 21, 2006 at 8:05 PM
Bonnie O. said…
The orange is lovely and I like the cable. I think a cable on top and bottom of the handle opening will be cute, too.
May 22, 2006 at 7:53 PM
Miri Mack said…
Thanks, Lori!

Teyani, thanks and you're right. :)

Thanks for the advice bernadettle. The handles aren't saggy actually, it's the bottom portion of the buttonhole that's flaring more than I'd like.

Thanks so much Kristin!

Hey, Bonnie, thanks. I can't wait to try that out myself.
May 25, 2006 at 6:45 AM
LadyLinoleum said…
I think that bag is faboo! I love the way the cable felted. Stunning. And, I'm an orange girl so it's double stunning in my book.
May 25, 2006 at 4:43 PM
Larjmarj said…
I like it and I like the way the top cabled edge felted. The color...awesome! I think felting usually has to be tweaked to get it to do what you want it to, or at least that's been my experience.
May 26, 2006 at 6:06 PM
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