colorsong yarn - featuring Fleece Artist and Hand Maiden yarns

Fleece Artist Felted Bag Kit

Your new best friend

Mouse over each swatch to see the full kit.
Click on a swatch to select the color to order.

$36.95

Please note that there is only 1 of each kit shown - it may be possible to order more of a particular colorway, but this should not be confused with matching a dyelot or duplicating an existing kit. Each is unique, individually handcrafted, one-of-a-kind and ultimately very beautiful.

Each Fleece Artist Felted Bag Kit contains:

Blue-Face Leicester Aran: 100% Wool; 375m/410yds; 250g/8.82oz.

The pattern for the Felted Bag Finished size: approx. 12" high x 26" diameter with 12" straps. Size will vary with degree of felting.

Suggested needle size: 5.5mm/US 9 24" circular needle

Need needles? We have them here.

*****

This kit demonstrates the challenges we yarn sellers face -- how on earth to persuade ourselves to let go of even one of these kits, they are all so wonderful? But, such is life -- besides, what fun would it be if I were the only one to get to taste the delight of making and then having this beautiful bag? So, of course I'll share. I'll even tell you that if you have never felted anything before, this is a great place to start -- the pattern is straightforward and easy to accomplish and the felting instructions are so simple that they should take the anxiety out of the experience. See the side bar for a little more information on machine felting, too.

Felted Bag

A few things about felting that I've learned along the way:

1. You don't need hot water, warm water will do.

2. Just a wee bit of shampoo or mild soap will do -- like maybe a tablespoon or so.

3. A top loading washing machine is one of the fastest felting tools on the planet -- check your bag every minute (I'm not kidding) until it is the size and shape you want it to be.

4. A front loading washing machine is not one of the world's fasted felting tools -- but you can get great results if you follow a few simple principles. Here's what I do on my Maytag Nepture (you may need to adjust this for other brands):

set the agitation level to cotton/sturdy
set the temperature to hot/cold.
15 minutes in a Neptune equals 1 minute in a top loader. Check after 15 minutes, then check every 10 minutes thereafter until your bag is the way you want it to be. I wear a sports timer to tell me when to peek again.
most front loaders lock the door - when it's time to check, just hit stop and walk away for 3 minutes, then open, look, and start again if needed.
never, ever allow the machine to go into the rinse/spin cycles - this will crease your felt and you'll have to start all over again. Reset the wash cycle if you see you're nearing the rinse cycle.