8 April: Not the string bag

Finally finished the felted bag that's been in progress for what seems like ages.

After felting in the washing machine, of course the pattern lost its definition - and all the time and effort that went into drawing up the design, and then working it! (In real it's more blurred than in the photo - a nice reversal of my usual photography.)

Then it took ages thinking how to make a suitable strap, and what sort of closure to do. I'd previously made a similar felted bag, from millspun yarn, for which I wove an inkle strap, and used a braid tie for a closure - and didn't like them; the strap not chunky enough, and the closure inefficient and fiddly.

Eventually I knitted and felted a strap, and sewed in a zip. I made a tag for the zip from a boxwood acorn off a blind I took down from a window in a house 30 or so years ago - the little hoard of odds and ends does come in useful sometimes!

Here's the new bag with the older one -