I recently chatted with Beth, the force behind Planet Purl, on one of their live chats. As a precursor to the chat, I developed a free pattern for a Mini Bobble Bag. What fun!  Take a listen to our CHAT. While we were talking, one of the people listening asked about the first felted bags I ever made and I promised to write a blog entry . . . well, much too late to strike while the iron was hot, here it is.

If you’ve heard me speak or taken a class from me, you might have heard the story of how I fell in love with felted bags.  You see, I was never a bag person.  Some people drool over bags, skulk through the bag sections of department stores looking for something novel, the slightest persuasion for them to purchase a new one.  Not me.  I would get some severe looking black bag, as slim as possible, and that is what I would carry every day until it looked terrible.  Then I’d move on to the next one.

All this changed one day.  I was working in a yarn store and one of the owners came back from the big trade show with a felted bag pattern.  She had made one up and felted it before coming to work. There it sat on the counter when I came in to work. I was smitten. Had to make one right away.  And another. The first was a tiny bag I carried for a long time with just a wallet (small wallet) and keys in it.  Maybe a lipstick.

The second, or was that the first, was a little backpack with a flap that was much too heavy.

The third was supposed to be a large backpack. . . but turned into a very large knitting basket (sorry, I think I gave it away because I don’t have it anymore). And so I was off to the races, making bags all the time.  Posing problems for myself:  what if I used pink mohair and made red bobbles (pretty cool results as the mohair adds both texture and color complexity). What if I . . . what if I. . .

As you might know, my love affair with the bag, the purse, the tote, the vessel, is far from over.