This is the Bag of Tricks, so named because it was a series of one trial and error endeavor after another. This was my first felted project. I had a pile of hand dyed yarn balls of various sizes and weights that I had randomly thrown into various dye pots over a couple of years. And I also had six 4 oz skeins of natural Maine worsted weight wool. So I dyed up the white wool looking for a vaguely cranberryish color. And since I can only fit four skeins at a time in my dyeing set up I had two dye baths, or dye lots as it were. So I dyed four, and then I took two of those and threw them into the second dye bath....thereby ending up with three dye lots of cranberryish colors. The background shades on this bag gradate from darkest on the bottom to lighter on the top, although I don't think that is apparent in this photo. I randomly combined various weights of wool/cashmere/mohair for the flower shapes using a Fair Isle technique and knit the bag in one big round shape. The finished bag is about 24 inches wide, so the knitted pre-felted bag was about 36 inches wide or 72 inches around approximately. I planned for the handle to fold over as you can glimpse in the top of the photo, but my intention was for the bag to be a square shape.

I mentioned this was my first felting project didn't I? Some might say that your first project should be something small, particularly since my knitting style is intensely experimental. To which I say, whatever...... So I threw a knitted thing the size of half a sleeping bag in the hot sudsy water in the washing machine, along with a pair of sneakers to aid in agitation. And I sat beside that washing machine waiting for something to happen. Periodically I drew out the soggy thing and measured it to see if it was shrinking. First it wasnn't, then it still wasn't, and then it was....but much more so down at the bottom where the patterned portion was, and not so much up by the handles where the plain wool knitting was. The thing was getting all gaflooie at the top, and not in a good way. So I spun the water out of it and took it out of the machine. Then I used a garbage bag full of books to shove inside it to shape it whilst drying. It took two days to dry and the entire time I paced around it muttering under my breath and cursing my character which is prone to biting off more than I can chew so to speak. And then it happened....the breakthrough idea that changed this Mistake into a splended Design Innovation! I walked by my fabric stash as I was muttering and noticed that a faded teal pair of worn out linen pants was a very pretty color with the bag. And then I remembered the stretched out elastic at the waistband....This was my Eureka moment. I cut the legs off the pants and sewed them shut. Then I inserted them into the bag and folded the knitted facing over the top of the tired elastic so that the top of the bag gathered in, but was still loose enough to reach inside and put things in. And, this is the brilliant cherry on top here, the pants had pockets. So inside the bag I have two long pockets, one on each side, to hold wallets, knitting projects, gum, change, what have you so that everything doesn't disappear in the bottom in that confusing and annoying way.

So there you have it, a Bag of Tricks, which is a much better name than Bag of Accumulated Error don't you think?