Felted Geometric Tote

Felting this tote was a lesson in over-confidence. This is the Felted Geometric Tote from Iris Schreier's book Modular Knits, and for this first attempt I used 1-1/2 skeins of Lion Wool Prints, colorway Majestic Mountain, on US size 8 24-inch circulars. I have renamed it the Tiny Tote, because after putting it through 3 powerwash cycles in my front loader without checking it between cycles, I added insult to injury by leaving it overnight. It had shrunk from tote-size to a tiny 5 inches by 6 inches, and the front and back had partially felted together and had to be physically ripped apart. The lovely multidirectional diamond pattern is barely visible. The strap did not shrink proportionally, and the piece I cut off to make the loop fastener dwarfed the whole bag. I made a short length of I-cord and sewed the ends into spirals on the back of the bag, added a snap to the inside of the bag, and used a Peruvian clay peacock bead for the fastener.

This cute little bag will be sent off to Sarah, whose favorite color is amethyst, and who played a peacock in the Summer Stage production of "Honk!" at Camden County College 2 years ago.