Felted Rose Karaoke Bag

Behold! The bag as it blocks!

Following the felted flower bag craze, this bag is a fun creation knit out of Karaoke, a new yarn releasing to the public this July from Southwest Trading Company.

I had the distinct pleasure of being able to play with multiple colors of Karaoke - a different one for each of the twelve flowers that adorn the bag. I must say, they did come out quite lovely - after I did some minor repairs after the first wash.

Pattern: Designed by Sue Morgan - Sue has quite a number of designs floating around - a quick google turned up a bunch of cute patterns available on Get Knitted - look in the Bags & accessories - Kits and Patterns section! She even has a bag that features knitted daisies!

Yarn: SWTC Karaoke, multiple shades.

Comments: Worked in the round, this bag was quick and easy to knit. I cranked this baby out in about a week. If you dislike seaming like I do, I knit the tabs right onto the bag body as I bound off - a much better option for me than knitting them separately and attaching them later - especially since there are fourteen of them! While it has been through my washer twice, it could probably felt down more if I was determined - I have a front loader, so it typically takes a few extra runs through.

Apparently my CRC is still good for something :)

As you can see, the bag was fairly large to begin with - prefelt measurements were approximately as follows:

Straps: 25 inches (63.5 cm), 145 rows of i-cord! I knit them a little longer than called for and still think they might do better a mite longer - only time will tell as the bag sees some use.

Bag Base: 11 x 5 1/4 inches (28 x 13.3 cm)

Bag Height: 13 inches (33 cm)

After going through two washes in my machine with some other things thrown in to add friction, the bag had shrunk - mostly to compress the rows. I noticed no change in the Bag width, but the base had shrunk to 4 1/2 inches (11.4 cm) deep and 10 inches (25.4 cm) in height. Why the metric conversions? Its just in case the designer visits and is curious on measurements - she's from the UK! As I mention, it could probably felt down more, but I'm a smidge time constrained as this is a test knit that needs to get back.

The only problem I encountered was when I took the bag out of the machine after the first wash - seems simply affixing the flowers via the loose tail that was pulled thru the remaining stitches at the end (to make them curl on themselves) wasn't quite enough - some of the flowers were looking rather droopy and not happy - I quickly reinforced them, threading yarn through the various layers of the flower in order to more securely attach them. They would be even more adorable with little leaves, a la the Vogue Rose Basket Bag. Clustering the flowers more closely together in a couple spots, rather than evenly distributing them along the top edge might also make a nice variation. And to make it more purse sized, I'd probably not knit it not quite so deep - the bonus of that is less yarn required and faster finishing time!