Felted Flap Purse

Felted Flap Purse

Machine: 9mm bulky
Tension Dial: T9
Yarn: Approx. 250 grams of 100% worsted weight wool. (this was a self striping wool from Yarn Treehouse on Ebay. For reference, it's about the same weight as Knit Picks Wool of the Andes)
Finished Dimensions: 9.5"wide x 8" tall x 2.5"deep. 32" shoulder strap

Strap and Bottom/Sides of Bag:
CO 14 stitches and knit 400 rows. Join cast on edge to last row being careful not to twist the strap. Remove from machine.

Back of Bag:
COR. Row counter at 0. With the strap seam at 0 in the middle of the needlebed and purl side facing you, pick up 50 stitches (25-0-25) evenly across (I picked up bars and bumps until it got a little tight then skipped a bump so the strap wasn't too stretched out. I didn't want it to pucker since the strap is also the bottom of the bag). Knit 1 row.
COL. Pick up a bar stitch from strap and hang it on each end of the row. Knit 2 rows, COL. Continue in this manner until 80 rows have been knit and back stitch bind off.

Front of Bag:
Same as Back of Bag except after 80 rows do not bind off. Continue knitting 55 more rows (RC=135) without picking up strap stitches to create the fold over flap. Back stitch bind off.

Felt:
I put my bag into a zippered pillowcase cover and ran it through one hot wash/cold rinse and spin cycle and viola! It was just right :) I put a large cereal box into it for the shaping as it dried.

Oh, and this pattern is free for your personal use, Copyright Clarisse Gibson 2007 All Rgihts Reserved. Please do not sell my pattern or include it in any collection of patterns for sale without my written permission. I know I've seen similar purse patterns on the internet, but I made this one up because I had an idea of what I wanted and I didn't want to spend the time searching the web for a pattern that I probably didn't have the right yarn for anyway. So I hope I haven't inadvertently re-created someone else's pattern, if so, please let me know and I'll take my version off my blog.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll be embellishing this one with some ribbon and beads on the corners of the flap. As soon as I find the right beads, I'll put up another photo when it's done.