Crochet / Felted Purse Patterns

I've been working on these for a while, and finally finished the patterns for my two favorite purses. Both are crocheted with a 4.5mm hook with 100% wool yarn, and felted in a washing machine. Both are designed to hold a notebook in the back pocket, a cell phone, and a chapstick for easy access. Either one would be a great project. And both are available to purchase for $4.95 on Etsy and on Ravelry.

Joanie Purse
Buy on Ravelry

Mobile / Content Purse
Buy on Ravelry

green resalvaged purse

So I started this purse MONTHS ago, and it just didn't turn out the way I imagined it once it felted... I used a different brand of yarn for the base when I ran out of the expensive yarn for the rest of the purse, and it shrunk a lot more... plus for some reason the whole thing just looked crazy-misshapen when it was done. So I put it away for a while, and then wound up cutting a whole lot off of it, made a new base (and felted it separately) and hand-sewed the pieces back together to make a new purse.

So this is the final product. I like the color, but it still didn't wind up exactly right, so it doesn't sit well. I don't know if I'll use it much, but that's the story of my disaster purse.

In other news, I have a couple of other purses that I not only slaved over, but I even wrote patterns for them. But right now we're using the laundromat at our apartment complex, and it turns out the hot water cycle there isn't hot enough to actually felt them. So they're just sitting in my house waiting for me to figure out a way to get these felted.

Whenever that happens and I have final products (to make sure they actually look good when they're finished) then I want to find a couple of people to test the patterns to make sure they work. I'll let y'all know when I have something to show.

The Gourd Purse

I made this a month or so ago, but just finally got around to having The Chris photograph it for me. Both pieces are crocheted with Lion Wool, using a popcorn stitch for the bumps, then felted. I call this my gourd purse because once it was done I decided it looks very much like a gourd, although I don't think that was the intention.

In case it's hard to tell from the photos, the purse has a small handle and a large one; the large handle fits through the small one to close up the purse for carrying it. That does mean it takes a little more work to get things out of it, because you have to slide the handle out, but it's so cute that I decided I'm okay with it. I'm pretty happy with the metal ring for an accent, too... it's great for clipping my keys onto. And the little orange cozy is actually the perfect size for my ipod mini, but I find it comes in handy to hold my Marta card, my apartment complex gate card, and my chapsticks. You know, all the little things I need to have handy at a moment's notice.

And since this shade of green is currently my favorite color, the gourd has become my favorite purse.

I made these up on the fly and I'm still terrible and writing out patterns as I go, so I'm no help there. Sorry.

more felt coasters!

Friends of ours got married this weekend, and they requested handmade gifts for their wedding, so I decided to make another set of felt coasters for them. This time I went with brown and tan, and I actually steam-ironed them to make them more flat and well formed.

Chris suggested I do different designs on each coaster, instead of doing the same thing for each one like I did for my gray set. He thinks they look like crazy monsters, so while that wasn't my intention when I started, I guess the grommet can't help but look like an eye... but that means I have some pretty deformed monster coasters!

I'm also working on a couple other ideas with felt circles, but those will take a while to finish. I did make a couple other crazy felt things this past week that I'll have to get Chris to photograph... it was a crafty week for the Kendra.

I've got all sorts of ideas for things I want to make, and some of them are things Chris and I can work on together, which is really exciting... I think we make a good team, skill-wise. So hopefully we're able to do some of the things that have been floating around in my head, and then I'll have all kinds of new stuff to post later. But probably things will slow down the rest of this month, because we are moving to a new apartment soon, and I have some freelance stuff that needs to take precedence over crafty fun. Alas!

the coasters (above), and the trivet (below)