Hot off the hook ~ Class Sample

... and hot out of my washer -- and dryer -- a felted crocheted bag based upon a pattern featured in the new book by Eva Wiechmann, ""Crocheted Pursenalities ~ 20 Great Felted Bags." Since class participants will be using this new book, I had fun crocheting up the bag I'll be using as the class sample. Quoting Mr. Dee who inspected the bag last night, I added my "stamp of creative changes" in it -- but not so much that the design wouldn't be recognizable.  I want the purse to reflect to my students that while it's OK to follow the road map before you (aka the pattern), it is also OK to take your crochet for a little "off roading" -- to explore new possibilities.

One of the changes I'll share today is that I utilized two buttons -- two perfectly circular buttons -- to create a look I wanted.  Since the bag is asymmetrical, I thought the button should be too.  So I sewed one button on top of the other, off centering the smaller button.  I rather like the way it came out, don't you? 

And a tip passed on to me by the ever-wonderful & talented Margaret Hubert:  Usually felting in my washer is a very long ordeal, at times taking as much as an hour running back & forth to the washing machine to keep it agitating.  Margaret mentioned to our CGOA Chapter last month that she boils up some water on her stove and then carefully adds it to the wash cycle while she's felting.  I tried this -- and within the first wash cycle I got the felting results I wanted!  Her tip worked; I just needed much hotter water! (For the safety of our children, I completely forgot that we have the temperature on our hot water tank on low! No wonder it took ages to do my felting!) Thank you, Margaret!!