Felted Tote

Foiled48 is the Ebayer that I have purchased quite a lot of wool yarn from.  At the end of the summer this year when visiting a fiber fest in Northern Indiana, I was checking out some wool yarn and recognized it.  Sure enough Mr. Foiled48 was standing there in person.  It is a small world.  The colors are beautiful and felting...it is the best felting wool ever.  Give him a try if you don't spin your own or if you do.
 

I crocheted this bag using two colors of wool yarn for the muted colors by creating a rectangle for the bottom and building up using only the top strand of the "v" in the single crochet to work the material straight up not out.  Otherwise you would get a bowl shape instead of a tote shape.  I crocheted to handles for the tote by chaining 100 single crochet and four rows, folding in half and stitching them together.  I felted the tote and handles in hot water my washer and shaped the tote using a cereal keeper (cheap $3 from Wal-mart) which wasn't planned but works great! Of course I took the cereal out before placing the keeper in the tote to dry overnight. 

The pic to the right is the completed bag after adding the handles.  To add the handles since the felted material is sturdy, choose where you want to place them poke a hole through the felted material with a pointy scissors.  Tie a knot to keep the handles in place.  I made it pretty deep so my stuff doesn't fall out and even my new Spin-Off mag fits in perfectly.