The Easter Bunny's Purse

I'm quite pleased with the way this purse turned out!

I started out by using the Travel Hat loom from Decor Accents. After a few rows, I felt was much too tight. It was almost as if it had already been felted. What fun is that??

Then I switched over to the DA AJAL and it went much faster and much smoother. I cast on only on one side of the board, doing the basic knit stitch for roughly 2-3 inches. I pulled the fabric over to the other side of the loom, putting the cast on stitches on the opposite pegs.

I pulled the stitches onto the side of the board and around and around I went! I started knitting in the round. I used the idea from Linda 2 located in the files section of Decor Accents Yahoo Groups

When I realized I was getting close to the end of the ball of yarn, I did a simple bind off along the two small edges and one long edge of the loom. On the fourth side, I knit back and forth until I simply ran out of yarn. It was a bit tight to try and take one loop and put it onto the next peg and knit off, so I pulled a few stitches off at a time onto a crochet hook I had sitting around.

Taking two stitches off at a time, I did a simple cast off with another crochet hook.

And TA-DA! The finished product! Before felting, the measurements were 11 1/2" x 6 3/4". After felting it measured 9 x 5 or so. I'm planning on heading up to JoAnne's later this week to find some purse handles or something. I need to have something to carry it on my shoulder as I usually carry my wallet in my back pocket! If I don't see anything I like, I'll just HAVE to knit up an i-cord or something and felt it!

As I said in my earlier post, I used McCormicks food coloring and vinegar. When I felted the purse, I put it into my front load washer with a pair of jeans and hot water. I didn't let it go a full cycle at first. I didn't think the water was hot enough so I threw it into a load of darks and went through the entire cycle. I still didn't care for the look of it and put it in with a full load of whites. The colors seemed to dull just a little, but I'm not sure if it was because I used a pair of dark jeans or that's just the nature of the beast with the colors fading a little. Either way, I've very pleased with my "Popsicle" purse. I do think my mom is right though: she said if I'd started the purse at the bottom with the blue, the colors would have turned the purse into a tropical feel with the ocean and a sunset/sunrise. How cool is that?