Noni Carpet Bag (FO)

Look! Look what I just finished (excusing the terrible camera-phone photos, the digicam conked out again):

I keep opening it and looking at it because surely I’m not supposed to own something this decadent, am I?

Since the camera gave out when I was in the middle of the sewing-up and finishing, I’ve got much fewer pics to post of the process than I wanted, but here’s the story.

On sizing: I was looking for something in between the Medium and Rather Huge sizes, to have a bag that would be as functional as possible (could carry papers and a book or two if I needed, when on campus) but not be so big I couldn’t carry it. So I used Patons Classic Wool (the nearest, easily available equivalent to Cascade 220), and cast on for a base that was 60 x 25 stitches, which was the same depth as the Rather Huge but halfway between the Huge and Medium in width. Knitting all the way up in stripes, I did a total of 18 stripes (9 of each colour), instead of the 20 or 16 given for the two sizes. On the weekend I took it to Glenna’s to do the felting, where it got totally kitty-cat approved. (Even with the flash, this is actually pretty close to the true colours.)

After two cycles in the wash it felted up to an awesomely sturdy and dense piece of fabric. I took it out and pushed and prodded and pulled to get it into a box again and clipped the insides with document clips to give it those nice creases. Fascinating stuff. It’s fun watching felt go because when it’s damp, it’s still mildly malleable, but once it dries, that sucker’s with you for life. The colours didn’t bleed, the top went so cool and smooth like felt does. I got such a little kick looking at the stripiness on the inside I was a little sorry it had to be covered up with lining. I liked the Patons but it didn’t felt to the dimensions of pattern. If I made this again I would adjust the knitting stage to make a thinner but taller bag. The finished size is about 10.5 x 16.5 x 6 inches.

It felted up a little unevenly, with a sort of wide, droopy top. After sleeping on it, the next day I tossed the whole thing in the bathtub and hand-felted the top half to try and even it up, and re-creased the sides with the document clips. In the end it turned out shorter and wider than I was expecting, but I was happier with the overall look.

I did two Camellia flowers (pics still trapped on the camera, grr), in the Medium size, but three Small-size would have been just fine, in retrospect. If I had them to do over, I would knit the petals wider and shorter: they flop over a little more than they should be, after felting.

For the lining and finishing I followed the instructions on the Noni site. This part was very definitely tricky, fussy, finicky, took three days to finish, and was made a thousand times more doable by having the Christmas break to work on it. Plastic canvas (from the local Michael’s) went in first, to stiffen the sides and base. At the local Fabricland I tracked down one of those magnet purse closures, some bamboo handles (large enough for me to sling over my shoulder), and some light corduroy from the sale room for the lining. I cut two pockets, one just for slots to stick pens and the cell phone and bits of things, and one zippered pocket for the other side. Fun, fun stuff. After getting the lining fit and sewn in I tacked it down to the corners.

The finishing part about the whole process was wild. Bags are still these very mesmerizing things to me. And the Noni patterns are so luxurious, all finished up, but the elements of them are right out there, in the world, for you to go and find and make and put together. I hadn’t thought too hard about the finishing process when I started, but once I looked at the Noni instructions, it all seemed straightforward, until I was almost finished and looked down at what I had made and was quite frankly in awe of how it had all come together.

It’s now put into commission to hold some tiny knitting things but I can’t wait to put it into use for everyday. Some day I’d like to try out one of the tube baguette patterns too. I’m still a little surprised by it. Look! Look what you can just… make.