Alpaca Felted Bag and Stash Transformation

This is the felted (technically, fulled) bag that I sent to my Fiber Frenzy pal, Melanie of Dandelion Spinnery blog. She loves alpacas. So the bag uses the alpaca motif from Knitting in the Old Way.


The handle is braided roving, also fulled. A lining of striped cotton duck.

I don't even remember what needles I used any more, but I used some leftover alpaca blend yarn from Knitpicks for the motif, and for the body of the bag I used Bruce's Granny's yarn which stars in the photo below. Remember all the ball bands?



Well, one day this spring I was surprised to find a large box with my name on it left by the postman. Opened it up, and it was crammmmmed full of 100% wool yarn. Yes, I know this only happens to you in your dreams, but this really happened. It was all from Granny, who bought it years ago and has decided that she will never use it now. She used to knit, but in recent years her energies have gone into her garden. So she sent it on to me, and it is a sweet reminder of her to me.

They were all the pastel shades that are shown at the top of the picture, which left me wondering what to do with it all. The colors seem like baby colors to me, but in this century I hate to give baby gifts that aren't machine washable, and there was a whole lot of it, too.

So every time I have done my natural dyeing, I have put a few balls of the yarn in the dyepot after I am done with my wool, and I am so pleased with the colors I have now. And some of it was perfect for the felted bag!

Stash Transformation!