Summer Sale!!! Half price Felted Bags

Just some of the felted work available in my summer sale, at Createdandfelted.etsy.com

All Half Price!

I'm having a bit of a tidy up at the moment!
so come and checkout my Summer Sale at my ETSY Shop, Lots of bags and purses are half price!
I need the space to store my growing store of wait for it "gasp" christmas stock !
You can visit my shop through the ETSY link on the left.

How to Knit and Felt - Incredible Shrinking Bags!

Milo is offended, he thought he could nest on the unfelted bags (he was wrong!)

My knitted and felted bags are fulled or boil washed to create the felt, I use an ordinary domestic washing machine set to a hot wash. The trick is to add tennis balls to the wash. Washing machines are designed not to damage clothes, quite the opposite of what is needed to make felt!

When I demonstrate with my bags at craft shows folk are always amazed at just how big I need to knit a bag before felting it. I must admit that the first few patterns I designed seemed crazy to me too!
My style of felting or fulling requires the bag to be about 2/3 longer and 1/3 as wide as the finished article. This is only a rough guide as each wool behaves differently and I make trial pieces each time I use new wool.
I use large needles 8mm and knit with 3 threads of 4 ply(fingering) yarn, I find this gives a much denser felt in which the stitches completely disappear.
My aim is for the bag to be a sculptural piece, with no stitches, no seams, just gorgeous tactile felt.


This little brown shoulder bag will end up just big enough to carry keys, change and credit cards!
It starts off 22cm high and 15cm wide. The strap which will end up long enough to wear across the body is a mighty 255cm long!!!

This is Epiemidies she's too old to be interested (but we love her anyway)

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Craft fairs and Carnivals

Long Eaton Carnival- We set up in the art and craft tent around 9.00 am, a very friendly little tent, just a "select few" around 16 stalls. The sun was shining and we all felt that it would be a good day. I like this time of day so much, I think it's because we are some where new, and there's no telling how the day will be.
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I enjoy setting up the stand, it gets easier each time I do it, I do less fiddling around with the display nowadays. I've come to realise that it will all get moved around anyway as folk look at the bags and try them on, and hopefully as I sell them and put out fresh bags the display will alter too!



I really enjoy seeing which other crafters are around meeting up with folk from previous craft fairs and getting to know my neighbours for the day. I though the stand looked pretty good this time.



The tent soon filled up with customers, I enjoy talking to folk about my craft, I often get ideas from folk too, especially for new projects, I knit at the stand and people seem to like to see the work in progress.



There was so much to see and do at the carnival, I was surprised so many people even found the craft tent!

Pictures from Patchings

I was so pleased that I had ordered a back board for the stand at Patchings, and even happier that I had brought a whole bolt of fabric with me to cover the rear of the stand. My neighbours laughed at me for covering the cables which looped along the back of the stands, but when I stepped back to look, all I could see where big black cables scribbling over the back wall. I just had to cover them up. If you look closely you can just see the plug socket in the middle of the board at the back. I had to leave it uncovered so Emma could charge her phone each day!!

I think I'll need bigger photos and a larger sign next time, but overall I was happy with he stand.

No-one knew that Stuart had made the raised stands for the handbags on the table out of cardboard boxes less than an hour before we opened!

I spent a lot of time moving the bags about before we opened on the first day, trying to get the colours to "work"together, in the end it did not matter, every time I sold one the display changed! And I certainly was not going to grumble about that


The display stands looked good, and worked well too, folk could see and try on the bags easily.

I think you have to wear a bag before you buy, just like clothes.

My favourite colours are the purples and greens. I think they look really effective together. they were the most popular colours at this show- I came home with just one purple bag left.

New wool and New colours

Such a sweet little handbag! I just had to share this picture, the bag is only 18cm high, really dinky and just big enough to wear as a wristlet. It's the final result of playing with a new yarn, (Shetland wool this time)










I'm very happy with this much larger handbag as well.
This bag is nearly 30cm tall and the felt holds it's shape perfectly, I'm looking forward to making a much bigger bag with this wool.
This bag is very special too, because it is my first commission taken at an exhibition, I still find it surprising that people like and buy my creations- so somebody commissioning a bag in a different colour just on seeing my work is to me absolutely amazing and wonderful.
I must admit to being very happy that the new wool behaved so well!

Knitting in my sleep

At a recent craft fair I was sitting on my (not very comfy) stool and working on another bag. This is not at all unusuall, in fact I am known for knitting all day at craft fairs, I like to keep my hands busy and it's so nice to be able to show visiters a work in progress.
It's surprising how many people like to watch me knit!
A visiter and her son stopped by my stand to look at the bags and we ended up chatting for quite some time, it was only as they walked away that I heard the little boy ask his mum, "Is that lady blind?" "no" replied his mum looking very puzzled " oh " said her son " only she never looks at her knitting needles!"
Which leads me neatly into the story my lovely daughter loves to tell customers who ask how long it takes to knit a felted bag- "oh hours and hours" she says, " in fact mum falls asleep but doesn't stop knitting!"

And there is a photograph to proove it!

Sunny day special offer!

I've just mown the lawn, the sun is shining, and I want to share the joy.
So
Order a bag before 13th June and I'll give you a free purse ( I can't say what colour but I'll try and make it match)
Just use code sun01 when you order and I'll take care of the rest.

Still playing with the new wool

First thing this morning before even my first cuppa I was checking the bags which I felted last night.

The results were a bit disappointing, the fabric was lovely for garments but is not strong or thick enough for bags.

So I had my cuppa sitting in the garden in the sun.

Then I came in and boiled the kettle again, this time I put on my rubber gloves, and had a morning work- out, felting the smaller bag.

As I hoped it just needed more persuasion, after a while it formed a gorgeous dense soft felt.

I'll just have to try the larger bag with more tennis balls for agitation and a higher temperature wash, at least I know the results will be worth the effort.

Oh joy! I've got new wool to play with.

My new wool arrived today.
I just love the new cones all lined up and ready for winding into balls, seeing all the colours together gets me thinking of new combinations, I'll try my new ideas as little purses first just to see how well they work.

I've now got 7 colours in stock, and enough wool to knit all my orders from Patchings and a lot more besides.

The black is a new yarn and very different from the recent wools I've been using, it's a more textured shetland yarn so I'm very interested to see how it felts, I've made a large bag in 4 strands and will make a small one with 3 strands. It's always fun to see how the textures change with each new yarn. This yarn is shetland 4 ply and still has lanolin in it so my hands will soon be very soft again.

Patchings craft festival

The stall was set up, and the customers were due to arrive soon. So why was I worrying?
Sure this was the largest craft show I'd done yet, but I'd worked at shows this large and larger many years before with my dad, I was back in my comfort zone, but somthing was worrying me.
And then it hit me, such a big leap from small local shows to this big 4 day festival- sudenly I was very aware of being a little fish in a very big pond!
I looked around at all the "old hands" their stands looked so assured. I fiddled with the display and then over the loudspeakers Chas welcomed the visiters. minutes later the customers arrived and all my worries vanished.
So many compliments, and sales to match, by the end of the day, exhausted but happy I too felt like an "old hand".
The other exhibiters were so kind, encouraging, making some great suggestions and sharing thier knowledge. The days flew by despite the unseasonable cold and rain. So now back home with lots of new ideas, I'm busy knitting to complete orders, and thinking about how I'll improve the stand for next time.

Getting ready for the Big show

The main marquee at Patchings Craft show, my new home from 3rd-7th!
Well I do have my tent as well...

So much to do! We're still printing order forms and gift certificates, I've got bags to dry, bags to label and bags to pack. I've not even thought about checking the camping gear and I'm loving every minute of it!