B4 Bag (Bobbles, Beads, Bumps and Buttons)

This purse was so fun and interesting to make. It was my first experience making Bobbles, knitting with beads, making bumps and with felting.

The yarn I used is Classic Elite Beatrice in Begonia (3219) . I used one strand so the bag is not very stiff/sturdy but it will be fine the way it is. Using a double strand would have been too costly, since this took 6 balls with a single strand throughout.

I could not find Crow beads anywhere, except online, and I did not want to have to wait for them so I found these spacer beads at Michael's that had a hole big enough to pass a double strand of yarn through. They are metal with pearlized enamel paint on them. They worked out great!

I am not a "button" type of gal, so I chose some rectangular glass beads that coordinated with my colors to substitute for the buttons. I like the finished product very much. They are in the bottom picture. If you can't see them, they have pink roses within the glass.

WARNING!! This yarn take FOREVER to felt. I didn't do a swatch so I was panicking when after the first full cycle in the washer it didn't look like it had felted at all. I didn't have any tennis balls, or jeans laying around, so I tried towels. Although the lint did not travel to my bag, they were not sturdy enough to cause much friction which is probably why it took so long to felt. (you know darn well if this was something I didn't want to felt, it would have been ruined in 4 seconds flat).

The pattern can be bought here http://b4bag.blogspot.com/