Little felted purse

I have always fancied having a go at wet felting, and now I have finally bitten the bullet I found that it was really easy! I wanted to create a simple purse so I improvised a pattern with chunky feeling yarn. Here is the pattern:

Yarn: Filtzwolle color Zum FIlzen in der washmaschine (40degrees)
100% Virgin wool (color 22, lot 15645)(super bulky weight yarn)
Needles: 8mm

Cast on 42 stitches and continue in stocking stitch for 20 rows.

Cast off 21 stitches

Continue in stocking stitch for a further 5 rows (21 stitches)

At the beginning of the next and following 15 rows (16 rows in total) decreased one stitch by knitting two together, until there are only 5 stitches remaining.

Cast of the remaining 5 stitches.

Place the project in a pillow case (secure the end of the pillow case with a knot) and put in the washing machine on a 30 degree wash. I included a pair of genes in the wash to increase agitation, this helps in the felting process. Here I used the economy quick wash setting and actually run it twice to get the correct effect. Each time I ran the cycle I removed the knitted item and reshaped.

Once your item is felted leave to dry. This may take a couple of days.

Lastly I added a button and cut out a button whole with a seem ripper. Very handy that you don't need to worry about button wholes when felting! Here is the finished item.