FO: Felted bag for sister

Well, it's been a long time since I posted a knitted FO on here, so hurrah, finally here is one. I started this bag ages ago as a mindless knit to knit when I got bored with other projects. As Christmas neared and all it needed was to be felted I thouhgt it would make a good gift for my sister (I also thought it would make a good birthday gift for her back in September, but it was no where near finished then).

Project name: Felted bag for Vickie
Pattern: Sophie free on Magknits
Yarn: cascade 220 in grey (dont have the tag anymore so I dont know the actual color code or dyelot)
Needles: 10.5 metal circs and metal dpns
Pattern adjustments: Used US size 10.5 instead of 10 needles. Also made the bag slightly bigger and the handles slightly longer. I also used the remainder yarn to knit up a rectangle (stockinette bordered by garter) to use as a pocket.
Notes: I felted this one the same as the other Sophie I made but it came out completely different. I felted as follows: put in pillow case and tie off. Run through hot wash cycle w/ dirty jeans and a little detergent, then cold rinse cycle. Run another hot wash/cold rinse with no detergent. Open pillow case and check.
The other Sophie I made I used the color of Cascade indicated in the pattern and it turned out wonderfully. This gray yarn felted much differently, SIGH. It came out much smaller than intended and so the handles ended up being shorter than I wanted. It was also thicker than I wanted. And the rectangle for the cellphone pocket was thick and small too. SO it must have felted faster/easier than the yellow-green and thus 2 cycles was overkill. Once again I'm learning things the hard way -- ALWAYS CHECK the felting after each wash/rinse cycle!



Here is the front of the bag.






















This cute bead is hiding the stitches that show on the outside from attaching a snap closure. Cute though.












Here is a picture of the back. You can faintly make out the cell phone pocket that I sewed on after felting. Not sure if an actual cell phone will fit in this tiny pocket though.

Even though it didnt turn out as I planned it my sister did like it so that's good.