crocheting a better bag

This was my favorite purse for quite a while. Considering I got it for a mere pittance as a rebate for buying some off the shelf skin care products, I've gotten a lot of use out of it. It's larger than purses I used to carry, but I can fit knitting in it. See, my KSKS bag and jaywalkers fit just fine.

But, you can also see that it's seen better days. I've been thinking about felted bags on and off for quite some time, like everyone else. Nona's recent creation really caught my eye. I especially like that it's really square and thought that her piece construction would really do this boxy bag justice. And then Jeanie mentioned that she crochets her Noni bags and finds she gets a much stiffer fabric. I've been wanting to get a crochet project going for a while, but couldn't really find one.

Then I remembered I have five balls of Patons Merino classic in RED (yes, screaming red). The patons classic felts really well, I used it for Dad's mittens and hat. I bought this stuff cheap at Joann's a while back and was going to use it for Red Scarf '07 or for some felted mittens and a hat. I figured 2 skeins can got to a new purse (I bought all 5 skeins they had in this color).
So, last night, I started with an experimental piece to be the bottom. It took longer to felt, but the fabric is so much thicker than anything I've gotten from felting knitting. I'm stoked! It's not dry yet, so I'm not going to swear it's completely the right size, but it was looking good when I took it out of the washer last night.

And I've reached my blogger picture limit for this post. I'm really jazzed about this project and have some fun thoughts about linings. My fabric stash may come in handy yet. I actually couldn't sleep because I was thinking of this project and different ways I could take it.