Jen's knits and knonsense: Free pattern--felted bag with needle felted design

I just got a needle felting tool and brush/mat thingy and wanted to try it out. Since I have lots of bags, I thought I'd make one for my Mom. It was one of those cast on till yey wide, knit until yey long things and it worked perfectly, so I thought I'd share the pattern with ya'll.

materials:
1 skein Cascade 220 (NOT superwash). I used a handpainted one but you could use solid too.
size 13 24" circular needle
stitch marker
needle felting supplies. For the yarn I used knit picks pallette sampler yarns.

Cast on 84 stitches, join in the round without twisting, and knit for approximately 17 inches. I knit for 18 inches and ended up having to use a second skein for the last row and bind off, if you only do 17 inches you should be able to get this out of just one skein. to make it thicker you could do garter stitch, but I used stockinette.

begin handles: knit 15 sts, bind off 12, knit 30 (including stitch already on needle after binding off), bind off 12 again, knit remaining 15.

next row: knit 15, cast on 15 (I used knitted cast on, you could also use the thumb method), knit 30, cast on 15, knit 15.

knit 3 rows and then bind off. Match up handles in the middle of front and back sides and sew bottom together using preferred method. turn bag inside out and sew corners perpendicular to bottom seam, about 1.25 inches long. this is meant to be a pretty flat bag with just a little bottom gusset. Felt in machine on hot with a pair of old jeans, checking every 5 minutes. finished size is approx 12" high by 10.5" wide. block by putting a couple large hardcover books into a plastic bag (to protect them from the moisture) and place them inside the bag. let dry fully before needle felting. (may take a couple days), rotating sides if needed.

needle felt desired design and you're done! :-) I found a photo of a flower I liked and used that, shading it with different yarns like you would a painting. It probably would have looked more felt-y if I had used thicker yarn, but overall I like the effect. With the pallette yarn, you get better results if you do not pull the yarn taut before using the felting needle.