Eight feet? :shock: Just so you know…i-cords don’t shrink quite as much as the bag…at least in my experience. 
here’s a quick pic of mine. So you can see the length of the handles.
I made my I-cord about 100 inches long. Just a little over 8 feet.
So eight feet works! Wow! That’s a pretty bag!
WOW, love the bigger Boogas, was thinking seriously about picking up the yarn to make one on Thurs(my day to work) but now im thinking about doing a larger one…how many balls for a bigger one…like 5-6 of the Noro?
Wish me luck!
Rhy 
Every bag I’ve ever made has said in the pattern to make the i-cord 6-8 feet.
I’m glad to know that 8 feet works!
Now, I’ve got to get going on that. Even though I’m generally a slow knitter, I can whip out i-cord pretty quickly, so maybe I’ll be felting and assembling by the weekend. I’ll keep everyone updated with pics!
OK, so the bag and the i-cord have been felted and assembled and I’m really disappointed. The bag just looks wonky, doesn’t hold it’s shape. sigh Maybe I didn’t put the straps in the right place or something. I mean, it will work OK, but it’s just not what I had envisioned. It did shrink quite a bit. Before felting the measurements were something like 22x21 and after felting it’s 13 inches from top to bottom and about 15 inches from side to side.
Does anyone have any idea to improve it???
I love the colorway…it’s gorgeous.
If you want to make it look less wonky, maybe some serious blocking?
Soak it real good, then try and get as much water out of it and build yourself some sort of box thing to put the whole booga over so it can dry and hold its shape.
I really like the size, though. It’s perfect for schlepping around town.
I tried blocking it after I took it out of the washer after felting. I have to felt my stuff at a friend’s house because I have a front loader that won’t felt. We made a custom made thingie out of a bunch of books and a cereal box. She said she let it dry before she took it off, but man is it limp.
It is just really disappointing. I am a sloowww knitter and it took me forever to finish. There are 15,000 stitches in the bag, not including the rectangle bottom. I just wanted it to be perfect. 
I would suggest re-blocking too - maybe do it at your place by just running the whole thing under some hot water (use gloves so you can run the water as hot as you can stand it ). Soak the bag in a sink, then press out as much water as you can and block again.
If that doesn’t work because of the bags height, you could shape the bottom rectangle by cutting some plastic canvas to match the bottom dimensions and put it in the bottom. Then just hand stitch a few stabilizing stitches on each of the bottom 4 corners. If you don’t like the look of the canvas inside, hot glue some fabric around it first, then stitch it at the corners. The great thing about felt is that it doesn’t really show stitching on the outside due to the fuzz.
Could you maybe line it with a stiff fabric?
Re-blocking sounds good to me too.
Lining it might also help; cordoroy, denim, or twill might give it more strength but I would iron on interfacing to the back of the fabric as well.
I’m currently blocking my first booga- standard size- and plan to put interfacing in my lining. I’m not using a heavy lining though. Just a cotton blend. I also plan to put button holes in the fabric so the strap can run through both the lining and the bag. Haven’t actually done this yet, but that’s my plan.
Lining is something I’d like to do with several of my knit/felted bags.
I’ve done it once before but it was a tad sloppy. If you have some good tips newamy, please share! 
Here’s an online tutorial by a knitter named knitting betty (posted on someone else’s server) for lining felted bags without sewing, using iron-on fusable facing (or whatever it’s called)…http://www.ksks.scoutj.com/?p=10
It seemed to work well, although I haven’t tried it myself yet.
Well, I love the colors, but having done a couple Boogas and lots of Oregon Totes, I have to say that doubling the yarn makes a HUGE difference.
But since it’s too late for that, I was going to suggest Jamadian’s idea of putting some of that plastic x-stitch canvas in the bottom & just anchoring it @ the corners like she said. That would probably be fabulous along w/ the lining!! I’m sure it would make quite a difference.
And kschmitz, I am SO excited about that lining tutorial!! I can sew, but I don’t like to that much, and I think that the fusable webbing stuff is a miracle. :lol: Thank you so much for pointing us to that … I have several bags I can use that on.
Well, I can’t sew worth a darn (I mean not at all!) and frankly, I’m sick of this bag. Actually, once I got all of my stuff in it (Irish hiking scarf I’m working on, baby stuff I’m knitting) it’s not half bad. I suppose I could go to the LYS and see if I could hire someone there to do a lining for me, but for now, I’m OK.
Thanks.
Well, I don’t think it looks that wonky to start with! Maybe if you take a little break from thinking about it for a while you’ll either decide you like it as is or figure out something do do with it later.
Here is a simple fix that has worked for me…Block the bag over a box a bit larger than you think you need, so that it has to stretch a bit over it. That makes the bag much more square and straight!
i agree…line that puppy. use some interfacing too to make the fabric more sturdy.
How bout a piece of cardboard in the bottom
I love Noro yarns. Your bag is so pretty. I bet you will just LOVE it after you felt it. Just be sure and felt it “enough” so it will be the size y ou want. Can’t wait to see it when its done. Good luck!! Pretty CAT too. :roflhard: