Camera Case

This is my first improvised felted projected. Through a little research I found that in general, when felted, wool shrinks to 60 percent of the original height and 80 percent of the original width. So I used a little math and made this case. 

finished dimensions are 3.5" x 5" not counting the flap. 

Before felting dimensions: a strip 4.5" x 18"  approximately

Yarn: super bulky 100% wool (Joann's sensations Licorice)

Needles size 15

Cast on 12 stitches

Knit in stockinette for 17" 

Decrease at the end of each row until you have 6 stitches

BO

Felt: I hand felted this because it was so small. 

I alternated (swishing gently): 

hot water with dishwashing detergent until the water wasn't hot

cold water rinse

Then when it was the right size (3.5" wide) I gently pressed the water out and let it dry overnight.

In the morning I used some black wool yarn to blanket stitch the edges and then sewed on the button and cut the button hole

To make a case of any dimension first decide how big you want it to be

In my case 3.5" wide,  4.5" tall plus a decent sized flap.

So for this I need a strip (after felting) 3.5" wide and 12" tall (4.5" + 4.5" + 3" for flap)

To determine my pre-felting dimensions I divided the width by 0.8 and the height by 0.6. 

(of course you can get more accurate numbers by felting a test swatch since yarns can felt differently. But I am lazy so I did it this way and waited to sew it up until after I felted it.)

Back to division:

3.5/0.8 = 4.375

12/0.6 = 20

So I need to knit up a piece that is about 4.375, I rounded this to 4.5" and 20" long

I knitted up a swatch to test gauge and got about 3 stitches per inch. So I cast on 12 (some how my test swatch is always tighter than the finished project so I cast on 12 instead of 14) and then knitted until the entire piece was 20".

You would then felt it until the width was correct

Clear as mud?