There are a lot of great free bag knitting patterns here at About.com, in addition to those felted ones I mentioned yesterday. If you haven' checked out the free patterns lately, here are some of my favorites for knit bags and purses:

Handspun knit bag, © Sarah E. White.

• I love this simple Handspun Bag, perfect for showing off a great little skein of someone else's handspun you might have bought on Etsy or at a fiber festival or for highlighting your own spinning efforts
• The Mom Tattoo Bag is one I knit long before I became a mom, but it certainly has a special place in my heart now
• I've had a lot of readers tell me they like the Fleck Stitch Envelope Purse for its simplicity and useful, if small, size
• Eileen Casey's Cabled Purse with Bamboo Handles is a new favorite; I just love the detail of the ribbon woven through the cable

Part of the fun of knitting bags and purses is that you can go in any direction you want, use any stitch pattern, make it any size you like. It's a great canvas for experimentation without the necessity of having something fit or the time commitment required to knit a sweater.

Probably my favorite kind of knit bags are those that are knit and felted, like my Felted Coin Purse and Felted Bag with Scarf Handle.

A coin purse is a great first felting project, © Sarah E. White.

Felted bags are quick to knit because you're working with big needles, and they're a great canvas for embellishment, whether embroidery, sewn-on decorative buttons or patches or through needle felting.

If you've never felted before, a bag is a great place to start because it doesn't have to come out an exact size to be useful. Just keep felting until the fabric is firm and free of holes, let the bag dry and you're ready to go.

• Felting with a Top-Loading Machine
• Felting with a Front-Loading Machine
• Felting by Hand
• Felting Tips

I really love knitting purses and bags. You'd think someday I would decide that I have enough knit totes, but I always seem to come up with new ideas that I just have to try out.

Knit bags are a fun way to show off your knitting skills even when it's too warm to wear sweaters or scarves, and they're quite useful, especially if you felt them or line them with fabric (we'll be talking about both of those options later this week).

Right now I'd like to know if you knit purses or bags and how you feel about the notion of a knit bag if you haven't yet made one. Click all the answers that apply, and if you have a favorite kind of bag to knit or a tip for making great knit bags, please share in the comments!

I get a lot of great questions from readers, and often they're questions that I'm sure other people would like the answers to as well. So I've decided to start a little feature we'll call Mailbag Monday, in which I'll answer a question from a reader like you (it could even be a question from you if you send me an e-mail).

This week I'm tackling the question of why yarn sheds and what to do about a shedding yarn. The problem is generally caused by yarn that is not spun tightly enough for the fibers to hold together.

The solution? The most popular remedy I've heard is to wash the garment or project and air dry it in the dryer for as long as it takes to stop shedding.

Do you have another solution for our reader query? Add it in the comments.