Felt or Frog?

This is my second attempt at the Tote Around felted bag pattern from KnitKit . This bag is knitted out of Noro Kureyon color 134. I really like the colors. And I've felted with Noro a lot. It is generally my favorite yarn for felting. I just love the colors and stripes. Yes, I know all the cons, but I don't care. I love Kureyon for felting and nothing is going to change my mind about that. I'm using size 10 1/2 bamboo needles. The gauge is good, very similar to other felting projects that have turned out well. All I have left to finish is a little more of the applied I-cord strap. Everything is great except the bag seems to have a little "ruffle" effect going on around the circular bottom. It doesn't seem to be quite flat and I'm trying to decide if I want to take a chance on this being "corrected" during the felting process or just frog the whole thing (about 5 skeins) and do it right. I'm really wanting this bag to be a success because the first attempt was an absolute disappointment. So what happened on my first try you ask? Well.....

The first attempt was made out of Manos. I love that yarn!
The colors are beautiful and the yarn is soft. I still have almost two skeins in my stash witting for some inspiration. Every time I see it sitting there... But I digress, back to the story.

I had made a reasonable facsimile to the original My So Called Scarf with the intention of giving it to my cousin for Christmas. I had several skeins of the Manos left and decided to make a felted bag out of the same yarn to go along with the scarf for a nice gift. I followed the pattern and ended up with a nipple on the bottom. I don't think that the increases in the circular bottom were correct and the result was a pointy protrusion on the bottom of the bag. I figured "eh, no big deal, felting will fix it". So I carried on and finished the bag. I knit the man's on the same 10 1/2 needles I'm using on the correct version. I did correct the increases for the circular bottom on the current project, so no nipple this time. I felted the man's bag and the nipple remained. So I cut it off and took a few stitches to close the hole and refelted the bag to hid the stitches. The finished bag seemed drained of color and the resulting fabric seemed too thick and stiff for me. I like the fabric that I get from felting Noro. I discovered that the dish soap I used during the felting was labeled "OXY plus". I think that this caused some of the color loss. I was so disappointed in the final bag. I couldn't gift the bag and the scarf seemed lonely by itself that my cousin got neither the bag or the scarf!

Well this is the monstrosity. It's really not THAT bad, but it was my first disappointment from my felting projects. I Think I will either just throw it out, or cut it down and make a little felted bowl out of the bottom of the bag. I won't ever carry it. I can't give it to anyone. I have to really like any project that I give as a gift. I'm really just trying to prevent another disappointment and a waste of a good yarn.

Well after writing this I'm much closer to frogging. I believe I should frog, I know I should frog...but damn, that is 5 skeins of yarn! I'll just have to start from the beginning again.