Baguettes

I'm working on a felted tote bag (based on a Knitpicks pattern), and it's going fine, if rather boringly (rows and rows of stockinette). I am not going to do the needle felting and it's going to be a single color. I have a couple of concerns about the project. For one thing, I decided to use a single strand of yarn instead of a double strand, mostly because I did not want to pay 5 billion dollars for yarn, so now I'm worried that the bag won't be very strong. I can put a lining in it easily enough, though, so it could be all right. The other problem is the actual felting: I don't have much control over washer cycles since it's whatever piece of shit washing machine my apartment complex bought in the Jurassic period. So I'm basically just gonna go for it and hope for the best.