Water bottle cozy finally felted

I was surfing months ago and came across a felted Nalgene bottle cozy. I thought, heck, what's with that, there's no directions or nothing...Well, her directions were something to the effect of knit a circle, then stop increasing and knit a tube, then felt it.
Well, I got a skein of Patons in Palais and did exactly that...knit a circle, then a tube. I do remember that my circle was approx. 6inches in diameter and 13 inches tall. I also knitted a rim on it ala felted slippers. And a handle. Then I forgot to felt it until today (it's been months). I stuck it in hot water to see if I could run it with my whites (hot water) and discovered uhmm, no. That's probably a bad idea. The water never ran clear. Very disappointing. Now, do you think that my other felted items turned water that color too? and I just didn't pay attention?

What to do, what to do...I decided to do it the old fashioned way, in the sink with soap. It looked like a little girl purse, then I stuck the bottle in and voila! It is done. I wasn't too keen on the variegation that was going on pre-felting, but it looks pretty good now. The picture is looking blue...for the true color, go check Paton's site.