First attempt at felting

Although this is not a new project (I finished knitting it last December), I finally completed it this week. What was meant to be a Nintendo DS case, and be a rectangonal shape that closes at the side....ended up looking quite the opposite...
It was knitted with KnitPick's Palette yarn (100% wool), and I put in in the washer in hot water for one cycle. I didn't expect the ribbing to come out so flat (mind you, I had never felted before so I really had no idea how it would come out) and make it so wide. The other thing I didn't expect either was that the lenght would shrink so much (it was knitted with larger needles that was called for, so I was expecting some shrinkage but not that much). I guess a test swatch would have helped. Knit and learn...