9/2/11 I fudged the top. I should have read through the directions entirely, so I put my top stripe in to soon. I also did not want to do 3 rows of icord bind off, since the item was going to be felted anyway. All that beautiful work will be lost in the process, though I know it is said in the pattern to be for stability. I’ve done other bags w/o three rows of such a sturdy bind off, so I think I’ll be ok.

Instead, I did one round of icord bind off, picked up the stitches and purled that next round, and bound off one more time in icord. This is my first time doing the icord bind off. New technique for me, glad I learned it, (thanks to you tube) It was fun!

The instructions for the placement of the slots were not clear to me, so I don’t think my slots are in the right places. :( We’ll see what it looks like after felting.

My dear daughter is working the two 60” icord ropes for me.

9/03/11 I don’t like the way it came out. It is shorter and wider than I wanted. I had to end up doing the 4 shorter handles instead of two because the slots weren’t right. It wasn’t clear to me in the directions there were supposed to be 8 slots.

I love felted bags, but this pattern just was not a good experience for me.

It didn’t help that the yarn smelled awful during felting, and it shed a lot and itched while I spent an hour with my husband’s help trying to figure out the handles.

No reflection on the designer. Total operator’s error and I’m just not feeling the love for the project. I’m glad it’s over. I hope Mom is appreciative.