12/26/12: This is the biggest project I have ever started! I’m excited! Starting with the blue…
12/29/12: Finished with the first part of the blue and started on the yellow… Progress feels slow because of the single crochet, small hook and everything so tight. My hand cramps up so I need to rest sometimes, but I am happy to see progress (just added photo) Not so sure about how the blue ‘self-striping’ yarn will blend with the varying color yarns, but I don’t have the heart to do it over with another yarn! This ‘decreasing’ is also a challenge. Good learning project!
Mere moments into 2013: just finished the bottom yellow/orange section. I really like the variegated color and do wish the blue was the same instead of the stripes. However, I am satisfied enough and - more importantly - my daughter loves it. Still having trouble with the decreasing stitches.
1/2/13: Just finished the green section of the bottom of the bag. I am getting a bit more comfortable with the decreasing stitches, but it is still confusing to me and I know I am inconsistent. I also have a concern that as I improve, the decreasing stitches will be increasingly different from the first section. I am also seeing some inconsistency in my gauge. Ah well, I remind myself that: a) this is my first attempt at this bag b) my daughter will love it no matter what and c) it is excellent practice… I am still proud of doing something so much bigger than anything else I have done! I am sure it will seem very easy when I start tackling that sweater!

I am also finding myself getting just a wee bit bored of the single crochet stitch.

1/3/13: I finished the pink not-quite-trapezoid section of the bottom! YAY! Every point looks like a slightly different size. Not yay. I was clearly inconsistent in my decreases… but I will sew this bag up as best I can. The colors are very pretty :-)

Nowhere in the pattern does it mention how you attach the final section, D to the bottom of the first section A. I had thought I might try crocheting along as I went up, that certainly would have been stronger, but it really didn’t seem to fit properly, so I decided to just sew it up with the yarn ends. Not as pretty as the other three joins, but hopefully it will still be strong, especially since this is the bottom of the bag. Time to see how it comes together…

1/4/13: Trying an experiment: frogged the top part of the yellow/orange section (it had the longest tail) and re-crocheting to see if I can get that point longer to match up in a nicer way for the swirl. May not be worth it to do for the whole project, but I want to try.

1/4/13: (Later) Aaak! and Yay! The triangular part of the yellow section now lines up beautifully with the side of the green square (Yay) BUT that means that I really do need to redo all the triangle parts (AAAK!) But it will be worth it… sigh… practice, practice, practice!!! I am learning much better decreasing techniques. :-P

… Just posted a close-up of the green, showing how far I have gotten on the triangle with the same amount of yarn - I am up to the place where I was finished with the triangle before, but it is probably about 4 inches wide right now. Sure does make a difference! Good chance to talk with my daughter about how we have to practice and do things over (she was very frustrated earlier today when I was trying to teach her the chain stitch)… but I am more satisfied every minute. Would not be good to put all this work into the bag just to have it done wrong!

1/5/13: “Mommy, it’s starting to look like a bag!”

Yes. Yes, it is.

1/8/13: Finally! Complete :-)
When first started doing the horizontal stripes on top two days ago, I found that the blue, somehow, was just larger than the rest… So, I started with the blue as the bottom horizontal stripe. I did two rows on the rest of the bag to make up the difference in height, then started doing rounds as called for in the pattern. The place where I changed yarn worked as an excellent marker for each round. I did not do quite six rounds of the blue - somehow I just didn’t have as much left… (that bigger square!) I stopped when I saw I was running out because I wanted to make sure I had enough blue for the drawstring.

I finished off the bag this morning - final stripe at the top in yellow/orange.

The pattern said to make the drawstring before finishing the bag (uh - no!) and to do 50 chains in each color, adding them together, then doing 50 SC in each chain going back. I didn’t like that idea so much… instead, I took the 4 strands and a K hook and made a giant chain with the 4 colors. I really like the look of it, but if I were to do it over again, I’d make the eyelets slightly larger (3 ch instead of 2 ch) so it moves through a bit more easily. I’d also like to make the drawstring a bit longer, but that is every inch of blue yarn that I had. All in all, I am very happy with it… as is my daughter!

Whew.