13 March 2010 Ordered the yarn online! Took me two weeks to get Serbia included in the list of countries.

25 March 2010 The yarn arrived! A bit disappointed with the colour but it’ll be ok. I think it’s not the same shade as in the pattern photo but never mind - it’s my first yarn bought online and my first project to be knit with the called-for yarn so I’m too excited to be worrying about such trifles :)

I couldn’t wait. I had to cast on today! The first impressions are excellent - such a heavy yarn on 5mm needles produces a very strong, strurdy fabric, perfect for a bag. The yarn itself knits up pretty neat and fast, I’m very satisfied.

27 March 2010 I’m finishing the top garter bit. The button holes fit snugly. Now the only thing is to decide what kind of a strap I want and whether I’m going to make 1 or 2. I think 90cm straps are too long for me. I’d rather have something like this - two shorter straps so that the bag can fit under my arm. Then even if it stretches a little, it’s won’t reach my knees.

30 March 2010 Straps finished, ends woven in. Ready to roll!

I used up just under 7 skeins. Did 8 repetitions of the pattern. As for the straps, I opted for two shorter straps, around 130 rows in garter stitch (65 bumps) so that the bag fits snugly under my arm.

As always, Drops’ instructions are not very detailed so I had to devise my own way of attaching the straps. This is what I did: While binding off the top garter section of the bag, I cast off 3 stitches, then knit 7, cast off 24 (center front), knit 7, cast off 6, knit 7, cast off 24 (center back), knit 7, cast off 3. This means I actually left the strap stitches (4 x 7 stitches) unfinished on the needles. Then I picked up these stitches on one side of the front and knit 130 rows in garter stitch. When I reached the desired length, I grafted it to the other 7 live stitches I had left at the front. Then I repeated the same procedure for the back. Hope this makes sense. I’m very satisfied with how they turned out - really neat and practically seamless. It remains to be seen how they’ll cope when the bag is actually used.

Note to myself Next time, it may be a good idea to try that Turkish cast-on that produces the invisible bottom “seam”. Not that I’m not pleased with this one, though!