Small Ali Bag with knit (and not felted) braid

I like...you like??? I suggest, for those of you doing the Ali Bag (formerly Pipes and Braid) that you consider making the bag and the X's , assembling and felting but do the braid afterwards (or while you are felting or drying your bag as we all need to multi-task) and leaving it unfelted. The look is really good. Having the texture of the knitted against the felted is awesome. How do you figure out the length the braid should be? To do this you have to be slightly relaxed and adventurous. Knit some i-cords, maybe make them 3 ft long., secure them loosely at their ends so you can easily undo them. Braid tightly and string it though the X's to see if it measures out ok. If you need to make shorter, just undo the ends and do it. I also secured the slightly messy braid ends under one of the X's by tacking it down with some yarn.