Melly's Cousin Bag in Berkshire Bulk

Hi everyone! I'm Lisa and I'm from Pennsylvania. I started listening to Sharon's podcast a few months ago and have been more and more intrigued with the notion of making one of her gorgeous bags. I decided to start with Melly's Cousin Bag. I chose Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky from Webs in Coffee Bean and Tan. I used US 13 needles instead of the 15s called for because I didn't have 15s. And the handles were knit on US 10.5 dpns because I couldn't find 13s. Otherwise, I stuck to the pattern. I knit the bag in only a few days during my vacation. In fact I was knitting on it Halloween night in between answering the door for trick or treaters. Here she is pre felting...

And after...
The yarn was really hairy so I had to go over the bag with my sweater shaver. And the holes for the handle didn't close up tightly enough. In hindsight, I should have made the holes smaller knowing I'd be knitting the handles on much smaller needles. But it looks fine. And I've gotten tons of compliments on it. I just love when people ask where I got my bag and I say I made it and watch the look of awe spread across their face.

Turns out, this bag is just a bit too small for me though. So I just got the Ali Bag pattern to knit next. The yarn decisions are proving much more difficult for me on this one, though. I want the main part of the bag to be blue and the pipes to be purples or maybe greens (Sharon suggested both, which could be totally awesome too). It's so hard trying to decide by looking at pictures on the computer (I don't have a local yarn store so the majority of my shopping is done online). When I do find yarn, I'll be sure to post.