Let me make one thing clear about my knitting: I'm pretty selfish. I really like to knit for me. Some of this is because I rarely say to myself "Gee, thanks, it's... uh, so interesting..." when I try on a finished piece. But some of it is just that I love giving myself presents. There, I've admitted it. I'm most definitely a material girl.

So when the holidays come, I always have the best of intentions. Sweaters and scarves and bags and socks for other people fill my head. But completing these projects becomes difficult unless I have a little bribery for myself. Usually I "let" myself work on my bribery project after I've done something on the projects I am supposed to (and really do want to) do. Currently, that bribery project is Bonne Marie's Bucket-o-Chic. After making a little more progress on the Ibis scarf for John's mom (pretty scarf, not so exciting knitting) and seaming the shoulders of the Holographic Cardigan (I meant to go farther but got too frustrated by matching the garter stitch stripes), I decided that I could work a little on the bucket. I'm about 1/2-way through the band now. I'd post a picture, but a 18 stitch by 45 row strip of stockinette in greenish yarn looks exactly as you'd expect it to.

I so appreciate all the nice comments and helpful suggestions for Chicago. Steph pointed out that Dritz makes some magnetic closures. I think I am going to look into those. When I desgined the bag, I really wanted the contrasting flap to be set off against the background of the bag and I didn't want any other ornament other than the triangle bisecting what was originally supposed to be a hemi-circle. I'll be gettings started on a 3/4 sized version, too. It may be narrower and taller or it may be the same, just scaled down. I'm not very good at knitting anything more than once, so I may alter it just to keep myself entertained.

Chicago has actually been banging around with me for a while. I originally put together this small test bag in hopes of creating a design for the winter issue of Knitty.

Don't Stick Your Tongue Out

The flap was hopelessly awful, but I liked the shaping. The strap was just garter stitch. I wouldn't have the double i-cord strap idea until taking a shower a few months later. It didn't go to Knitty because I am not very good at working to deadlines with my knitting (I have a job and a masters thesis if I want to do things on a schedule... knitting is about relaxing not about stressing about due dates) and because part of the joy of any project (for me at least) is being able to journal about it.

I am not quite sure yet how I will make this pattern available. On one hand, I feel bad about selling it, on the other hand, I would like to sell it in hopes of "funding" future design projects, since I have a few other ideas crashing around in my brain that might want to get out someday. I think the pattern would include instructions for a small, medium and large version with some suggestions for additional modifications. As soon as I know what I am going to do, you'll hear about it here!