Felted Raverly ID Bag Recap

The bag, she is done! Well, the knitting and felting are done. Now I have to send it off to Mom to be lined. She says it will only take an evening, so it looks like I'll be able to take it to Las Vegas after all. Yipee!
To recap, I knit it with a single strand of Cascade 220. I used 3 skeins of Celery, 2 skeins of White and 1 each of Black and Ruby. I used a US10 needles and achieved a gauge of 4.5 sts/inch and 5 rows/inch. Pre-felting the bag was 25 inches wide, 23 inches tall and 3 1/2 inches deep. Post-Felting it was 21 inches wide, 17 1/2 inches tall and 3 inches deep. As advertised, the white did felt a little less than the green, which might account for the slight flaring at the top (or that might be from me yanking on it trying to stretch it taller).
The logo chart was created by Toni Blye and you can find it at http://phoenixpcd.wordpress.com/patterns/ or on Ravelry—her ID is phoenix. Of course you can also see my project entry on Ravelry, my ID is agm.
If you feel a burning desire to make one for yourself, I would like to offer some thoughts before I plunge into my "pattern" which might help guide some of your decisions.
I started knitting with out really planning it out, so the bag ended up being rather larger than I had originally planned and was also coming out wider than it was tall. I ended up picking up stitches around the top and going up to gain some height, so you might want to make it taller to begin with. (I have accounted for this in the suggested pattern.)
If you want to make a smaller bag, you can be subtle and just do the ball. Or Toni also did an upright logo with the ball over the word raverly, which should make for a narrower bag. In either case you are on your own stitch count wise, since I don't intend to make another one . :-)
(Vogue Knitting included for scale.) As for working the logo. I worked the red part of the ball in intarsia. The black and white details and all the lettering I worked in duplicate stitch. I have since decided most of the black details on the ball are large enough to also work in intarsia. I would still suggest doing the lettering in duplicate stitch as there is only one row of background color between letters, which could come out wonky in intarsia. Likewise, the white details are one stitch wide and easy enough to duplicate on. (There are pink parts on the chart for shading, which I blew off as I didn't want to buy pink yarn.) I'm not a big felter, but I understand that stranded knitting for felting isn't such a good idea as your work could end up puckered when the floats felt.
So, here we go:
Felted Ravelry ID Bag Pattern The front and bottom of the bag are worked flat. Then you pick up for the sides and back and attach them to the front as you knit.
Using Celery, CO 100 stitches.
Slip the first stitch of every row.
Work 3 rows in garter stitch (knit every row).
Work 12 rows in stockinette stitch (st st) (knit on RS, purl on WS).
Break Celery, switch to White and work 15 rows in st st.
Break White, switch to Celery and work 30 rows in st st. [or work 24 row and on the next RS row start the black part of the chart on the 28th st.]
Break Celery, switch to White work 4 rows in st st.
Next row: [This should be a Right Side Row, if it isn't work one more row (which is a hazard of adjusting the pattern after the fact.)] Begin chart on 27th stitch [if you are only working the red in intarsia. If you are going to work the black you will need to start six rows sooner on the 28th sts. (which is why you should always read the entire pattern before you start knitting)]
Continue in st st, working from chart and maintaining 30 row stripe pattern.
Work 5 more rows after the chart is complete (making final Celery block 35 rows total). Drop green yarn (do not break).
Switch to Black and work 20 rows st st. Break yarn, leaving last row live on a spare needle.
Stop! Do all your duplicate stitching now while you have this nice flat canvas to work on. (I think the duplicate stitch felted up beautifully.)
Return to dropped Celery yarn. With wrong side facing and using Celery pick up and knit 10 rows down the side of the bottom of the bag, Knit across the 100 live stitch on the spare needle, pick up and knit 10 stitches down the other side. (120 sts total)
Working in st st, turn and knit across all sts. [you might want to purl at the two corners of the back of the bag to add some definition. I can't help you with stitch count as I messed up my stitch count when attempting to knit the sides to the front. But it should be roughly stitch 10 and stitch 100. You're smart, you'll figure it out.]
You will now attach the sides and front of bag to the back of the bag in the manner you would knit on a button band. Check your big Vogue Knitting book, it has nice pictures and a clearer explanation than I'm about to give. Alternately, work it all flat and seam it when you're done. You've been slipping the first stitch of every row to facilitate this next part. Don't slip any more stitches.
Place one stitch from the front of the bag onto your left hand needle. Purl (or knit as appropriate) this edge stitch together with the first/next stitch on the needle. [I have an early blog post about this where I attempted to take pictures. But trust me, it's cool you should try it.]
Continue in this manner, working in st st and maintaining stripe pattern. At the end, work 3 rows garter stitch to match the front and bind off.
Weave in ends.
Handles (make 2)
[I should mention that I'm not thrilled with the handles, I think they are a little thin for the size of the bag. I'll see what Mom thinks. My current thought is maybe she can braid or twist them together with a strip of the lining fabric to bulk them up a bit. Anyway, you might want to make yours wider.]
Using US10 DPN and Black CO 8 Sts. Work in I-Cord [knit the stitches. Without turning work, slide stitches to the other end of the dpn, pull the working yarn across the back of the stitches and knit. Continue in this manner for every row, after a few rows the work will pull into a tube] for 24 inches. Switch to Celery and continue in I-Cord for 30 inches. Switch to Black and continue for another 24 inches.
The idea is to have the handles long enough to start in the middle bottom of the bag and offer extra support. I used black for the ends because I thought I would run out of Celery. Only the Celery should show when the handles are sewn on. Feel free to make them longer, shorter, or wider. Or use commercial handles.
Finishing
Get your Mom to attach the handles and make a neat lining. Enjoy.