Bag for my niece

Well I finally got some pictures done and after 3 attempts of downloading them into different folders, I actually found them! Woohoo!
I made this bag for my great niece who will be 6 next week, so I must hurry and get it in the mail so it arrives in time.
I had a little woven straw bag with flowers on it when I was little, so this bag was designed with that in mind.

I use 2 strands of yarn throughout to give the bag some strength, it then doesn't need lining as it is quite a tight weave, the handles are made by knitting i-cord which is a bit fiddly but well worth the effort, in fact the i-cord takes almost as long to knit as the bag!
The bag is knitted in the round so there are no seams to sew up, which is a bonus for me as it's my least favorite part of knitting. The top edge is made using a picot row and then folded over to get the nice effect around the rim, otherwise it looks a bit not finised off.
I added flowers to this one as it's for a little girl, but would still be suitable for an adult who likes fun accessories, the flowers are really easy and take about 3 minutes to make and I think they give it a finished off look.

The purple bag without the flowers, will be added to my store today, I also have done a larger version which is a shoulder bag with longer handles and is more practical for an everyday bag.

I really love making these bags as they are so easy to make, they just take a little time, but I spend most of my evenings knitting, and most of my mornings sewing them up and making the i-cord.

The small bags take around 4 hours to knit, and the larger bags take around 6 hours, so it's time well spent while I'm watching something on the tv.