bohemian purse finished

I finished my bohemian pouch. The pattern is by Pam Allen from Interweave Knits winter 00/01. I used five different colors of lion brand Wool-Ease yarn and size 6 needles. This is the first time I used fair isle technique with stranding multiple colors thru an entire project. Once I got the hang of how to hold two strands of yarn at once it went along pretty quickly. It reminded me of doing counted cross stitch. I like the colors, but I knitted one side of the purse stranding more tightly than the other side. Then of course, as a result the two sides were different sizes for when they were folded together (along the bottom edge) and stitched up at the sides. I had to really stretch the one side when I blocked it to get it to match.
The lining was another challenge. I made the lining too big the first time and then had to cut it down smaller and re-sew it. I added a zipper to the top edge too. The knitting and the colors look real nice. The sides of the purse are not real straight though and have a definite home made look (putting it nicely), but I still am pleased over all. I hope the imperfections I see are not too noticeable from a distance. I'm not real anxious to do another project that requires lining. Using the sewing machine is quite a challenge for me.
The cord handle was intimidating and I almost didn't do it because I thought it would take forever and be too tedious but it didn't and wasn't. It involved casting on 420 stitches then doing a cast off row of knitting and passing stitches forwards and backwards. I was almost going to just braid some yarn, or do an i-cord instead but I'm glad I didn't. The top edge uses a two color bind off that I had never done before. It's nice how the top edge matches the style of the cord handle.