Many people expressed an interest in a knitted Civil War Era purse knit-along. Many thought that June would be the best month for it. I have changed the pattern since I have started planning this, if anyone wants the original pattern, feel free to e-mail me. I found that the "honeycomb" pattern was a little too difficult for some knitters and is almost impossible to fix if a stitch is dropped. I found this simple pattern and am happy that it makes a pretty purse that I think a lot of my readers will be happy with. As with the sontag knit-along, I will put a widget on my blog that allows participating knitters to post their progress every Friday. I understand that June is a reenactment month so will leave the widgets up until the next Wednesday.
The pattern I have chosen is from 1858 is simple and makes a pretty purse. A sample swatch is shown at the left. The purse is pretty on both sides.
I will be posting the instructions today. I tried to make them easy to print. If you would rather have a PDF copy of them, please send an e-mail to TheSailorsWifeSa@Aim.com.
Let me know what you think! I think we'll keep this one going until the end of July. Although it is a tiny purse, there is a lot of knitting to do. The result is very pretty and I can't wait to make one to hold all of my ball items. The cost of the purse should only be $4.00 unless you have to buy needles in which case the total will be close to $9.00. I wanted to make a purse that was affordable for everyone and within the ability of the majority of knitters.
Where did you get your needles? Size 00 needles are rather scarce.
ReplyDeleteI think I may use the brown & blue color combo, it sounds pretty.
I'm glad you are joining! :D
ReplyDeleteThe needles are double pointed needles intended for knitting socks and normally come in packs with 000, 00, and 0. Back then, they made regular needles that fine but today we can make do.
You can work without a stopper on the ends but I just used some tiny rubberbands and made my own stoppers.
This is the kind I have, they are much cheaper to get from a local store instead of buying online: http://cgi.ebay.com/SUSAN-BATES-SOCK-SET-DOUBLE-POINT-KNITTING-NEEDLES-4-Sz-/290398767966?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item439d1d8b5e
Thanks! The Joann's near us carries these.
ReplyDeleteSo, according to that e-bay listing size 0 needles are approx. 2 mm. I have those, thankfully!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if the small skeins of crochet yarn I have will be enough... I'll give it a try, anyway. I bought them in the local shop and they should, hopefully, still have the same colours if I run out of it. (White is actually a given... ;-)