little purse -- gunslinger style

I don't like to be pocketless and I don't like the idea of carrying a purse, necessitating putting the stuff that should be in pockets down somewhere and possibly leaving it all wherever it was put. I need something at least large enough for a pair of keys.


This is my solution. A sort of pocket that can be worn just as a holster would be.

Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream. About 1 skein of earth ombre (naturals) colorway or pick your own color(s).
Needles: #6 (4mm) 29" circular needle.
#3 (3.25mm) double pointed needles.
Tapestry needle.

Gauge: 20 stitches per 4", but not particularly important.

Mine came out to 4" wide and 4.75" tall with 34" belt section, plus ties, and is in desperate need for a bit of blocking.

Cast on 22 stitches on the larger needles. Knit 5 rows, ~0.75". Cast off 4 stitches in the middle on the next row, then chain 4 stitches on at the middle for the next row for a button hole. Continue knitting back and forth until the work is 2.5" long for the flap. Chain on 24 stitches after going your preferred direction and join in the round to start the main body of the bag. Continue knitting in the round for 4.75". During the last row finishing along the front, slip the first of the front stitches over the last back stitch. Slip the last front stitch over the first back stitch at the very end. Cut the yarn leaving enough to graft the bottom together. I liked the purl side better and turned it to have that on the outside.

Decide on a left or right side pocket then pick up 3 stitches on the inside of the bag on that side such that one stitch is in the first line of stitches that becomes the flap and two are not. Knit these as an I-cord on the smaller needles for 4.5". Cut the yarn but don't bind off.

Cast on 3 stitches and knit another piece of I-cord for 11.5". If a left bag, continue knitting across the three stitches of the end of the first I-cord. If a right bag, knit back picking up the end of the first I-cord. Continue knitting back and forth over the 6 stitches for 2.75" then put the left three stitches on a holder and continue in I-cord to make a tie, ~8". Bind off the end by passing the yarn through each stitch back to front, then front to back. Pick up the other 3 stitches again for a second I-cord of the same length with the same bind off.

Pick up 3 stitches on the other side and knit them in I-cord for 4.5" again. Undo the cast on end of the second I-cord to reveal 3 live stitches and connect them to the first as per the instructions for the other side. Knit back and forth on the 6 stitches for 20" then add two I-cord ties as on the other side.

Start a crochet chain just inside the corner of the pocket and chain it for 2". Cut the yarn leaving a long tail. Do the same to the other side. Pull the yarn ends into the top I-cord with a needle such that they go in with a width between that is smaller than the pocket width and come out at the same hole between stitches. Tie the ends together tightly, then pass the ends back into the I-cord.

Finally, add a button to the center at the level of the button hole. Mine is a yarn button. It is tied using the flat button knot found here, tied from a crochet chain. The end that sticks out the front was tucked under and in and then the two ends knotted together. The crochet is only long enough that the button is made up of the chain but this knot of the ends is only the yarn. The ends were then passed through the knitting and tied again. Many other yarn buttons exist, or any handy button may be used.

Variation: If to be used with pants, the gunslinger style can be completed by adding some long crocheted ties to each corner of the bottom that can be tied around the leg for further stabilization.

knit purse: fail

The plan for a bag relies on the rectangle in a round knit piece. It was simply to use the rectangles to make a bag about 20 stitches high, 30 wide, and 9 deep. The brown sides are started from the middle so that they'll come to 9x20 stitches. The variegated Starts purling down one of those brown edges, along the bottom, then up the other side. Stitches are chained on for the flap to go over the top and down about 14 stitches, then the other brown piece was purled on three sides, and finally stitches for the front were chained on. Once the border of that larger rectangle was established, the middle was filled in until finally the stitches were grafted together (like sock toes). The safety pins are holding the live stitches where a handle can be attached.



Knitted on #6 needles with sugar'n cream. It was chosen to be 9 stitches deep so that 3 I-cords could be knitted from them and braided together for the handle, with a piece of flat knitting over the shoulder for comfort, perhaps. This makes it deeper (2" at the bottom, 2.5" at the middle) than really desired. It came out 3.5" high and 6" wide at the edge but 8.5" wide at the bottom. This is a fair bit wider than was hoped for.

The handle was probably going to make it pull open at the sides annoyingly anyway. It'll be pulled apart to make another one with a different and hopefully better design.


Maybe I'll try a "gunslinger" style, like the scribble to the left. Perfect for cell phones, of course. It'll be a greater challenge to get it so it doesn't pull open at the sides a bit.

cases

Double pointed needles are usually 7 inches and pencil cases are usually 7.5 inches. The perfect fit. Too bad all of mine are currently filled with brush pens except I rather like the brush pens too. Although, what I really need is something to keep the circulars in.

a rose in any other color

I was looking about at how people put together leaves and finally got to looking at flowers too. There don't seem to be as many flowers around as one might think. I put together one based on the two common techniques for making ruffles. One being to start with a lot more stitches than you might ever want to use and decrease madly, the other being to increase madly and cast off when it starts to seem too much.

I figured the petals should be lighter and the leaves heavier so the leaves get the decreases and the petals get the increases. Needles and yarn aren't terribly important, just something that makes sense together. Smaller yarn/needles makes smaller flowers. The flower above is in "asparagus" Red Heart Eco-Ways and "soft sunshine" Naturally Caron.com on a #9 (5.5 mm) circular needle and came out almost 5 inches wide.

Starting with a nice green for the leaves, cast on 165 stitches and connect into a round taking care not to twist.
Row 1 and all odd rows: knit (K).
Row 2: knit 3 together (K3tog) to the end. I insisted that the middle stitch should land on top so k1, held the next stitch away to pass the 3rd stitch over, then passed the 2nd stitch over. The easiest way, if you don't care which stitch is on top, is to slip two stitches, knit one, then pass those slipped stitches over the new stitch.
Row 4: K4, K3tog, (K8, K3tog)x4, K4.
Row 6: K3, K3tog, (K6, K3tog)x4, K3.
Row 8: K2, K3tog, (K4, K3tog)x4, K2.
Row 10: K1, K3tog, (K2, K3tog)x4, K1.
Row 12: (K3tog)x5.
Row 13: K5. Enthusiastic color changers may wish to do this row in yellow.

This leaves 5 green stitches in the middle. Change to a petal color to do the first, largest, layer of 20 petals. Knitting so that the wrong side faces the leaves (by actually purling or by switching directions), add the petals:
Row 1: K5.
Row 2, 4, 6, 8: Yarn over (YO), K1 to the end.
Row 3 and all odd rows: K to end. This will give 80 stitches when row 9 is finished.
Row 10: YO, K3, YO, K1 to end.
Row 12: YO, K5, YO, K1 to end.
Row 14: YO, K7, YO, K1 to end.
Row 15: K and cast off. I used a slightly softer cast off than the usual. To do this: cut the string about 3 times longer than the length to be cast off. In this case, this can be somewhat over 6 feet of yarn to work with. Thread a yarn needle and pull the yarn through two stitches back to front, the back through the first stitch, front to back. Pull off this first stitch and put it on the other needle as the last stitch. Continue by going forward through 2, back through 1 and dropping the 1.

For the next 10 petals, thread the yarn on a needle through the same route as the first row of the large petal. Since this is going last to first, proceed in a circle in the opposite direction as your knitting. Put the knitting needle through the 5 loops, this is row 1.
Row 2, 4, 6: YO, K1 to the end.
Row 3 and all odd rows: K to end. This will give 40 stitches when row 7 is finished.
Row 8: YO, K3, YO, K1 to end.
Row 10: YO, K5, YO, K1 to end.
Row 12: YO, K7, YO, K1 to end.
Row 13: K and cast off.

Draw the yarn through the center for 5 more loops and put them on the needles for the last 5 petals. This is row 1.
Row 2, 4: YO, K1 the end.
Row 3 and all odd rows: K to end. This will give 20 stitches when row 5 is finished.
Row 6: YO, K3, YO, K1 to end.
Row 8: YO, K5, YO, K1 to end.
Row 10: YO, K7, YO, K1 to end.
Row 11: K and cast off.

For a central button decoration, draw the yarn through the center for 5 more loops and put them on the needles. This is row 1.
Row 2: YO, K1 to the end.
Row 3,4: K.
Row 5: knit 2 together to the end.
Pass the yarn through each stitch and pull somewhat tight, then pass it through each in the other direction. This leaves the purl side showing. Weave in all the ends and finish.

Of course, the pieces of the pattern can be mixed and altered. This flower is in "dill", "ivory", and "peacock" Red Heart Eco-Ways Bamboo Wool (nice stuff) and a little of the soft sunshine above on #6 (4 mm) needles and comes to 3.5 inches. The leaves start with 135 stitches which are then reduced as in the first row and skipping rows 4,5. The first two petal segments are 2 rows shorter. The center was bound off when it hit 20 stitches instead of making the petals and the center was left with the bit of green showing.

rectangle piece

Squares are alright, but rectangles are more useful pieces for putting together into a whole something. This is a plan for a rectangle in the round on a circular needle.

Use a figure eight cast-on on the cable of the circular needle for enough stitches for the desired length minus the width plus two. Knit the first stitch (2 stitches), increase (yarn over) and continue knitting until the last second (third) to last, increase (yarn over) and knit the last. Increase (yarn over), and repeat for the other side of the figure eight. Knit the next row. Continue knitting with two increases around the corner stitch(es) every other row like in the square.

A towel or place mat would be made by just binding off, or the stitches could be left live to be caught up for some other part of whatever it will become. As stated, there could be something funny going on at one corner. Following the parenthesis instructions might fix it but leaves rounder corners as seen in the square.

In reverse, enough stitches could be cast on for the perimeter of the project and reductions taken as needed at the corners, two every other row. When the center is reached, graft it like the toe of a sock. Grafting leaves the yarn at the middle following the same path as the figure eight cast on.

It would be highly recommended to mark the corners either way. It is easy to misplace a stitch one way or the other while working.