Design Decisions

I have heard from quite a few knitters who are eager to join me in designing a purse. And if they are anything like me, they want to start NOW.

You have a couple of design decisions to make before you grab that yarn.

1) The most important decision is how big you want your purse to be. The size of your squares determines the finished size of your purse. Make your squares half the width of the finished purse and the height you want your purse to be. You should add an extra row at the top and bottom and and an extra stitch at each side for seams. We are adding sides and a bottom to this purse, so you don't have to allow for that, if your square is 7x7, your purse will be 7x14 more or less.

2) Next in importance is color. I am using purple, turquoise, hot pink, lavendar. The sides and bottom are unknown; I have to go yarn shopping. All one color would be fine; the texture is going to be awesome on your purse. I would not advise using variegated on the squares for one reason only: you lose all the impact of your tediously counted pattern with variegated. I have read this fact several places. I personally LOVE variegated yarn and this was a hard lesson for me to learn! If you are going to use variegated in any of the squares, use a very simple stitch pattern, such as plain garter stitch.

2) The stitch patterns you choose should not use holes as a design element unless you are very careful of the color of your purse lining; it will show through. Knit/purl combinations to make textural designs are best. I discuss this in a previous entry. I know you dishcloth knitters like to make recognizable designs using knit and purl and this is a good showcase for those. Maybe your initials on one side?

3) The smaller your needle, the denser your knitted fabric, obviously. Either a #6, #7, or #8 works for me. When I did my first square, my #6 and #7 Denise were busy, so I grabbed my #8. With a lined purse, it really does not matter if the stitches are bigger. Plus, you finish faster with bigger needles.

4) Make it easy on yourself and as you flip through your stitch library, look for patterns with similar stitch requirements; I have found quite a few that call for a multiple of 4 +3 (4x6=24+3=27) and my squares are 27. If all your squares are the same size, it will be simpler, although these squares can be stretched a bit or scrunched when you sew them to the base.

5) Dishcloth designs tend to have borders to make them more userfriendly. You won't need borders on this square, but you can make them; they would certainly add interest to your purse. And probably make sewing the seams easier. Hmmmmm........

With all this to mull over, I'll see you on Monday. You can start making those four squares any time! Here is my first square:

The pattern is from The Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns and it is called "Furrows".

If you like this pattern and want it for one of your squares:
Multiple of 6 stitches plus 3
Cast on 27 (on #8 needles I got 6 1/2" wide square)
Rows 1 and 3: P3, *k1, slip 1, k1, p3*, repeat * *
All even rows: work each stitch as it appears on this side of the work (k the k sts and p the p sts)
Rows 5 and 7: K4, * slip 1, k5* repeat **, ending last repeat with k4.
Rows 1-8 make a pattern repeat.