Iridescent
February 21st, 2009 § 1 Comment
picture by Brendadada
I love sari silk! It is truly iridescent – the word comes from the Iris who was Goddess of the rainbow! For those of you who haven’t come across it before, its a non plied yarn made out of the waste silk produced when saris are woven. It can be hard on the hands to work with – this can be eased by washing and drying the skein, or by winding it into a ball and untwisting it slightly as you go. It comes in a variety of colours and thicknesses so this “pattern” is more of a guide as to how to make a purse – the number of stitches and rows you will need may well be different, but the finished product should be about the same shape. The purse is knitted sideways and has two compartments inside, with a flap across the top and two buttons to hold it closed.
You will need:
- one skein of sari silk (these come in varying weights, I used a 100g skein and had some left over)
- a pair of straight knitting needles: size depends on the thickness of the particular yarn you have – I used 6mm needles (US size 10, UK size 4)
- A pair of buttons – the ones I used are round, purple and 2 cm in diameter
- darning needle
The first thing you need to do is knit a swatch to find out what your gauge is and which size needles to use. The fabric should be quite firm – after knitting sari silk softens and sags slightly so you need to take this into account. If you want to wash your swatch go ahead, but I didn’t since I don’t think I’ll be washing it as a purse! My gauge was 11 stitches and 20 rows to a 10 cm square.
The size you make the purse depends on what you want to keep in it. Mine is big enough for my debit card, student ID, railcard and packets of stamps. It is 9 cm high and 14 cm wide.
To begin the purse, cast on 11 cm worth of stitches – you can do this by eye or use maths (1.1 x your stitches-per-10cm). I cast on 12 stitches.
Front
Row 1: P1, K
Row 2: P
Repeat these 2 rows until the piece is as long as you want your purse to be wide, ending on a purl row. I periodically put my bank card onto my knitting to see if it was getting wide enough. The purse should be a little bit wider than the widest thing you want to store in it otherwise you won’t be able to get your fingers in to get it out! I stopped at 14 cm.
Purl 2 rows
Back
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Repeat these two rows until the back piece is as long as the front. The ridge created by the two purl rows marks the point at which the fabric will fold
Divider
Knit all rows until this third section is as long as each of the first two were. Cast off.
You should now have a long strip of knitting. The front section has a garter stitch at the top edge to help it to curl less – it will still curl a bit but this helps hold your cards in! The back section is in stocking stitch, and the third, “divider” section is in garter stitch.
Fold the strip in thirds so that the divider section is inbetween the front and the back section. Sew the sides together.
Sew the bottom up – make sure you catch all three layers.
Flap
Pick up and knit across the top of the back section. I picked up 16 stitches. The flap should be wide enough that when folded down it completely covers the openings of the purse, otherwise your coins will fall out. It is better to make this a tad wider than it needs to be than to finish and find that its not quite wide enough – sari silk does not like to be un-knitted!
Row 1: P2, K to last 2 sts, P2
Row 2: P
Repeat these two rows until you want to place the buttonholes. I put the buttonholes 8cm in to the flap. The type of buttonhole you use depends on how big your buttons are, how big your yarn is, and what your preferences are about buttonholes. I did the following:
Buttonhole row 1: P2, cast off 1, K to last 3 sts, cast off 1, P2
Buttonhole row 2: P2, cast on 1, P to last 2 sts, cast on 1, P2
K 5 rows, cast off all stitches. Sew on your buttons and you’re done!
This is the first pattern I’ve written! If you like it, or if you have any comments/suggestions/errors/questions please let me know I would love some feedback!
Beautiful! I want to make one.