Thursday, June 5, 2008

Knitted purses with bangle bracelet handles

This was a Fire Mountain Gem's ad that ran on the back of a knitting magazine (I think) a while back and I got a bunch of email's asking for the pattern. So now a million years later....here is a rough outline of generally how to make these babies!
Supplies:
2 bangle bracelets
yarn
knitting needles in a size to make a pretty tight stitch (in other words if you are a loose knitter go down a size)

I used Iris Schreier's method of casting directly onto rings and binding off with rings. She covers these methods on her Belt episode of Knitty Gritty and in her book-Exquisite Little Knits.

Now please remember these are estimates based on me looking at my finished purses and I can't guarantee perfect accuracy, either now or when I made them since I was simply figuring it out as I went and I was makin' them fur me and I'm not so picky!

For the Green Purse:

Cast on about 13 stitches
Working in garter stitch inc 1 at the beginning of most rows . As best I can count there seems to be about 10 rows on each side of the purse and about 22 stitches along the bottom fold.
Then working back up the other side dec 1 (k2tog) at the beginning of most rows.

Simply fold the two sides together and seem them up leaving about an inch open from the edge of the bracelet.

In the second picture there is a matching cuff. That is about 19 stitches wide and 14 rows tall knit in stockinette, I have a pretty small wrist.

For this fun pink and green version a double stranded with a furry yarn, they are from Iris's yarn company-Art Yarns.

This black and white one was done the same way.

For these:
CO about 18 st.
Knit in stockinette, inc at the beginning of most rows.
After about 8 rows double strand with both the main variegated yarn and the furry/eyelash yarn for about 6 rows.
Knit with just the main variegated for about 9 rows still inc at the beginning of most rows.
Then double strand again for 6 rows and increasing.
This will make one side.
Reverse for the other side:
Still double stranding with the main and eyelash yarn for about 6 rows this time decreasing on most rows.
then about 9 rows of just the variegated, 6 double stranding and then the final 8 rows with the variegated.
No I even gave this a shot with suede cord:
CO 11 stitches
Knit in garter stitch inc for the first few rows and then it looks like I stayed at about 18-19 stitches. Then worked back the same way as before. A note on this one, You can see how the cord changed from having a white edge to it not having the white edge. I made this a design element and added a Chinese coin at the end join in the center.

Well I hope you give this a shot. I know my directions are vague but I really am a "wing it" knitter.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are *adorable*...what a great idea!!

Anonymous said...

What a great idea for fun evening purses. A good use for leftover yarns especially novelty ones. Thanks for posting to the Knitlist. I've bookmarked your blog which I might not have found otherwise.

Kenyetta said...

Thank you for sharing!
I agree a great way to use up leftovers!

marliescohen said...

They are absolutely darling. Thanks for the idea, will have to play with it.

Anonymous said...

Cute purses. I especially like the big polymer clay buckle/button on the magazine cover!

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