Saturday, September 08, 2007

Felted Flap Purse




Felted Flap Purse

Machine: 9mm bulky
Tension Dial: T9
Yarn: Approx. 250 grams of 100% worsted weight wool. (this was a self striping wool from Yarn Treehouse on Ebay. For reference, it's about the same weight as Knit Picks Wool of the Andes)
Finished Dimensions: 9.5"wide x 8" tall x 2.5"deep. 32" shoulder strap

Strap and Bottom/Sides of Bag:
CO 14 stitches and knit 400 rows. Join cast on edge to last row being careful not to twist the strap. Remove from machine.

Back of Bag:
COR. Row counter at 0. With the strap seam at 0 in the middle of the needlebed and purl side facing you, pick up 50 stitches (25-0-25) evenly across (I picked up bars and bumps until it got a little tight then skipped a bump so the strap wasn't too stretched out. I didn't want it to pucker since the strap is also the bottom of the bag). Knit 1 row.
COL. Pick up a bar stitch from strap and hang it on each end of the row. Knit 2 rows, COL. Continue in this manner until 80 rows have been knit and back stitch bind off.

Front of Bag:
Same as Back of Bag except after 80 rows do not bind off. Continue knitting 55 more rows (RC=135) without picking up strap stitches to create the fold over flap. Back stitch bind off.

Felt:
I put my bag into a zippered pillowcase cover and ran it through one hot wash/cold rinse and spin cycle and viola! It was just right :) I put a large cereal box into it for the shaping as it dried.

Oh, and this pattern is free for your personal use, Copyright Clarisse Gibson 2007 All Rgihts Reserved. Please do not sell my pattern or include it in any collection of patterns for sale without my written permission. I know I've seen similar purse patterns on the internet, but I made this one up because I had an idea of what I wanted and I didn't want to spend the time searching the web for a pattern that I probably didn't have the right yarn for anyway. So I hope I haven't inadvertently re-created someone else's pattern, if so, please let me know and I'll take my version off my blog.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll be embellishing this one with some ribbon and beads on the corners of the flap. As soon as I find the right beads, I'll put up another photo when it's done.

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Machine Knit Felted Pet Bed

Xena Approved!
I was inspired to create this pattern from http://wendyknits.net/knit/kittybed.htm . Thank you Wendy for sharing your creative inspiration :)

Machine: A bulky 9mm knitting machine. As a creative knitter, I'm sure you will be able to adapt it for use on any knitting machine. The yarn you use should be your guide.

Materials: left over bits and balls of 100% wool for felting. The bulk of the bed pictured here was made with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and Patons Classic Wool, single stranded, and some odd left overs from an unnamed brand. My guestimate is about 400 grams of feltable wool, give or take and one ball of Fun Fur for the edge.

Size: Finished Bed 15" Diameter with a depth of 7 inches on the sides after felting. I had 25 inch diameter before felting. You can adjust the size of your bed by changing the number of needles you cast on.

Bottom of Bed: CO 40 sts WY, knit 6 rows, knit 1 row with ravel cord, COL. Change to Main Yarn and knit 1 row, COR, *place all but the 2 needles at the carriage edge into hold position, knit 2 rows. Push the next 2 needles on the carriage edge back into working position, knit 2 rows, continue until all needles have been placed in working position. End with COR* 1st wedge completed. Repeat steps between the * until 12 wedges have been completed, (10 wedges will work too, but I prefer the shape I get when I used 12 wedges). Join the first wedge to the last wedge by re hanging the stitches from the first wedge and pulling them through the stitches from the last row. (You can graft it for a seamless join, but since it's a pet bed, I didn't feel the need to do that much work. The seam felts into the bed and isn't visible when looking into the bed, but does show when you turn it over and look at the bottom). Remove waste yarn by pulling out the ravel cord and bind off with back stitch bind off, sew the center hole closed.

Side wall of bed: Ewrap CO 20 sts. Using the Seam As You Go (SAYG) method to join panels, hang the first bar stitch on the edge of the bottom section onto the last stitch on the left on the needlebed. Knit 2 rows. Hang the next bar from the edge of the bottom section on the left side, knit 2 rows. Hang the next 2 bars, a decrease is made, knit 2 rows. (The decreased stitches are what make the side walls stand up after the bed is felted). Continue in this manner until all bars have been picked up and knit onto the side panel. Join to beginning cast on by pulling the first cast on stitches through the last stitches knit and back stitch bind off.

Fur Edge of bed: Ewrap CO 8 sts with the wool yarn. Using the Seam As You Go (SAYG) method to join panels described above, knit with 2 strands of yarn, one of wool and one of fun fur stranded together. Since this is not a shaping panel but an extension of the wall you will be picking up every bar stitch instead of making a decrease by knitting 2 rows together as you did above. Join the beginning cast on stitches by pulling them through the last row knit and back stitch bind off.

Weave in your ends and run through the washer in hot water to felt. Shape while wet, I use an upside down round laundry basket for this size bed.

*** I've already decided that on the next one I will only use 5 stitches to make the fur edge. I don't think it needs to be that wide. ***

****If you want a thicker, stiffer sided bed, you can double strand your yarn or use one of the more chunky weights available for felting. And yes, when I used to cut my childrens hair, I followed them around for a week with scissors in hand to snip away strays :)****

I hope this is clear. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email and I'll do my best to clarify for you. These instructions are free for your use. Please do not ad it your website or blog or include it in any collection of patterns that are to be used to make a profit without my written permission. Linking to this post is a perfect way to share the pattern with other machine knitters :) Copyright Clarisse Gibson 2007 All Rights Reserved

Is it ready yet? Stimpy is the curious one :)

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