At Her Leisure

I put up my first pattern on Ravelry. I've added patterns to the database before, but this is my first pattern to upload. The shamrock long purse I made last spring is now available as a Ravelry pattern. I'm ridiculously excited about it.

There's good news and bad news.

Good news: I finished the tassel on my miser's purse!



Bad news: The rings I ordered are much too big. I tried cutting one down and ruined it. (It turns out the raised decoration is only tack welded at the ends.)

Good news: I have thread and beads for a pineapple bag!

I might have spent too much time knitting today.



Now it just needs rings and fringe-like things. The largest ring I have is a size 5, and I think I could slowly work it over the beads. So I guess I need rings that are about 16mm in diameter. Now I need to figure out where you get plain gold-colored rings inexpensively. Any suggestions?

My project count exploded yesterday. I cut out a pair of shorts from the same pattern that I used for my playsuit shorts last year but in more serviceable brown twill. I cut out three linen Regency bodice linings because it was probably easier to cut three while the linen was out than to get it out again later. I started knitting a vest. So now I have seven projects that are in some state of completion.

The exciting thing is that I'm halfway through the knitting for my shamrock purse!



The center section is running about 30 rows to the inch so I've got about 55 more rows to go before I get back to the much faster-moving and more interesting beading. At least I can read a novel while working this part, even if I wouldn't dare read something serious.

My 1916 dress is progressing. It got some nasty looks for a bit because the chiffon ended up being too opaque to work well with my inspiration image so I'm reworking it a bit. The skirt is making good progress. Currently it's hanging, letting the bias drop. I'll get back to it later this week. I'm not sure how far I'll get since I am having bodice fitting issues that I'll have to resolve. Ah, well.

With the mitts finished, of course I needed another mindless knitting project. The vest is from 1912 pattern book published by Lion Brand yarn.


I suspect the model is not wearing the size given - somehow she looks a lot more buxom than a 34"-36" bust. This is interesting because the back is in single ribbing up to the armscyes, which should ensure that the vest keeps a close fit. We'll see how it goes. I've wanted one of these knitted vests ever since I saw a picture of one from a DAR museum exhibit. (I've linked to it before, but I don't want to go and find it right now.)

1. It finally stopped raining! We got about 10" of rain last night. All the schools are closed, the city and county offices and courts are closed, my husband's office is closed...We not only had a flash flood watch or warning, we got a flash flood emergency. Fortunately, our house is outside the 100-year flood plain so no problems for us (though somewhere west of us they've got water into what the news called 500-year flood plain - I'm not sure that even means anything since I don't think there's any data going back anything like that far). It still was not a nice night, storming from midnight until 8:00 AM. I doubt anyone got much sleep.

2. My husband went to the movies yesterday afternoon so I decided that meant I could goof off too. I finished my second 1916 petticoat so I am officially finished with underwear for the project! I'm going to try to get my husband to take pictures this evening so I can share.

3. I also worked on my miser's purse. The first set of shamrocks is finished. I'm thinking I should have gone with seven pattern repeats around instead of eight, but it will be fine. I originally thought the original had eight, but now I'm not sure why I thought that and have revised my opinion - I think it has only seven. I'm not ripping the whole thing out and starting over.

There are patterns for knitted miser’s purses that go back at least to the 1840’s. I think the earliest knitting book I’ve read is from the 1840’s, and nearly every one that I’ve read from then through the 1890’s has at least one pattern for one. They’re not usually called miser’s purses, though; usually it’s simply “purse” or sometimes “long purse.”

There are patterns for purses knit flat and patterns for purses knit in the round. As of 1849, Esther Copley was advising that it was much easier to knit them in the round in The Comprehensive Knitting Book, which is one of my favorites. The pattern in Butterick’s The Art of Knitting of 1892 is given in the round but gives the option to knit it flat and sew it up as well.

There are patterns for purses knit with beads. These are mostly regularly spaced individual beads or small motifs, or they have little loops of beads. There are patterns for crocheted purses that have a lot more beads and much more intricate and even pictorial patterns.
What I have not found is a pattern for a purse knit in the round with beads. In the patterns I’ve read that have beads, the beads are added in a purl row. A purl stitch is worked, a bead is brought up close to the needle on the working yarn, and another purl stitch is worked. This makes it easy to add the beads. It is not, however, conducive to working in the round where stocking stitch is done without purling. The only place I think I’ve seen plain knitting with beads is in Jane Gauguin’s 1847 book The Lady’s Work Book.

There are modern references for knitting with beads that have methods where you place a bead in front of a slipped stitch or where you knit a stitch by pushing the bead through the previous stitch, but I haven’t seen any period information about them. Jane Gauguin comes the closest, but I don’t find where she says anything about pushing the bead through the stitch in the row below.

From my own experimentation with the push the bead through the stitch below method, I’ve determined a couple of things. First, the beads stay on the surface of the fabric much better if you knit the stitch above a beaded stitch (in the next row) through the back loop. Knitting in the regular way seems to make the bead shift into and out of the fabric quite a bit. Sometimes they like to nearly disappear. Knitting through the back loop seems to keep them reliably on the surface so they don’t slide to the wrong side. Second, it’s not fun to try to bead a solid area when knitting stockinette in the round. The crochet patterns do it regularly, but it’s not much fun getting a bead through a stitch that already has a bead on it, particularly when knitting through the back loop. The size 11/0 beads are bigger than the #30 cotton, 4/0 needle stitches too, which made it look messy. In a brief search, I couldn’t find any design hints for designing beading patterns that suggested leaving plain rows between beaded rows, but it seems like a good recommendation. I notice that most of the patterns I’ve seen do leave plain rows. The only exception I know of off-hand is the knitted star bag that koshka_the_cat did, but it’s just one bead so it wouldn’t be too bad.

I’ve noted among museum pieces most of the ones dated to the 1880’s are round on both ends and the earlier ones are rounded on one end and squared on the other. There are some interesting ones that are like two mini-purses that are held together with a group of strings. I don’t know if either of those was a fad, but the 1892 book I’ve used a fair bit has one square end and one rounded end, but that book is full of patterns that were originally published elsewhere going back at least as far as 1877.

Now the practical bit – what am I going to do? I like knitting in the round, and I want to do my beads with the push the bead through the stitch below method. I also found a really cute crocheted purse with a shamrock pattern on it. It’s got a star at one end and an interesting fringe thing at the other end.



I’ve charted it, allowing a plain row after each beaded row, and have a spool of green silk beading cord and a flock of gilt seed beads. Last night I started stringing the beads. Tonight I should be able to finish stringing the beads, and I’m hoping I’ll have enough time to cast on and start knitting. I’m really excited about the project right now, and I’m planning to let myself work on it tonight and tomorrow night then get back to my petticoat ruffles on Friday.



Of course, I haven’t read all the knitting pattern books there are or were so there may be more information that I haven’t come across yet. Feel free to take my opinions and observations with a grain of salt. I’d love to hear if anyone has more information.