August 25, 2009

Fair Isle Purse

Fair Isle purse completed

Finished the Fair Isle purse for the granddaughter this morning. She is so cute and so excited to use her purse. There isn't a lot of Fair Isle stranding in this purse, but having done it on the knitting machine makes me happy.

Fair Isle on the knitting machine

I have a Bond America Ultimate Sweater Machine (although I have yet to make any sweaters with it) and have been really pleased with the finished objects produced on it. Another thing I learned on this purse was how to knit in a hem on the machine. Very cool! This hem is the inside front of the purse above the button and, per the directions, I bought a sheet of plastic canvas at the craft store, cut a piece to fit and slid it into the hem to provide stiffness.

Fair Isle off the knitting machine - check out the knitted in hem at the bottom

I did, as usual, make some of my own adjustments to the pattern. I felt the purse flap was too floppy and curly, even after crocheting an edge and blocking, so I knitted another flap in just the brown yarn and stitched it to the inside of the flap. I like this a lot for two reasons -- it adds weight and stability to the flap and it covers the floats so she won't accidentally catch them.

The original pattern also calls for a strap and stitched on trim of braided yarn. Aaaaaannnhhh! I decided to hand-knit a strap in one of my favorites, moss stitch. It creates a dense, textured, heavier fabric and looks very nice for the strap. Something I hadn't done before but had read about many times is slipping the first stitch of each row for a prettier edge. It really works! Chose a pretty ivory colored 1' button and chain stitched a loop for the closure.

 Close up of Fair Isle purse and button closure

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