Watermelon Dress and Purse

I finished Miss B's dress last week, but only sewed on the buttons today. I used the pattern for the dress found here. Every summer I feel the need to knit cute things for the warm weather, but I don't care too much for knitting with pure cotton yarns. The dress called for Kraemer Yarns Little Leigh, which has 2 plies of acrylic, and 3 of cotton (55% acrylic/45% cotton) and there was enough give in the yarn to make the knitting go smoothly. I did make the pattern a bit bigger, but didn't make any other changes.

I didn't like the hat in the pattern, and who needs a hat like that in the summer anyway? So since my little B is a girly girl (much to my chagrin) I made her a matching purse. It is just big enough to fit her pocket-sized New Testament (her Bible in which she "reads" about Daniel and the lion's den :) to the amusement of many at church) and her sunglasses. The purse is about 5" in diameter, but can be made larger by using a worsted yarn. I'll also give you some rough decrease calculations on making it bigger too.


Semi-Circle Purse Pattern
Yarn: DK weight cotton blend in MC and CC, about 50 yds each. I used leftovers, so I don't have exact yardage.
Needles: US 4 (or one size smaller than used to achieve ball-band gauge)
Gauge: 6.5 sts per inch, but not really important
Notions: 1 button (opt.), scraps of black yarn for embroidery (opt.)darning needle, 3 dpns in one size smaller than used for the body to knit the I-cord

Using the provisional cast on and MC, cast on 8 sts. Work in garter stitch for 12" or 68 ridges.
Shaping for handles:
Row 1: K1, ssk, k2, k2tog, k1
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: k1, ssk, k2tog, k1
Using these 4 sts and smaller dpns, work I-cord for 16" or until desired length.
Undo the provisional cast on, and work the 3 handle shaping rows, making sure that the right side is facing. Graft the end of the I-cord to the 4 live sts remaining after the shaping rows.

Body
First Side:
With MC pick up 68 sts along one edge of garter stitch strip.
Row 2: inc. 1 sts in each of the first and last sts and purl the remaining sts.
Row 3: decrease 5 sts evenly spaced while at the same time working the first and last 3 sts in I-cord as follows: slip the first 3 sts to the right hand needle purlwise, working the rest of the row as written. Maintain I-cord edging for rest of body.
Change to CC.
Rows 4-8: work as established.
Row 9: 3 sts in I-cord, (k1, k2tog) to last 5 sts, knit.
Rows 10-14: work as established.
Row 15: 3 sts in I-cord, k2tog to last 3 sts, knit.
Rows 16-18: work as established.
Row 19: 3 sts in I-cord, k2tog to last 3 sts, knit.
Row 20: 3 sts in I-cord, p2tog to last 3 sts, purl.
Row 21: 3 sts in I cord, ssk, k1, k2tog, k3.
Transfer first 6 sts to dpn and place remaining 3 sts on aonther dpn. Using third dpn, work applied I-cord on remaining 3 body sts, grafting the I-cord together after eliminating the 3 body sts.

Second Side: Repeat as for first side through row 21. Finish as for first side if an open bag is wanted. If a button closure is desired work as follows:
Row 22: 3 sts I-cord, p2tog, p4.
Transfer first 4 sts to one dpn and the last 4 to a second dpn. Using a third dpn, work in I-cord, knitting the last 2 sts together. Work I-cord until about 2" long, or long enough to fit around chosen button. Graft I-cord to 4 sts on first dpn, decreasing one st while grafting.

Embroider seeds using lazy daisy stitch and sew on button.

If you want a larger bag, knit the garter stitch strip until there are a multiple of 20 ridges. Pick up one stitch for every ridge. Omit the decreases on row 3, and decrease 20 sts every 6th row until 60 sts remain, then work rows 9-21/22 above.

Copyright Carissa @ Chrysalis Knits. For personal use only. Please do not sell or otherwise distribute this pattern without written consent.