Purple Purse

I decided recently that the purse I have had for the past five years is impractically small for a mom, so my sister gave me a gift card for Christmas to buy a new one.  In a moment of inspiration, it occured to me that if I knit myself a purse, then I could use the gift card to buy clothes, instead.



I chose a purse pattern on Ravelry that has a honeycomb design: Bees Knees Bag.  I am drawn to dark purple, but for some unfortunate reason, I rarely end up with purple in my closet, so I decided my purse had to be purple.  As part of my birthday date, my husband helped me pick out yarn at JoAnn Fabrics, a bulky eggplant yarn that's mostly acrylic, with a little wool: Lion Brand Wool Ease.  I dug through my mom's fabric collection and picked out a soft lavendar fabric for the lining.  I also got some lavendar zippers for the top closure and for the inside pockets.

The pattern has a pocket on the front that is knitted separately and then sewn in.  I prefer to knit things in one piece with as little seaming as possible, and I enjoy a challenge, so I was considering using double knitting to knit the pocket at the same time as the main body of the purse.  However, I decided that would be too complicated (and therefore impossible to knit and watch movies at the same time), so I am going to stick with the directions.

The cast-on is Judy's Magical Cast-On, which is awesome.  I only used it once a few years ago, so I had to review how to do it.  The purse is turning out really well so far.  I am almost to the part where I add on the front pocket.