by Kerri Hartman
Plums have long inspired me. I love the shape, taste and color. I love the smell of plum jam simmering on my stove. I even love the sound of the word: plum. My favorite line from “‘Twas the night before Christmas’; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced round their heads.
Last summer I wrote a story entitled Summer Romance about an abandoned plum tree my husband Steve and I found. The tree inspired my favorite plum jam, that I put in my favorite little round jam jars, which led me to find my most favorite jam thumbprint cookie recipe.
It was an Itailian prune plum tree in Angie’s front yard the inspired our first team canning project, which spawned The Bazaar Girls. So it’s not surprising that plums would also inspire a knitting pattern.
There are several things I wanted to achieve with this pattern. I wanted it to be mostly mindless. Something I could work on in front of The Daily Show, or Family Guy. I also wanted to use Lamb’s Pride yarn because it’s inexpensive, a pleasure to work with, comes in a huge variety of colors and felts beautifully. That’s another thing, I wanted to make something felted. Because felting does for knitting what spanx does for thigh dimples. Also It doesn’t have to fit anyone, or turn out exactly the same every time.
You’ll need:
One skien any of the brilliant shades of purple from lambs pride.
One skien white frost. Both the purple and the white frost can be either bulky or worsted weight as long as they are both the same.
One skein of a complimentary green shade in worsted weight.
24′ circular needles size 10 1/2 for bulky or 7 for worsted
16′ circular needles size 10 1/2 for bulky or 7 for worsted
10 1/2 double points for bulky
Size 7 double points for both
Stitch markers
Cast 144 stiches onto 24′ in circular needles placing a stich marker every twenty stitches. I do this just so I can easily count stiches when I’m at 103 and so on.
Join, place a different color marker to mark beginning of round. Be careful not to twist stitches. This first step can be done on 16′ circulars but 24′ ones make it much easier to avoid twisting stitches.
Knit one round
If you’re using bulky yarn, it is eassier to switch to a smaller 16′ circular kneedle like a 6 size 7 for the next rnd
K3 together all the way around. This is the most hateful round. I promise. It’s easy peasy after this. 48 st remain. Keep your marker indicating the beginig of the round.
knit next round onto your 16 inch size 10 1/2 circular kneedles if you switched to smaller ones.
K 3 more rnds
K1 yo twice k2tog around
K1 round, only knitting one stitch into the yo twice stitches. 48 stitches are left on needle and you have made 16 holes to later weave the strap through.
K3 rnds
Switch to purple yarn place a stitch marker every 4 stitches.
K1 rnd
K1 rnd Increasing one stitch by knitting into the front and back of each st before every marker. 5 sts are now between each marker, and there are 60 sts total.
K3 rnds
K1 rnd Increasing one stitch before each marker. 72 sts
K3 rnds
K1 rnd Increase one st before each marker. 84 sts
K3 rnds
K1 rnd Increasing one stitch before each marker. 8 sts
between each markerand 96 sts total.
K3 rnds
Knit 2tog before each marker.
K3 rnds evenly
Continue in this fashion until there are 4 stitches between markers and knitting three rnds between each decrease rnd.
K1 rnd and remove st markers except the one marking beginning of rnd.
K4 K2tog
K1 rnd
K3 K2tog
Knit one round onto double points
K2 K2tog
K1 rnd
K1 K2tog
K1 rnd
K2 tog
K2 tog
Leave a long tail to weave through the bottom of your bag so that when you felt it will be tight. I usually weave what looks Astrix on the bottom.
For the handle
Okay I lied a little. There is one more hateful part. The leaf is very easy to put on at the end of your I-cord. Not so much at the begining. Here’s what I’ve come up with. And it’s a perfect example of felting covering a mulitidude of sin. If you have a better way we’d love to here from you.
Cast four green sts on a size 7 double point needle, with an aproxamatly 90 in tail
K one row purl one row with with side attached to skien, then start I cord by sliding work to other end of double point. You are taking the working yarn from the far left and knitting it into the farthest right stitch. Slide work to other end and repeat. This how you make an I-cord. There are several videos on line if you can’t picture it. I recommend Knitty.com
Now I stop here and deal with the long tail.
Using your long tail and a 3rd double point needle, pick up four sts from your first row (stick a needle in and pull up a loop 4 times from right to left.
Do two I-cord rows
Purl back (no longer I-cording) ( Yes it’s a real verb. Look I’m I-cording!)
Row 1 K1 make one by knitting in front and back of next stich Knit across 5 sts total
Row 2 and all wrong side rows Purl
Row 3 K2 Yarn over (YO) K1 YO K2
Row 5 K3 YO K1 YO K3
Row 7 K4 YO K1 YO K4
Row 9 Slip slip Knit (ssk) K7 K2 together (K2tog)
Keep purling wrong side rows
Row 11 ssk K5 K2tog
Row 13 ssk K3 K2tog
Row 15 ssk K1 k2to
Row 16 purl 2 together purl one Pass preveouse stitch over to bind off
Now back to the other end, continue I-cording to desired length strap and then knit same leaf on other end starting with purling back.
Felt bag and strap, let dry and weave strap through holes. And dream of sugar plums tonight!
PS These little bags are great for holding a center pull skein of yarn, or they can be lined with fabric and used jewelry etc.