10 February--I finished it last night! The finished size is about 2 3/4 by 4 inches, or 7 by 10 centimeters.

It used about 15 yards of white thread--which of course comes on 14 yard cards. Thankfully I bought two! I had 92 yard spools of green and purple. I used over half the purple, but not nearly as much green.

The drawstrings and handle are just twisted cords. I thought about trying fingerloop braiding, but then I wanted it done! They’re threaded through the knitting--no eyelets needed!

The tassels are just thread wrapped around my phone 20 times and tied off at top.

The bag is lined with a piece of 10 mm China silk I had leftover from an 1880s coat lining.

I love this little bag. It’s so adorable! I just ordered worsted weight yarn in the same colors and size 6 needles to make a larger, matching version :)

7 February--The 2/0 needles were a little loose. I don’t have 3/0, and the 4/0 have stockings on them so I tried it on the 5/0. I thought it would be too tight, but I ended up liking it. Until row 12. It was very pretty, but way too dense for a bag. A gift card holder maybe, but not a bag. So I restarted on the 2/0s and have been quite happy. I just finished row 10, and of course dropped a stitch all the way down. That was fun to pick up. It only took five minutes, but still somewhat nerve wracking!

I also decided on two repeats as written. On my first attempt on the 5/0s, I realized I’d like the shape more.

So yes, I’ve started this three times :)

6 February--I’m starting this project page maybe a little prematurely because my threads arrive today. I ordered size FFF because while I still want silk, and love the sort I’ve used for the other bags, I want this a little bigger. The pattern only calls for 78 stitches. I’m planning on casting on 126 though, and doing three rounds of the pattern. Since the blocks don’t repeat perfectly for a three panel pattern (each row begins and ends with the same element) I added three stitches to the pattern, as seen in the first picture. I added a small tree between the cats facing each other too, to balance it a bit. My repeat is 42 stitches, while the original pattern’s repeat is 39 stitches.

As for thread size, I used E on 5/0 needles (miser’s purse), F on 4/0 needles (beaded bag) and they worked nicely. So, I figured that FF would work on 3/0, and FFF would work on 2/0. I have 2/0 dpns, so hopefully my calculations are correct! We’ll see when I check the mail this afternoon :)

I’ll add an official start date when I know it works!