I had a bit of stressful day. One thing and another.  And I still have lots of things I should do (!), but I needed a break a while. So, I have been cheering myself up of an evening and I improvised this little purse…

Thought it would be a cute pouch for any English coins I might get in change while on holiday. I am soon on my way to my native land for the first time in the three years since I moved to Sweden.

I started with crocheting the flower and then wondered what to do with it…

Anyway, I doubled up both yellow and white cotton for a summer feel and to match the flower.

I picked up my size 5mm cosy wooden and extra-short knitting needles.  I began withouth really knowing what I was making.  The short length of needles suggested not too many stitches.  Ok, a cast on of 17.

Tired brain needed something easy, so I went for the classic “reversible rib stitch.” Over a multiple of 3 stitches, just *K2, P1* and repeat!  Easy peasy, stretchy cosy.  It looks the same on both sides and makes a stretchy fabric.

Good idea to have a K1 on each side of your work for a neater edge, but make sure you don’t forget that the K1 is separate to the rib stitch.  Thus: K1 *K2, P1* to last stitch, K1.  Repeat on every row.

I then did a bit of reduction to make a pointy top and at this point stuck to garter stitch (i.e. knitting every row).

So I had an oblong block of reverse rib and a pointy top for a flap.  A fold up and sew up the sides and a purse was taking shape.

In my bag of buttons I found one that just fit snugly through the centre hole of the flower and stayed there.  Lucky!  Then I made a rough crochet circle in yellow and attached another button below and decided a petal would make a reasonable fastening catch.  I sewed the petals on the upper flap to keep them secure.  I hope the others will be ok, loose and free.  The cotton yarn was easy to split in half, thus using a thinner thread to sew in the small button holes.

And, ta da!  A cute sunshine flower purse.  The colours are somewhat muted in these photos, perhaps with the cloudy evening light. I hope they are bright enough to spread some summer cheer!

Uh-oh, I still have a long “to-do” list, including packing…!