Knitted Drawstring Cupcake Purse

PDF yumminess

I've been trawling Folksy and Etsy for some new knitting patterns to try - mainly toys and small accessories. I've bought quite a few knitting books but individual PDFs have a couple of advantages - they don't take up much room and it's easier to contact the designer if you have any questions.

This is the first of my haul - a cute knitted cupcake purse from Amy Gaines. I was attracted to Amy's patterns because they were really pretty designs and also knitted on straight needles (I'm not feeling up to those double points yet).

I found the PDF instructions and illustrations really clear. The purse is knitted with spindly 3mm needles and I used Rowan pure wook DK for both the base and the icing. I found it a bit tricky to get started but once I had got the increases done for the base, it was fine.

The ruffle was knitted separately. I found that part a bit tough as you had to do knits front back and front again to increase one stitch into three. I found this quite hard with the small needles and I'm not sure I did it right, but it looked quite ruffle-like when it was done so I decided it would do.

The purse is made up by making a seam up the back and attaching the ruffle at the bottom of the icing. I used pink ribbon braid for the drawstring rather than yarn as I can't plait for toffee. I sewed on some bugle beads for sprinkles. To finish the drawstrings, I used a couple of glass Pandora-style beads from Totally Beads. 

I was very pleased with the finished cupcake despite a few imperfections. I've bought three others patterns from Amy that I'm looking forward to making. I've also just ordered her book Little Knitted Creatures, which looks fun too, although it will take up more space than the PDFs...

Melx