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Knitting:  Early Coptic Purse
3 kudoz

Early Coptic Purse

Front

No jogs and even floats
Inside Out, even floats
Look Ma! No jogs!
Front

Instructions

Design Elements were taken from pictures of extant knitting in the book: Tissus d ’Égypte:Témoins du monde arabe,VIIIe-XVe siècles. André,Paul Éditions de l ’Albaron,Société Présence du livre,1993,
ISBn 2-908-528-525.

Preliminary charting from: Medieval Knitting / by Chris Laning “Tournaments Illuminated” Issue #165 2008

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Difficulty:

Category: Knitting

Type of item: Accessory

For: Unisex

Style: Traditional, Ethnic


Materials

US size 1 Knitting needles, Baby weight 100% merino wool in various colours.

What was your inspiration?

This is my reproduction of a 6th Century Coptic Purse. It is based on a fragment of knitting that was found in Egypt. We don't know what the fragment was from, but a purse seemed a useful and likely extrapolation. (You can never have too many unique bags!)

What are you most proud of?

The fact that this purse looks as good inside out as right side out makes me very happy. Perfect tension is something I didn't think I would ever attain, but this is proof that if you work hard enough at something anything is possible!

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

This is gauged about six times larger than the actual fragments. I have since knit something at that smaller scale and am very glad I took the time to develop my skills on a larger scale first. If tiny knitting is not your thing this design does scale well and would make a nice large bag out of worsted weight on a size US 7-8. Work at the size that will make you happy!

 

2 comments

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Sheila Zachariae on craftsy.com
Sheila Zachariae
Craftsy Instructor
Dec 20, 2012    Flag as inappropriate
Beautiful work here!
Wendi King on craftsy.com
Dec 20, 2012   Flag as inappropriate
Thank you! I had a lot of fun with this bag and the use I get out of it continues to inspire me to make more. I will be posting some of them soon!