Cherry Blossom Spindolyn Pouch…..Or some sort of title like that. I finished this early last week, but blogging time is hard to find between putting in taters and ducking thunderstorms.
The great thing about new tools and accessories is the way you get so excited about using them that you sometimes grab something nearby to try them out with, and it wasn’t necessarily a material you had planned to use at that time or in that way, and it turns you in a new and sometimes good direction…(or sometimes not!)
It was like this with this pink spray dyed handspun and as I mentioned in my previous post, to be more true to the cherry blossom, it should have been a pentagon base…but oh well
Anyway, below is a little pattern for this spiral hexagon base. …..(If you need to see a photo tutorial of spiral circular knitting, there is a great one shared here by Kyoko on her blog Cotton and Cloud.)
Spiral Hexagon Spindolyn Pouch
Yarn: light worsted weight (heavy dk weight) handspun
Gauge: 5.5 sts/inch on 4 double pointed needles (US 5) gauge not critical.
- Cast on 6 stitches on one needle. K 1 row.
- Divide these 6 stitches onto 3 needles.
(ok, now, the above is not the way other folks do this, but I did it this way to make it easier, because no one is going to be looking at the bottom of this pouch, if you are going to be looking at that bottom of your pouch, then you will probably want to do the traditional thing, which would be to cast onn6 stitches over 3 needles, and knit one round, making sure not to twist stitches on the needle.)
- Now commence with the spiral as follows: YO, K1, repeat one round. You know have 12 sts on your three needles.
- Second round: YO, K2
- YO, K3, and so forth, you won’t have to count each row, if you watch for the YO on the previous row, and when it arrives, do your YO, on the stitch just before the YO on the previous row.
This makes a tight and fast spiral, and when you get it it as big as you would like for the bottom of your spindle pouch, you will stop the spiral increases. Mine is about 4-5 inches across.
- Count the number of stitches you have between each of the YO’s you knit in the last row or your spiral increases, and call this stitch count N=________
- On the next row, knit this N_____ stitches, YO, SSK
- Knit 3 rows as above, but on each round, make the YO one stich before its location on the previous row (this makes the spiral continue to slant, even though it is still the same number of stitches)
Now we will begin the spiral decreases to narrow the pouch down to its little neck.
- Knit N_________ stitches, SSK, YO, SSK
- Knit N____minus 1 stitches, SSK, YO, SSK
- Continue in this manner until our pouch neck is as narrow as you would like it (but big enough to still put your spindolyn inside!)
- Knit straight for 6 rows
- K1 P1 for 6 rows
- Picot Bind Off (you can find illustrated instructions for a Picot Bind Off in this handy Knitty article by Theresa Vinson Stenersen)
Ok then, you have this spiral pouch, and if you put the bean bag beads right in it, they might fall through your yarn overs…so, I have found that a putting the beads/beans in a knee high stocking (pantyhose type) contains the beads. This little pouch held about 1/3 of a cup of beads dumped into a knee high nylon stocking, tied off at the top with a knot.
Getting this evasive snake shape of beads stuffed into the pouch can be done, you just have to be patient. Once it is in there, work it around to the outsides of the pouch in a donut shape, then shove your spindolyn base down inside and tada! kick back and spin!
