u/almondbreath

This is my attempt at a historically accurate purse silk version of the Jane Gaugain/Franklin Habit pineapple purse, with beads. I am using size E pearl stringing thread, hand-dyed in acid dyes in 8 different colors, and 2.5mm brass gold-plated beads.

The needle size is US 00000, or 1mm wide. I cast on 80 stitches on each needle to give me a round 320 stitches, each one beaded with the beaded long-tail cast on, and I plan to line this little reticule with white silk.

I have also commissioned a friend to use some of the silk thread I have dyed to make kumihimo braid for me to use as a drawstring and handle for this little purse.

It is a birthday present for a friend whose birthday is in late July. I think I will definitely be done by mid-July.

As of today I am 11 rounds into the pineapple leaves. This is because I had to start over last week when I was 9 rounds in, and I will explain why.

When I first posted this WIP there were people commenting that they were afraid it was twisted. This made me paranoid, and I dropped a stitch 4 rounds in and gave it a twist to counter what I perceived was a twist, then picked the stitches back up.

I then found out 5 rounds after that that... I didn't have to. and it was NOW twisted. Dropping the stitch to fix it caused more problems than it solved, so I just frogged it and started over.

Now I am going to answer some suggestions that were made in the original threads.

• I have tried carbon fiber needles. The points were imperfectly finished so they grabbed the silk thread and shredded it whenever I tried to make a knit stitch.
• I also bought a US00000 circular needle made by HiyaHiya, and while handy for the second time I cast on, it was excruciating to knit with as the transition from cable to needle was not nearly smooth enough for reeled silk thread. More shredding and snagging ensued.
• This has led to a lot of thread that got fuzzy. I remedied it the costume technician way Z— I hand-waxed it with beeswax, winding the waxed thread onto a spare spool, and then placed an iron over it to melt the beeswax in and wound it back onto its own home spool.
• The best needles so far are still the plain boring 5.5 inch US00000 steel dpns, and the best way to prevent the reeled silk from sliding off the needles has been silicone earring backs.
• The slipperiness of the steel needle is vital, as reeled silk will snag even on rough fingers. As I work as a jeweler largely doing fabrications work for my boss, my hands are plenty rough so I smear on some LUSH Palm Reader before I start. If my hands are especially rough I'll use some Dream Cream on them, let it soak in, then wipe it off and put Palm Reader on. This means my pineapple is very fragrant.
• I will wash it in unscented Eucalan later to help set the stitches before I put the lining in, and so my friend won't be assailed by strong perfumes.
• To reiterate: I am a professional. I have a degree in costume production. I am knitting this under conditions that I had tested out. I understand people want to be helpful, but I am getting a lot of comments where people are trying to solve problems that I have already tested out and solved before I started using the actual hand-dyed expensive silk thread to cast on. I have spent about $60 and 20 work hours fixing problems that I didn't need to fix because people kept pointing out problems that weren't really there. Don't worry, I will be fine, I like suffering!
• and for people wondering how I can knit this fine: I am wearing a pair of Optivisors with the 4-diopter (2x magnification) plate in. I can actually knit this without wearing the visor, but I've noticed small mistakes in the round when I go back to it with a visor on later.
• This means it's not a knit alone in public pattern, less because I'm too ashamed to be seen in goofy magnification glasses, but because they reduce my peripheral vision to zero and I don't really want to be caught unawares by some kind of bad actor. I could stab them with the needles but then I'd get blood on my pineapple and that's just no good.

Yes, I am crazy. Yes, I love my friend. But also yes, I love a challenge. I hope to present you all with more pineapply goodness by next week.

PS: The "damn" is not because I'm frustrated doing this, it is the literal pattern name.

This is my attempt at a historically accurate purse silk version of the Jane Gaugain/Franklin Habit pineapple purse, with beads. I am using size E pearl stringing thread, hand-dyed in acid dyes in 8 different colors, and 2.5mm brass gold-plated beads.

The needle size is US 00000, or 1mm wide. I cast on 80 stitches on each needle to give me a round 320 stitches, each one beaded with the beaded long-tail cast on, and I plan to line this little reticule with white silk.

I have also commissioned a friend to use some of the silk thread I have dyed to make kumihimo braid for me to use as a drawstring and handle for this little purse.

It is a birthday present for a friend whose birthday is in late July. I think I will definitely be done by mid-July.

As of today I am 11 rounds into the pineapple leaves. This is because I had to start over last week when I was 9 rounds in, and I will explain why.

When I first posted this WIP there were people commenting that they were afraid it was twisted. This made me paranoid, and I dropped a stitch 4 rounds in and gave it a twist to counter what I perceived was a twist, then picked the stitches back up.

I then found out 5 rounds after that that... I didn't have to. and it was NOW twisted. Dropping the stitch to fix it caused more problems than it solved, so I just frogged it and started over.

Now I am going to answer some suggestions that were made in the original threads.

• I have tried carbon fiber needles. The points were imperfectly finished so they grabbed the silk thread and shredded it whenever I tried to make a knit stitch.
• I also bought a US00000 circular needle made by HiyaHiya, and while handy for the second time I cast on, it was excruciating to knit with as the transition from cable to needle was not nearly smooth enough for reeled silk thread. More shredding and snagging ensued.
• This has led to a lot of thread that got fuzzy. I remedied it the costume technician way Z— I hand-waxed it with beeswax, winding the waxed thread onto a spare spool, and then placed an iron over it to melt the beeswax in and wound it back onto its own home spool.
• The best needles so far are still the plain boring 5.5 inch US00000 steel dpns, and the best way to prevent the reeled silk from sliding off the needles has been silicone earring backs.
• The slipperiness of the steel needle is vital, as reeled silk will snag even on rough fingers. As I work as a jeweler largely doing fabrications work for my boss, my hands are plenty rough so I smear on some LUSH Palm Reader before I start. If my hands are especially rough I'll use some Dream Cream on them, let it soak in, then wipe it off and put Palm Reader on. This means my pineapple is very fragrant.
• I will wash it in unscented Eucalan later to help set the stitches before I put the lining in, and so my friend won't be assailed by strong perfumes.
• To reiterate: I am a professional. I have a degree in costume production. I am knitting this under conditions that I had tested out. I understand people want to be helpful, but I am getting a lot of comments where people are trying to solve problems that I have already tested out and solved before I started using the actual hand-dyed expensive silk thread to cast on. I have spent about $60 and 20 work hours fixing problems that I didn't need to fix because people kept pointing out problems that weren't really there. Don't worry, I will be fine, I like suffering!
• and for people wondering how I can knit this fine: I am wearing a pair of Optivisors with the 4-diopter (2x magnification) plate in. I can actually knit this without wearing the visor, but I've noticed small mistakes in the round when I go back to it with a visor on later.
• This means it's not a knit alone in public pattern, less because I'm too ashamed to be seen in goofy magnification glasses, but because they reduce my peripheral vision to zero and I don't really want to be caught unawares by some kind of bad actor. I could stab them with the needles but then I'd get blood on my pineapple and that's just no good.

Yes, I am crazy. Yes, I love my friend. But also yes, I love a challenge. I hope to present you all with more pineapply goodness by next week.

PS: The "damn" is not because I'm frustrated doing this, it is the literal pattern name.

Greetings. I was asked in r/knitting to post this here, so here I go.

I'm Melissa. I have a background in theatrical costume design, although I work as a jeweler these days.

I have a friend who is a massive Regency nut — and she has costumes of the period. For her birthday this year I am knitting her a pineapple reticule using Franklin Habit's pattern, except instead of using fingering weight silk yarn and US #1 needles, I am instead using reeled silk thread and US #00000 needles.

The thread I am using is pearl-stringing thread in size E hand-dyed with acid dyes to make 8 different hues — two yellows, two browns, and four greens — and I am beading the entire thing with tiny gold-tone brass beads.

This little reticule is not entirely unknown to costume history, either. This specific example hails from c.1800 to 1810, although the beads used were silver-toned, not gold.

Nevertheless — I have finished two pattern rows and am currently working on a third... I will post photo updates as I have the time to.

I intend to line the finished purse with fine silk fabric.

EDIT: Details I forgot to post

1: the silk thread is very slippery and the needles are very pointy. I have used silicone earring backs to tip each unused needle so that I don't have the needles slide straight out of the knitting as they have threatened to do once or twice when I was casting on.

2: I am wearing a pair of Optivisors to knit this; currently using the 4-diopter plate, which is 2x magnification.

3: I chose to use a beaded long-tail cast on instead of beading all 320 cast-on stitches. That actually makes the edge of the "stalk" part curl in a very becoming fashion so I'm pleased I chose to be lazy instead of accurate :p

Background: I have a degree in theatrical costume production. I also have a friend who is a massive Regency nut.

Her birthday is coming soon, so I thought I'd knit up Franklin Habit's Big D*mn Pineapple, except on hardmode. Yes, folks, those are US 00000 (1mm) steel needles. The absence of purse silk led me to pivot to pearl stringing silk thread in size E, hand-dyed with acid dyes in 8 colors (4 greens, 4 golds to browns).

I decided to do a beaded long-tail cast on instead of putting beads on every one of the 320 setup row stitches because it felt less tedious, but the points of the pineapple will be beaded. Fortunately small gold-tone brass beads are still in production for costume jewelry use.

Couple discoveries so far:

• 1mm steel needles are actively hazardous to me because they have to be so very pointy to do their job.
• 100% reeled (as opposed to spun) silk thread is not very grippy and when combined with the needles, is hazardous to my sanity because it threatens to slide out of the needles entirely. Or should I say, the thread is so light, the needles are the ones sliding out of them.

This has been remedied by silicone earring backs, the little squishy ones, which I tip each DPN with (both ends) so no slippage occurs and I don't poke myself in the anywhere with a needle. I just take the squishy things off to expose the live ends I'm working with.