Anna don't look!

My cousin is getting married on September 6th and I wanted to make her a bridal purse to hang over her wrist as she walks down the aisle. My aunt told me the dress was an "oyster shell" color and I found this lovely, subtly variegated white and pale grey size 8 pearl cotton thread. I knit this on US size 0 needles with size 9/0 Gutermann beads. I surfed around a little looking for pictures of bead knitting until I found something I liked and started there and didn't use any sort of formal pattern. I only had to rip out and start over once at the very beginning because it was a little too wide for the frame. The bag shape is widened simply by regularly sliding a larger number of beads in the middle and a smaller number towards the ends. The entire purse is knit in one long strip, sewn into the frame, and then the sides are sewn together. It was a very free form and forgiving little project. I wanted to knit this for the Knitting Olympics this year and I DID finish knitting and cast off on the 22nd before the torch went out for these Games, but I had a late start. I could not find any size 9/0 beads in this town to work with that thread and I was getting a little nervous! I knit this in exactly one week! Originally I had planned to line it, but I kind of like how the light shines through those rows of beads. With bead knitting, you slide beads on the WRONG side of the work as well as the right side, so those beaded "pleats" are actually gaps in the knitting that are help open with the beads.