u/almondbreath

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.