For the English turnip-sellers coin purse (1660) I decided to take some 3ply natural wool and dye it with only the ingredients that the common folk could get hold of. I wanted a motley old look. Now all I did was skip into the garden and pluck what was there: marigolds; red and black hollyhocks; bark from a native tree; leaves and weeds; cannas.
Into a small pot of just boiling water I dropped the wool. This was swished around with a splash of vinegar and left to cool down. Vinegar has been used for a long time to help the wool take the dye. For each separate color I simmered the petals or leaves etc until the full depth was released into the water. This was then strained. The wool was skeined, tied at three places and lowered into the dye and returned to the boil for a short while. When lukewarm I lifted it and squeezed gently, then hung it up to dry outside. Very simple - no measurements. I just did what you would do if this was all you had to give a bit of excitement to your wool.
The purse was knitted on a set of 1.50mm steel needles and is quite dense. A lining was knitted in on the way and the chain trimming the base is a couple of inches of lucet work done on a hairpin crochet pin. I didn't create an exact pattern but it rather turned out as it came. Sometimes it's great fun not following instructions, not counting rows and going off into your own knitting world. I think you become a better knitter when you fully explore, unhindered by books and proper ways of doing things, because you get to understand the workings of the actual knit stitch. It is when you know your knitting intimately that you comprehend why this and that are done in a pattern.
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