I have reached a certain age. An age where I both remember being fascinated by the magical change purse my grandmother carried in her handbag…and finally understand why she had at least three different little pouches on hand at all times. Because if you live long enough, you’ll eventually find you need a certain amount of stuff with you to get through the day, and it’s easier if it’s organized.

So when I stumbled across the spiffy little clasps that made those long-remembered pouches so magical, I knew I needed to make a knitted version. Make that several knitted versions. Because really, if you’re in the ‘lots of little containers for all your stuff’ stage of life, it’s going to be easier if you can tell them apart at a glance. I went with a plain one (that I made stripey with some nifty helix stripes because I couldn’t just have it be plain), a zig zag one, and one that has that deeply satisfying offset shape that is technically a tetrahedron, but which I always think of as the sour cream packet shape.

I suspect you’ll end up making all three. Actually, I suspect you’ll end up making all three many times. Because every time a non-knitter sees one of these, they are absolutely gobsmacked at the cleverness. But the pouches are actually shockingly simple to knit, and they make great use of yarn scraps. So you can make a whole pile of them with yarn from your scraps bin, give them away with abandon, and look like an absolute magician. Which is something I’m pretty sure both your grandmother and mine would heartily approve of!

General information

This 24-page pattern includes directions for all three different pouch styles, the stripey one, the zig zag one, and the magical twisty one.  It is tremendously detailed and holds your hand every step of the way. There are pages and pages of step-by-step photos to show you exactly what to expect as you work. It walks you through everything from determining your cast on to assembling your clasp to managing your ends to working jogless stripes to blocking your pouch.

The pattern is almost absurdly detailed, but it really does mean you can totally make these, even if you’ve never knit a project like this before!

Skills & scope

The knitting on these is shockingly simple. You’re either working in stockinette in the round (the stripey pouch) or stockinette in the round with a couple of increases and decreases to give it some shape or texture (the zig zat and twisty pouches). The only even slightly fiddly bit is getting the clasp in there, and I’ll hold your hand the whole way through. After that’s done, it’s perfect tv knitting.

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The width of your pouch will be determined by your clasp, and you can make them as long as you’d like. My clasps are between three and five inches across, but you don’t need to get exactly the same size I used (the pattern walks you through how to use any size clasp).

I recommend using fairly thin yarn (fingering, sport, or DK weight) so the material inside the clasp isn’t too bulky. You don’t need to match any particular gauge, but you do want a sturdy fabric. As long as you’re getting a nice, dense fabric (similar to what you’d want for socks), you’re getting the right gauge.

All of my pouches use two yarns (if you use two, you’ll want them to work up at the same gauge), but you can also make them with just one. The amount of yarn you need will change depending on how big you make the pouches (bigger pieces take more yarn). But mine took between 50 and 100 yards of yarn.

You can absolutely use scrap yarn for this.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a fabric you like with your chosen yarn plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker or bit of scrap yarn to hold stitches).

You’ll also need the magic clasps that make the pouch work. These are called “flex frame claps” or “flex frame kiss clasps” and you can find them online. These are the exact ones I used (at the time of posting, they were $12.00 for 30 of them). That’s an amazon affiliate link, because amazon is evil, but it’s also the easiest place for most folks to find stuff like this, and if I’m going to help them sell stuff, I’m for sure going to let them give me some of the money they make from it. But you can absolutely use those terms in a search engine and find them somewhere else if you prefer.