***You can purchase an INEXPENSIVE AD-FREE PDF of this pattern on Etsy HERE and on Craftsy HERE! This beautifully formatted PDF includes the step-by-step pictures and is a total of 4 pages including the cover page! There is also a kit available on the Lion Brand Site, and you can make TWO purses with one kit HERE!
I love how versatile crochet is as one day you can be making a sweater, and the next day you can be making a tiny stuffed animal! I designed and crocheted an elegant “Regency Reticule” for a Pride & Prejudice ball that we attended, and when I posted about it on social media, a follower named Carmen left a comment on Instagram saying that she had turned this delicate reticule into a pineapple! I thought this was such a brilliant idea as the general shape did indeed look like a pineapple with it cinching towards the top. I was curious to see how using yellow and green would completely change the look, so I decided to try making a pineapple as well! I knew exactly what yarn I wanted to use for this pineapple project: Lion Brand Yarn‘s 24/7 Cotton with its crisp stitch definition and vibrant colours! It is a worsted weight (level 4) mercerized cotton that has 100 g in each ball- I used the colours “Lemon” and “Grass”.
To begin, I crocheted the flat base at the bottom working single crochets in a continuous round, increasing round by round using a 3.5 mm hook. It was tricky figuring out the sizing as I did not want my pineapple purse to be as large as the regency reticule. I ended up making it too big twice and had to frog my work. After reaching 60 stitches in the last round, this ended up being a good size to begin the solid shell stitch rounds.
The solid shell stitch gives a very delicate and romantic look and is very simple to crochet. The shell stitch is created by working 5 double crochets in one stitch, and these shells are alternated with 1 sc that help form the “dips” between the shells. In subsequent rounds, always remember that 1 sc is worked at the top of the shells from the previous round (i.e. in the 3rd double crochet), and the shells (i.e. 5 dc’s) are worked in the dips or lone single crochet from the previous round. This stitch is very fun to work round by round and goes by quickly! To see a video of this stitch in action, check out Moogly’s tutorial HERE!
After 11 rounds of solid shell stitch, I switched to green yarn and worked 1 round of single crochets to help smooth out the shells at the top.
Next, it was time to crochet the leaves using green yarn! I shaped a pointy tip towards the top, expanded outwards, and then maintained the same size for the rest of the rounds. I crocheted 6 leaves but ended up only using 5 of them in the finished pineapple!
I then used my bent tip yarn needle to sew the leaves onto the pineapple purse. I positioned each leaf onto a shell stitch from the last shell stitch round. I flattened the leaves and inserted my needle into both the front and back stitches of the leaf (to seam it shut at the same time) and the green stitch on the pineapple purse, whip stitching these stitches together. To make this attachment extra secure, I whip stitched back the other way as well.
After securing the first leaf, I attached the next leaf two shell stitches away, thereby leaving one shell stitch gap in between each leaf.
To form the drawstring closure, I learned how to crochet an I-cord using Planet June’s helpful tutorial HERE! To make a tighter cord, I used a 2 mm hook and made my drawstring 20.5″ long. I then weaved this I-cord in and out of the spaces between the shell stitches at the top of the yellow portion of the pineapple purse (between Rounds 21 and 22).
After weaving the I-cord around the entire circumference of the opening, both ends were protruding from the same side.
We found a cord lock from Fabricland and threaded both ends into it (I would recommend finding a larger cord lock if possible as it is a tight squeeze in this cord lock that we found). Next, we tied the ends into a knot and the closure was complete!
Somewhere along the way, Ryan and I were chatting about how cute it would be to give this pineapple purse a face and make it an amigurumi! I’m so glad we did as adding a face really brings this sweet pineapple to life! We added the eyes between Rounds 13 and 14 about 3 stitches apart. Ryan used brown embroidery floss to add a tiny smile and a pink Sharpie to add sweet cheeks!
Here is the free pattern for my Amigurumi Pineapple Purse:
