Serious Project No. 1 - The Cassette Purse

I'm getting cocky again. I can now knit, purl, cast on and off, I've sampled moss stitch, I've attempted a simple bootie that came out actual foot-shaped which means I've 'decreased' with some success. Now to try something I think looks cool.

The 'aspirational' Tech Knits book mentioned in my second post is calling me, probably in a mocking tone, but I'm going to give one of the easier projects a good go. I've chosen the cassette purse. I need a purse. Who doesn't need a purse?! I'm using, size 4 UK needles, DK yarn, a press stud and a sewing needle.

Tech Knits  - Cassette Purse

I've been through the pattern and all of a sudden seem to understand the pattern speak (there's that practice thing working again). Stockinette - can do! Change colour mid row- watched a video, can do! Follow a pattern chart - looks easy! Sew some shit up and install a press stud - we'll see!

Any way, to avoid tears and tantrums I decided to practice the pattern in some cheap wool I have..it started to look like the pattern and I was effing DELIGHTED.

What I learned from this bit of practice was that changing colours mid row leads to having floating threads at the back. As in this picture below.

These I discovered are called floats. I also discovered that if you change colours while your knitting is all bunched up on the needles, the floats are too tight because they only span the bunched work. Tip 1 for changing colours - ALWAYS STRETCH THE WORK OUT TO ACTUAL SIZE WHEN CHANGING A COLOUR. This allows the float at the back (wrong side) to span the work when flat and not bunch or pucker up the pattern into obscurity. I have no idea what else you can do about the floats to make the wrong side neater but maybe i'll find out eventually.

TIP 2. The second thing I discovered during the test sample, completely by Google-accident was that when you swap colours, you should bring the new colour working yarn (right hand) OVER THE TOP OF THE OLD COLOUR. In writing, this made no sense to me. If you don't get it, read this super blog for tips using multiple colours and avoid leaving holes where yarns are dropped for new colours.

With these lessons learned I decided I needed new yarn for my new project. To Abakhans!