Kaffe Fassett Kit

 

A few months ago, a lady came to my stall at the market and asked me if I would like to buy a Kaffe Fassett kit that she was given many years ago. Mmm, ok. She brought the kit the following month. To start with I thought it was a bit of a swizz that she was going to charge me for something she was given, but I think she needs the money and the price I paid is a lot less than if I bought all the colours separately. Fair enough. The kit has sat in the craft room until I had time to look at it. 

I had hoped the pattern would include tips for dealing with so many colours and  yarns. Nope. Not a word. Just 'cast on this many stitches and follow the chart'. I have a book by Kaffe Fassett and Zoe Hunt on my shelf, so I had a look there. There were a few hints from Zoe at the back of the book. I had a look on line and found a bit more advice. Apparently, it's best to use short lengths of yarn without bobbins, so the yarn you want to use can just be pulled out of any muddles. Right. My big concern is starting and finishing all those ends. I read that it's best to weave (knit) in the ends as you go, rather than sew them in afterwards with a needle. Otherwise, I guess you'd spend as long sewing in ends as knitting the garment! 

I cast on 33 stitches using the needles recommended in the pattern. Oh my goodness, what a fiddle, coping with all those bits of yarn. The needles were too big. Not only was the measurement wrong, but the knitting looked thin and horrible. I changed down a needle size but continued knitting. The pattern said to use intarsia, which means using three yarns for each square. I thought if I used fair isle technique to carry the background across the diamond, I'd only need two yarns per square. Fewer ends to deal with. I tried that on the third repeat. It changes the shape of the diamond a bit, but is easier to work. I'm still worried about the security of the joins. The yarn is mercerized cotton, quite slippery, and there's not much leeway to hide ends because there are so  many. I may use weavers knots. I'm sure I read once that Kaffe Fassett is happy to use knots. 

Here's the back of the work. Not shown in any of the books or articles I've seen!

It would be a shame for the kit to sit around any longer, but I am wondering if my life is too short for this. I guess that with practice I'll get better at the techniques involved.