Before you dive into the depths of an intarsia project it might be worth trying out the technique on a small but useful project such as the Hove Purse.

Having designed the Hove Beach Bag (available for £3.50 on Ravelry) as part of the wider KIHICI bag range I wanted to create a simple intarsia project so that people could test their skills before they go headlong down the intarsia crochet rabbit hole.

The first crochet intarsia project that I tried was mind boggling. I hadn’t tried the technique before and there were too many bobbins of yarn at the back for my liking. I didn’t even finish the first row of the cushion before the whole project was put in a bag and left on the naughty step.

I had bought specific yarn for that project and really I wish I had tried a smaller intarsia project first. Had I done that, I would have understood what I needed to do and cracked on with the project. Instead, the yarn has been in my stash for over a year!

Hove purse

The idea of this purse is that it only uses three colours and because of the way I have designed it, you only need three strands of yarn on the go.

It’s worked in rows, allowing you to get to grips with working your yarn colour changes on both the wrong and the right side of your work.

YouTube tutorial for the Hove Purse here