Garter Stitch Purse Pattern

I have a new beginners knitting class starting at the sewing school tomorrow night and I wanted something new to teach. I've come up with this really simple and very cute Garter stitch purse. It's great if you are new to knitting or you want a quick stash busting project. It's big enough to hold a credit card but I can't promise that your change won't fall out.
I'd Love to see how you are all getting on with this project as it's getting a lot of hits from Knitting galore. So please put a picture up on my Ravelery page. 

What you will need:

4mm needles

Double knit (I used Barisienne by Bergere de france)

wool

A wool needle

1 button

Lets get started! 

cast on 23 stitches

Knit 9 rows 

Making the button hole:

Row 10 - K9, cast off 5st, Knit to the end of the row

Row 11 - K9, turn work and cast on 5st, turn back round to join the 2 sides and continue to knit to the end of the row.

Knit  8 rows

Row 20 - Purl all stitches

                                  

This what the inside looks like with that 1 purled row. You get a section of STst, I find helps it fold.

  

This is the right side. You can see a slight difference in the stitches where the purl row is.

Knit 17 rows

Row 38 - K1, K2tog, knit to final 3st, K2tog, K1

Row 39- Knit all stitches

Repeat rows 38 / 39, a further 4 times

Row 48- K1, K1fb, Knit to last 2 st, K1fb, K1

Row 49 - Knit all stitches

Repeat rows 48 / 49 a further 4 times.

The finished piece before seaming up.

Knit 16 rows

cast off all stitches. (see below pattern for cast off details)

All that is left to do is to seam up the edges and sew in the loose ends.

Casting off. 

I recently found this great method of casting off on Youtube. It's really stretchy and really quick. 

Here the link: 'My favourite stretchy bind off by Paula Fuessle'.

If you do have a go I'd love to see it, so put it on the Ravelry page.

Happy Knitting!