Monday, January 20, 2014

Harris and Vogue 8859

My Harris is finally completed.  It is gorgeous with perfect fit, light weight, and warm.  This is not a project to plunge in and finish without distraction.  One needs to maintain sanity when dealing with intarsia.  At least I did. 





I used the specified yarns in the exact colors.  I have one ball each of Peat and Kisdon untouched.  I am wondering why I have so much leftovers.  For the single-row stripes, I did the following: knit one row with Peat, without turning the fabric knit one row with Kisdon by going back to the right edge of the fabric, turn the fabric to wrong side and purl 1 row with Peat, and without turning the fabric purl 1 row with Kisdon by going back to the right edge of the fabric (wrong side).  This method worked fine until I met with armhole shaping.  When you are to do "decrease X stitches at the beginning of the next two rows," you may not be able to do so unless you are on the second knit row or the second purl row: i.e. even numbered rows.  At any rate, I fudged a little and the finished garment suffered no evidence the problem.  I am wondering if the method I used is the reason for extra yarns. 

The only change I made was pockets.  Instead of single layer of pocket linings which are to be sewn onto the bodice, I knitted them twice as long for double layer.  For the ribbed pocket edging. I picked up stitches from the bottom of the pocket lining and knitted them together with bodice stitches on a waste yarn.  I also anchored the bottom corners of pocket linings to the top of the ribbed bodice hem.



One more thing.  In the photos above, I am wearing newly sewn Vogue 8859 with my regular pant modifications.  I used a thick rayon double knit with 2% Lycra from my stash.  I love the long pants covering my short boots, and providing me with an illusion of longer legs.  Highly recommend the pattern.