Denim Dawn

I had six balls of Rowan Denim and thought I had enough to make Dawn.   I was right, but could well have been wrong.   When sewing was done, I had about 8” of yarn left. Phew! Taking Denim’s shrinkage into account, I lengthened the bodice by 8 rows in the front, and only 4 rows in the back.  The back turned out shorter because I ran out of the yarn to make it as long as the front.   This difference did not matter much, however. The cardigan before washing had some blousing as you can see in the photos below.

I was a bit worried about a possible disaster, but I went ahead and washed the garment in hot water and machine dried.

Can you see how much it has shrunken and all the blousing is gone?   The cardigan looks more like the yellow version with Fable.  Faded color is really lovely as well. It is unfortunate I discover my love for this yarn this late. Why did I not try Rowan Denim before it got discontinued?

Also, I found a way to wear the Madonna pullover. After so much work got into this pullover, I had to find a way. 

 

 

Summer Projects Update

Since my last post, I completed Nidden after much struggles, and a support structure was added to Madonna pullover. 

Changes made to Madonna pullover:  I did backward single crochet to finish the neck edge, a much simpler edging than the original. Also, I added more stitches along the neck edge than instructed.  I do not like a close fitted neckline for warm weather garments.  A supportive structure was added.  With it, the neckline felt more comfortable and the garment is now wearable.

What I wish I had done to Madonna pullover:  I wish I did some garter rows at the bottom edge.  I do not like curling in this garment.  I ended up applying a Petersham band to the bottom edge to control the curling.  The photo below shows both the support and the Petersham band applied.

It is a tricky garment as Madonna is a bit too dressy for my everyday needs.  As a matter of fact, I am not sure what to wear with it.  My daughters insisted only jeans would go with it.   

Nidden was a lot of work because I knitted the back twice and the left front three times.  Other than that, it turned out really nice.  There are so many changes made in my version because of the differences in gauge and the yarn quantity limitation.  It will be too much to list them out. 

• The top of the back bodice was kept straight after 4" was completed above the armhole shaping.

• One of the major changes I made was to reduce the original 61-stitch lace pattern to 45-stitch pattern, and then to 43 stitches: Two stitches at 1-by-1 rib at each side, four stitches on each wavy pattern, and four stitches at the center motif, with the total of 16 stitches reduced.  I also replaced k 2p k with k p k between the wavy pattern and the side rib pattern to reduce two more stitches from 45 to 43.  By changing the stitch count, the motif height is also reduced from 28 rows to 20 rows.  I was able to keep the similar look of the original lace pattern.  The back lace section is on the left side on the photo, much wider than that on the front shown on the right.

• Another change was the sleeve head.  I placed the assembled bodice onto my dress form and slipped a sleeve of my Gomashio cardigan which was knitted with the same yarn some time ago.  The sleeve fitted Nidden well and I decided to use Gomashio sleeve pattern instead:10” cuff width, 16” underarm length, and 5 1/2” sleeve head height. For the cuff, I did 56 rows of the pattern stitches which got stretched to 10”. Picked up 45 stitches from the cuff and knit 94 rows before sleeve head shaping began. The width of the sleeve was increased every 20 rows four times, 53 stitches total. Cast off 4 stitches at each end to begin sleeve head shaping, Row 95, with 45 stitches remaining. Every two rows, one stitch decreased at each end for 11 times total, and every 4 rows four times, leaving 15 stitches on the needles. Cast off 15 stitches. 

 

 

Overall, I am satisfied with Nidden and I love its back.  So pretty. 



 

 

 

Summer Knitting

So far, my summer knitting has involved a lot of trial and error and struggling.

I challenged myself and picked up a new technique, Tunisian crochet. I was not that interested in simple Tunisian crochet, but I fell for gorgeous lace patterns. I am not working on it as much lately since the yarn I am using for the project is wool and I have issues working on wool in summer, especially during last week when the temperature hit 99F/37C!

So, I began an ivory pullover from last year’s Stacy Charles summer booklet. I finished knitting and assembling but I am not done with it. Why? The top bodice is constructed by two long pieces of pre-knitted tape, Celeste. I don’t think I did such a good job dealing with ends. I can live with the mess, however. What I cannot live with is the fact that the top edge of the lower bodice crosses my chest in a very awkward place. This is caused by the lower bodice being rather dense and heavy due to the stitch pattern and the pre-knitted tape is stretched too much above it. Fortunately, I have a piece of skin-colored knit fabric at hand. I am planning to sew a truncated tank top sort of thing to support the heavy lower bodice. We shall see.

Here are photos of the pullover.  The front and the back are exactly the same.  I know, I know, they should not be the same but among the knitting designs, it is quite common to see this symmetry between them.  I think we knitters tend to trust in the stretchy fabric to take care of differences between the front and the back, and I think it is okay to do so up to a point. 

 

The next challenge is to knit Nidden from Norah Gaughan booklet no. 8 with 13 skeins of now discontinued Berroco Denim Silk. First off, gauge is not right. I've knitted a cardigan with Denim Silk before using 4.5 mm needles and I love the resulting drapey fabric. I tried 3.75 mm needles per pattern instruction and did not like the stiff fabric. Besides, in my crude calculation, I do not have enough skeins. So, I went up to 4.5 mm needles.

Nidden is constructed in such a way that front pieces with the lace pattern continue beyond shoulders and meet at the center back. The design uses the stretchy nature of the knitted fabric to overcome curved and rounded shape at the shoulders and along the neckline. The gorgeous lace pattern takes up 61 stitches. Given that my gauge is 18 stitches per 4”, it means I will have 13.5” of upper back covered by the continuous front pieces while it ought to be about 10.5” for my size. Besides, I will run out of my yarns. The only way out is to reduce the width of the lace pattern although the lace design will be noticeably altered. I need to think about how to modify the lace design.

In the mean time, I started knitting the back piece. With the help of my manikin, I should be able to figure out how I ought to modify the front pieces.

You see, my summer knitting is nothing but easy.

Stacy Charles - Noro Outfit

This outfit began with a skirt. Its pattern is based on #18 ZigZag Skirt from St. Charles Collezione Summer '05. Textured yarns and solid colored yarns are cleverly combined to create vertical zigzag patterns which attracted me very much.

Then, one day, I came across K1C2 Tartalette #641 at my LYS. Its blue and orange combination caught my eyes. That was it. Next, I picked up Noro Daria #12 and St. Charles Rialto #29 for textured yarns and various cotton/silk/wool blends in orange, blue, mustard yellow and chocolate brown, all solid colors but not necessarily in the same gauge range. The only concern was Noro Daria. Would a stiff cable work with other yarns? I felt so strongly about the colors being right, it was decided that I have to make it all work together.

The original garment photos are shown on the left. The skirt has a yoke with a cord threaded at the top to keep the skirt in place, and is matched with a collared tank. Several changes were made to the original pattern. I added an elastic casing to the top of the yoke and decided not to wear the skirt on the hip. The matching tank did not suit my taste and was replaced by a tank top from Katia knitting magazine from a few years ago. Casting on and off with solid colored cotton blend yarn, Noro Daria tank worked out fine. I completely ignored the recommended gauge on Noro Daria, however.

Here are the covers of the magazines used. I needed two balls each of Tartalette and Rialto, three balls of Noro Daria, and one ball each in four solid colors for the skirt. For the tank, 7 skeins of Noro Daria were needed.

I am still working on the outfit. I am planning to sew a light jacket with silk sateen in smokey blue. At the moment, I am planning to use The Sewing Workshop's Tribeca Shirt pattern.