Monthly Archives: November 2023

Strawberry out of season

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I braved a cold and windy day to take some photos of my newest top – once again, a summer top in time for winter. This is the Anker Tee designed by PetiteKnit.

I usually fall for a pattern and then search for the right yarn. In this case the yarn – Isager Trio 2 – came first. I was intrigued by the yarn content – 50% linen/flax, 30% cotton, 20% Tencel/Lyocell. The last is a fibre derived from trees, so essentially paper. I wanted to know how it would behave. I thought it would have a good drape and that the fabric would breathe. I thought that having a bit of paper fibre blended with linen sounded cool. All of this was intriguing enough to consider it, but the thing that really sold me was this gorgeous red shade, aptly called Strawberry.

I cast on for a size 5, to give zero ease. But I decided pretty quickly that the yarn was stretchy and what I really wanted was something between a size 4 and 5 to create a bit of negative ease. My row gauge was a bit off too, and I managed to fix both of these issues by making fewer sets of raglan increases. Basically, I cast on the number of stitches for size 5, followed the instructions for making the bands of ribbing with the associated increases, and then ignored the rest of the instructions and just knit it to suit me. I do this frequently with top-down knits – once I get the yoke in, the rest is usually organic and I just improvise.

I didn’t take notes, so I am not sure exactly what I did. I did put in a couple sets of waist decreases and corresponding hip increases. I ended up with about 2 inches of negative ease. The yoke pattern is lovely; it’s a really clever design, and it seems to suit nearly every body type.

I gave it a good soak, poured a cup of white spirit vinegar in the rinse water to stop the colour bleeding, rolled it in a towel to soak up excess water and then laid it out on a towel to dry. I didn’t need to pin it to shape, as the size was perfect as is and it came out of the bath looking just right. The ribbing, especially in this blended yarn, looked a bit wonky before the bath, but really smoothed out after a good soak.

I like this one a lot. I am a bit worried that the yarn may stretch with use, but I am going to be optimistic until proven otherwise. I think it is a nice summer tee, but also a great work tee to wear under a jacket. And, yes, it is definitely my colour. It is indeed a scrumptious strawberry, even out of season.

A rocky start

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My blog posts are fewer and farther between this year, but knitting continues. I have just finished my Anker tee, but you will have to wait to see a modelled shot, because it has just been enjoying its spa bath and is now taking its time to dry. Here is a sneak peek:

In the meantime, I have been working on the piping hot sweater. This pattern by Lily Kate really appeals to me with its clean lines and bold piping.

This is the first time I have used one of Lily Kate’s patterns. I am very impressed with how well it is written and at the way she lays the pattern out. It is well illustrated and explanatory, and contains all of the necessary bits that make a good pattern, like detailed schematics. So, I want to be clear that my rocky start is not due to any fault in the pattern, but rather to me. Specifically, in my continued post-Covid state, I find it difficult to focus on patterns, to cast on new things, and to fight through fatigue. The construction of this pullover is genius, but it does take some concentration. It starts like this:

The next bit involves picking up stitches along the shoulders and casting on for the back neck. I made the mistake of trying to follow the directions precisely. You see, I am left-handed, and although this doesn’t usually get in my way, I am completely incapable of picking up stitches along a border from right to left. I must pick them up with my left hand, from left to right, and I don’t “pick up and knit” but rather “pick up without knitting” which means that my first row after picking up stitches is a knit row and not a purl row. Now, I have been knitting for over 50 years, so I have over time learned to fudge instructions liberally where stitches need to be picked up in order to compensate for this. I have a bunch of strategies developed over time by trial and error to get things to work for me. Here, I was too fatigued to do that, and attempted to pick up the stitches as written with my right hand. Big mistake.

I ended up with a huge mess, and had to rip everything out multiple times and try again, and again, and again. I may have accompanied this with some yelling and screaming about my general knitting incompetence. I think I spent 2 hours on that one row. It was chaos.

And then, without fanfare, the chaos settled down and the back of the garment began to emerge:

This is what it looks like this morning (I have pinned it out so you can see the lovely shaping):

Crisis averted. Now that I’ve put the rocky start behind me, this is totally fun to kint, and the yarn (Di Gilpin Lalland DK) is fantastic.

Despite its effect on my knitting focus, I am steadily recovering. I still have pockets of fatigue and brain fog and those seem to have a disproportionate affect on my knitting because I tend to knit at the end of the day, when these are maximised. In fact, I am immersed in a new creative project (of the non-knitting variety) which is both fulfilling and challenging. In time, I will report on that here. Happy Sunday, everyone.