I was away from home for a full month, including a working trip to South Africa and a holiday to British Columbia, Canada. You may recall that I took two knitting projects with me: Cullum, a linen tee shirt with a bit of lace designed by Isabell Kraemer, and Sofi, a light jacket in wool and linen designed by Hanne Falkenberg. Photos of both designs are shown below:
First off, I must admit to not having accomplished much knitting on either trip. While in South Africa I was kept quite busy on the job, and in Vancouver and surrounds, I was enjoying hanging out with my daughters and other relatives, and wasn’t feeling the knitting mojo so much. This latter may be partly because I was concentrating more on the linen tee, which admittedly is not a particularly scintillating knit. (It is in linen and much of it is in stockinette in-the-round.) Once I got the jacket on my needles, I found it more enjoyable. My rationale was that the linen tee was a summer top, so I should put some effort into finishing it while it was still summer.
The tee is knit from the top down; the front and back are joined in the round at the armholes. Thus, I didn’t get to try it on until after it was joined and I had knit a few inches in the round. Now that I am home, I have tried it on and…..IT IS TOO BIG! And, not very nice looking at the back. Here is the evidence. This is the front view, clearly a bit big but still reasonable. (Please note the effects of serious jet lag in these photos; what a difference a little sleep makes! Look at the sweater and ignore the wearer!)
Here is a side view. You can see that the arm scythe is very low, but this is the type of tee which I will probably wear over a tank, so still salvageable.
Below is a view of the back.
I am really not happy with the way the sleeves look at the back. There just seems to be lots of extra fabric everywhere. UGH! Let’s look at this dispassionately, however. It is knit in 100% linen. I know that it will shrink a bit when I have washed it. I also did a gauge swatch and made sure to wash and dry it before measuring. So it is quite possible that, once properly washed and dried and blocked, this will look as I imagined it. I also know that I purposely didn’t want it to be fitted – it is a summery linen tee, made to be worn in hot weather, so it should be loose and airy. Right now, however, I am feeling that it is miles too loose and airy.
What do you think? Is it as big as I am thinking? Is it likely to shrink? Why do the backs of the sleeves look so bad? Why is the back neck so loose? Is this likely to block out? More importantly: should I rip back and do some re-fashioning? Should I forge ahead but put in some decreases? (I actually put in one set of decreases on the plane, just an inch above where I’ve knit to in the photo, and was thinking of one more set for just 8 stitches decreased. Is this too little too late?) Should I just leave it be? Or should I, perhaps, throw it in the (now empty) WIP basket and instead knit the Falkenberg jacket?
To help you address the last question, here is a progress shot of the jacket:
Pretty, huh? The body is knit in one piece with no shaping, thus it is a boxy little jacket. When I made my swatch, I had this idea that the body would just be a larger version of the swatch – basically the pattern knit as a big rectangle – but I forgot how brilliant Hanne is at design. Her pieces are so clever and so well-tailored. To illustrate, here is the side seam:
And here is the centre back of the jacket:
I love these details.
It is Friday evening here in England and they are predicting a gorgeous weekend with sunny skies and hot temperatures. My friend Erun is visiting and we have good food, good wine, plenty of sun screen and knitting projects on the go. Which one do you think I will be knitting this weekend?