6.03.2007

Oh Miss Danvers!

She's finished! SHE IS FINISHED!

MISS DANVERS IS FINISHED!

She has the oh-so-subtle waist shaping that I love and was worried would come out looking deformed because its so hard to find things that will fit a TRUE HOURGLASS figure like I'm stuck with. Incidentally - who named that figure, anyway? I don't want my body named after a timepiece. Ick. But it could be worse, I guess.




The point is- my sweater does not look like an amorphous blob of yarn thrown together.




The sweater itself has some bicolor ribbing at the bottom edge, and about a half an inch of bicolor seed stitch above that. It's gorgeous detailing. Too bad the camera will never pick it up.
The waist shaping that I love so much is formed by a "M1" stitch on each side. It was a pain in the ass to keep the sides straight, or even figure out which side was which, or where to stick the dividers for the sides, since the damn thing was knit in the round. On circulars.

I HATE KNITTING ON CIRCULARS!

Here is me, in all of my bleary-eyed glory enjoying my new sleeveless sweater. There is a black crocheted edging around the neckline and armholes. There is also a fair isle motif of vines on the front (shown here.)


The picture would have excluded my mug, but David was taking the picture with my parents camera and I don't think they would have appreciated just a photo of my chesticles. Doesn't matter if it was for art's sake or not.


The motif was supposed to be a checkerboard design. I thought I charted it out okay. But everyone who sees it thinks its vines or trees. So I'll go with that from now it. It's got a vine motif on the front.

And because I'm a sucker for pain, I ended up knitting a hood for it too. I mean, yes, it was supposed to be a tanktop hoodie, but the hood caused more pain than it was worth. There are no good, clear, tutorials online that I've found that describe how to create a hood. So I knit a rectangle-ish shape on the back by picking up the neck stitches. Knit in a fun vine lace motif on the hood to mirror the one on the chest of the sweater, and then picked up all the stitches around the rectangle to form a hood.
Add a crocheted edge, and viola, the sweater is FINISHED!

I've learned a few things from this project:

1. Plan. Plan what you're going to do beforehand. Otherwise, it might look haphazard. Like this sweater does!
2. Waist shaping is your friend. Don't be afraid to use it, and don't be afraid of starting it early. It looks good. And the math isn't so intimidating if you just WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN IN A CLEAR, STEP BY STEP PROCESS. Like they tried to teach me in math class years ago, but I could never figure out. Until my knitting hung in the balance.
3. Red Heart hurts your fingers. It chafes. Have a lot of bee's wax and lamb's wool oil to remoisturize and make them feel better.
4. A hood is easier than it looks. Once you rip it out five times and figure out how you want it to look, it's not a big deal.
5. Knitting on circulars is not only a test of patience, and math skills, but a test of thumb strength as well. Especially when you don't scoot your stitches as often as you should.
6. Lace is awesome, when it isn't fussy.
Anyway, onto the specs:

Yarn:
This project was made with Red Heart Super Saver in color Royal for the main color. It took almost two full skeins to do this project. I'd imagine if you wanted sleeves, you'd need three skeins, unless they were girlie cap sleeves, in which case you'd probably only need two.
The contrasting color was a find at the thrift store. It was in an Ac Moore bag marked "100% Unknown Fiber". I'm certain, though, that it's cotton. Probably of the sugar n creme variety. What's the difference between Peaches N Creme and Sugar N Creme anyway? I'm curious!
Needles:
Size US 7 26 inch circulars. I'm not sure of the brand, because they were given to me by my grandmother, and they aren't marked in any way, shape, or form. So I've had to size them myself with my slightly inaccurate Boye Needle Sizer. I'm sure they're closer to a size 8. But that's no matter. They're metal (feels like steel) with a milky-clear plastic cord.
Pattern:
I didn't use a pattern for this. I just flew by the seat of my pants. I make it a nasty habit not to swatch to check gauge. I just eyeball everything, most of the time. I know how tense I knit, so I usually have a good idea of how many stitches I need. I did good for this sweater, I think.
If anyone who reads this (and I'm not sure anybody does) would like to have the pattern for their own, non-commercial use, I'd be more than happy to pass it along or post it here. Just drop me a line and let me know!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

one of them (not sure which at the moment) is the slightly cheaper walmart brand...it seems a tiny bit thinner to me... dunno

Squeaky said...

Ah - so it's really just an issue of thickness and price? Do you (or anyone, really) know if the quality varies between Peaches N Creme and Sugar N Creme?

I need to do some serious yarn research - this is driving me bonkers. Like, major bonkers.