splitting for the neckline of my Lady Bat, and tracking down a lining
Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at.
This week, I focused on knitting away on my Lady Bat sweater, and on the hunt for a lining to line my no-longer-really-an-Anna Maxi Dress.
I just split for the front and back of my Lady Bat sweater.
The Lady Bat pattern is a sideways sweater construction, so you start your sweater working in the round knitting away on one cuff, and through the batwing sleeve. Then you work back and forth for a couple inches – this creates an opening for the bottom of your sweater. After a couple inches you put half of your stitches on a holder, and work flat for the other half – this creates the front (or back) of your sweater. Once the front of your sweater is wide enough, you put your current stitches on a holder, pick up your previously abandoned stitches, and work until both half of your sweater are equal. Then you work a couple inches flat across all of your stitches, before joining your stitches back in the round and knitting your second batwing sleeve & cuff.
So I’m a couple inches into knitting the front of the sweater, and the trickiest thing I’m running in to is balancing a limited quantity of yarn, and knitting a large enough sweater.
In and of itself this balancing act is simply par for the sweater knitting course around these parts – the part I’m finding tricky is taking into account just how much the lace pattern will stretch.
The stitch pattern is an overall zig zag mesh, so I know it has the potential to stretch A LOT with blocking – but exactly how much will it stretch? I’m not quite sure.
Yes I swatched. And I did get quite close to gauge.
However, I didn’t block my swatch to it’s farthest extent. And I also know that (because the pattern is a mesh with many directions of stretch) I have the option of stretching my mesh more lengthwise or width wise – depending on which direction I need more length in.
All of that’s to say – I’m kind of just winging it. There may be some sweater surgery in the future.
With regards to my no-longer-really-an-Anna Maxi Dress, I think found my lining.
Originally I was looking for a lightweight cotton, in a light blue of some sort. I thought the lighter blue (especially if it was bright) would offset the almost navy, but each light blue I tried simply looked out of place. So, I ended up with a shade slightly lighter than navy.
My hope is to get the skirt lining cut & sewn together this week, but looking at my week ahead, I’m not exactly sure when that will be able to happen.
I’m holding out hope that I’ll find a magical gap of time somewhere.
sweater knitting, and seeing Manus x Machina
Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at.
I’m a little bit obsessed with how quickly my current sweater project is knitting up. Sometimes I forget that knitting a sweater on size 7 (4.5mm) needles is much, much faster than knitting one on a size 4 (3.5mm). Add to that, an easy to remember stitch pattern, some striping, plus shortening the sleeves, and I’m almost ready to split for the front & back.
Apart from knitting away on my sweater project, most of my time this week has been spent in front of the computer.
Luckily a friend is visiting from out of town, and so we took yesterday afternoon to visit the Met’s current costume exhibit – “Manus x Machina” – which is over the top stunning, and explores the relationship between handwork & machine work in creating clothing (both couture & prêt-à-porter). If you have a chance, you should definitely make time to see it.
I also, figured out what direction I want to go in with my no-longer-an-Anna-dress, so I’ll try to carve out some more “making time for making” time, and continue working away on that.
a sewn skirt, finished sweater, hand-drawn graphics, and a Lady Bat
Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at.
In the world of my summer wardrobe infusions – I got the skirt of my no longer going to be an Anna Dress sewn together over the weekend. Still not 100% sure what I want to do for the bodice, but I am loving the skirt so that must be a good sign.
And I finished my well traveled sweater! Finished & posted, because is a finished garment really finished if you don’t have photos of it?
I finished the sweater, took photos of it, and then yesterday, I promptly ripped out the decrease bind off at the neckline to replace it with an i-cord bind off. When I was originally knitting this sweater, I knew it was quite possible I wouldn’t have enough yarn, so when I was altering the neckline the first time, I decided to do a standard decrease bind off (instead of my go-to i-cord bind off) because it consumes less yarn. But ever since I finished the neckline, I’ve been wanting to alter that, so I’m really glad I had enough yarn left to do so.
The Shawl Geometry Update is progressing, I’m laying out + creating graphics for the third book (I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I find it so much easier to sketch technical graphics by hand before creating them on a computer), and editing the photos for the first and second. My hope is that once I get into editing, I’ll be able to put together a more definitive timeline for wrapping this project up.
And because I finished my travel sweater, I cast on for a new project. I’m knitting someone else’s pattern for a change – Lady Bat by Teresa Gregorio. I’m knitting the thing on size US 7 needles, and after a whole sweater on US 4s, am loving how fast it’s knitting up.
