I saw the Promenade blouse (Ravelry link) pattern by Caidree (Designer’s site) on the Knitting is so Fun blog and added it to my queue immediately. I love a stripey jumper and also loved the idea of the mix of see-through and solid stripes. And now that Twilight is finished, it was time for another simple stockinette pattern. I started it last Monday, when I was off work and had taken myself out on a solo date which included lunch with a book (which I both started and finished that day), a hotel stay, and extravagant room service. I’d never ordered room service before and it was such a treat. Plus just being completely alone all day is right up my alley.
To fit with the rest of my wardrobe, I’ve gone for a monochromatic colour scheme. Unusually for me, I’m using the recommended yarn. Well… some of it. I have Rowan Alpaca Classic in Noir, and Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Aura (a light grey). When I started working with the Alpaca Classic I found I was getting a lot of colour bleeding off on to my hands (which I didn’t realise until I had grubbed up some crisp, white hotel bedsheets… oops…) but it’s seemed to settle down. Or maybe it only happened because it was a particularly warm room and it was a several hour session. In any case, I don’t really mind if the black bleeds into the grey a little when it gets washed – as long as the stripes stay different colours I’ll be happy.
This is my first time working with Kidsilk Haze and it’s been pleasantly straightforward! I was expecting more of a struggle with the very fine, fuzzy yarn but maybe using light fingering yarn in recent projects has set me in good stead. The only challenge is when the interchangable circular needle loosens up and a strand gets caught in the join. That’s a faff. Oh and there is one stray stitch that glommed on to the black yarn and made its way into the next stripe. I’m leaving it there, it adds character.
I’ve just finished the yoke, and it fits. To be honest, it’s hard to tell if it’s a good fit but it’s certainly not too small across the way. I’m 2cm short on the length the pattern expects me to be getting but feeling OK about that. There will be a lot of give in the finished fabric. I don’t want it too stretched out, to retain the opacity of the darker stripes. They will have a certain amount of see-through-ness anyway, as the yarn is on the light side of DK, even when knit with 3.75mm needles, but it’ll be a nice contrast I think. Changing needle sizes between yarns has gone well, apart from the last row I knitted before taking these photos – I undid that row and reknitted in the proper size. The stated needle sizes give such nice, even stripes, even though there are more rows in the darker colour than the light. A casual observer would never know.
One thing I’m not looking forward to is sewing in all these ends. You know how I feel about ends. I think I may also have to do some double stitching to close up the join but hoping that works out alright. It’s not a particularly even knit so bigger and smaller stitches are par for the course. And given how simple the rest of the knit is, I can cope with an extended end-sewing session to finish it up. I say that now, of course – you know I’ll be exclaiming ‘it will never be done!’ when I actually get to doing it.
As a side note, I considered naming this blog ‘The Woolly Tangle’ but the name was taken by a lovely Welsh wool boutique, so there you have it.
I’ve added this link to Unraveled Wednesday, with thanks to Kat for hosting. Head over and see what others have been up to this week!
The Crafty Yarnster 