I made it! I didn’t think I was going to make it, but I did.
Once I’d finished the sleeves, I had 45g of DK and 26g of lace left. That really didn’t seem like enough for the rest of the body, but there was nothing to lose by keeping on knitting. As you may recall, Plan B was to unravel As If and use as much as I needed from there. I’ve worn it precisely once since making it, so that would have been fine.
After six sets of stripes, I weighed what was left, and did some sums to see how much I could expect to get out of the last of the yarn. There was enough for two more sets of stripes – which realistically was one stripe plus ribbing. At this stage I thought it was definitely going to be too short… but on the basis that I could always unravel the cast off and ribbing, I went ahead and finished.
I had 5g of lace left, and used all the DK – in fact, I needed to undo one row of ribbing on a cuff to get an extra foot or so to finish the cast off. Then I tried it on.
It was sitting just above the hip, and a couple of inches shy in the arms. As a side note, isn’t that a weird picture? The perspective is all wrong, my hands look enormous.
You can see how bumpy the sleeves are. That meant I knew there was extra length just waiting to be blocked out – and I had knitted them short on purpose to take advantage of that. At this point, I was feeling pretty hopeful that I did, in fact, have a finished garment!
I proceeded straight to blocking, too impatient to sew in ends first. I soaked as always, spun dry in the washing machine, and blocked with pins. Then the steamer worked its magic.
Then I had to wait for it to dry… and here it is! A marvellous example of a stash bust, if I do say so myself.
Before blocking, it measured 16 inches down the centre, from neck to hem. After blocking, it was 22 inches. That’s an increase of over 30%. What a marvel.
It’s very light and floaty, surprisingly so. I think the Papatya Love is an airy yarn and when steam ironed it flattens right out. For some garments that would be bad – for a spring top, it’s ideal. I did no decreases on the sleeves. I almost always end up making my sleeves too tight, so I was making extra sure I wouldn’t have that problem here. They’re super comfy. They’re super long!
I could unravel the last two stripes on each sleeve and gain a little more length on the ribbing (about six rounds, if my sums are correct). I’ll take it under advisement – for now, I’m wearing it as-is, and if the sleeves are bothersome I can do something about it.
This is the Promenade blouse (Ravelry link) pattern by Caidree (Designer’s site) in Papatya Love DK (138g), and Katia Sweet Lace (64g). I used 3.75 and 5mm needles as recommended, and made size M, with no decreases on the sleeve.
I’ve added this post to the Unraveled Wednesday linkup, with thanks to Kat for hosting.
The Crafty Yarnster 