Satisfaction

Satisfaction is a finished 14 point tee that turned out just the way I wanted it to. Strictly speaking, this isn't really a tee anymore. I lengthened the arms and the body from what the pattern dictated and it's made of wool rather than cotton. But I've been calling it the 14 point tee for a month and a half, so I'm sticking with it.

The weather was perfect for our photo shoot this afternoon. The outside shots are from right outside our house, where I've been doing a lot of gardening the past several weeks. The inside shots were taken in our greenhouse.

I love this sweater. I love this sweater. I love this sweater. I also love the fact that there was so little finishing work...just a few ends to weave in really, and no blocking was necessary. I finished it at 11 pm last night and wore it to work today! This will be a well worn and well beloved wardrobe item, hopefully for years to come.

Divide and Conquer

A few posts back, I was working on this sweater, the 14 point tee, and you may recall that I was uncertain about how the ruffled yoke would look once I divided for the sleeves and body. Well, see for yourself:

Personally, I am pleased with it and am very much looking forward to finishing and wearing it (just in time for summer, naturally). I decided to alter the pattern just a bit for the body. First of all, it was meant to be a straight body, with no shaping. I thought that would make the garment too boxy for me, so I decided to decrease after the bust line. In order to keep the continuity of the knit 4/purl 4 pattern, it was necessary to decrease 8 stitches on each side, for a total of 16 stitches decreased.
There's definitely some shape to it, and so I'm glad I did it. I have enough yarn, so I will also make the body longer than the 10 inches called for. It's about 11 inches as pictured above, and I will go at least 2 more. I know cropped is "in," but I hate having my midriff freeze during the winter months. I have a long torso, so adding some length will be a good thing.

Tonight, after the gardening is done for the day and the boy has been put to bed, I'll start on the sleeves. I'm hoping to have this completed soon, though I'm not sure what I mean by "soon." In my head, I think it may be defined as "Amber really wants to start on about 5 other projects and is really sick of basket weave, so let's get a move on."

16 point 14 point tee

Although I've temporarily set this project aside in order to whip out a couple of baby items in time for a fast approaching shower, I thought I'd write up a quick blog post about this sweater, which is about 15 % completed. As soon as I saw this design, the 16 point tee by Cathy Carron, in the winter/spring 2009 issue of Knitscene, I knew I wanted to use the Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed I'd been squirreling away for a rainy day. Unfortunately, the gauge was totally different from the suggested yarn, which means that I was forced to use my rudimentary math skills to adapt the pattern (casting on 72 stitches instead of 96, for instance).
This pattern is meant to have 16 increases in a round for the yoke; hense it's name. However, due to my alterations, I only need 14 increases a round.

I am uncertain as to how my slightly thicker yarn will affect the ruffle look that is inherent in the pattern. Will it be too much? Will it look too bulky, or just off a bit? There's really no way to tell until I am far enough along and can divide for the sleeves and start on the body. I am cautiously optimistic at this point. If it doesn't look right though, I will say a big fat thank-you to the top-down sweater gods that I only waisted several weeks, rather than a whole month on this. How bad would it suck to make the whole thing, only to have it look awful, because I wasn't able to try it on as I went along.

This yarn is really special to me. Tweed is my favorite, first of all, and this yarn is so very lovely. I also used some of it for my kiddo's farmland (the pasture area) and it creates the feeling of being in a warm meadow with a spring flower here and there. So, if it doesn't work out for this sweater, you can bet I'll be spending an evening ripping it out and re-balling it. Let us hope it doesn't come to that!