For the life of me, I can not figure out what yarn I'm using because I threw away the little tags, but it's so soft and slippery. Also, you may have noticed behind the mostly-knit hat in the picture that I have not balled up the yarn that I'm working with. I still haven't figured out why people do that. Why do people take the time to make a huge ball out of all the yarn? Just to make it prettier? I figure I'll ball whatever I have left when I'm done. Pretty soon it'll be the Double Pointed Needles for me again! AHH! They still scare me a little. :) I'm enjoying knitting in the round very much.
For me, I'm attempting my first article of actual clothing. After much deliberating and stressing, I settled on THIS pattern from the Amateur Craft Mom's blog that I found through Ravelry. I chose it for it's simplicity, but also because I could use the 5 balls of Bernat Satin that I found on clearance during my recent trip home to Canada. At $1.79 a skein, I couldn't say no!
This yarn is 100% acrylic, which I've had bad experience with previously. It was scratchy and generally unpleasant to knit with. When I picked up THIS yarn though I was surprised that it didn't have any nylon or something in it too! It's very soft and not at all uncomfortable. I like that it'll be machine washable too.My problem, I realize now, is that I didn't cast on enough stitches for it to fit around my hips at the bottom. I didn't have size 9 needles, as the pattern called for, so I cast on a few more than required, but the yarn must be smaller too. Yes yes, I know how to make a swatch to gauge the size, but I didn't think about it until I was 4" in. Le Sigh.
... but I think I have a solution. I haven't tried the whole concept of picking up side stitches and knitting in the other direction, like what you would do for a sock. I'm going to try to add the width that way. Might be kinda cool, right? The tank would have a stripe down under my arm where the stitches would be at a 90 degree angle. Then I'll try blocking the pieces and seaming them together. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make this wide enough that I can wear it over another shirt, but not so wide that it looks silly if I try to wear it on it's own.
What do you think of my plan with this tank top? Do you think I could reasonably pull this off, or am I asking too much of myself?
Love the hat! Sometimes I ball mine up. I recently balled all mine up because I had too much and it wouldn't fit in the basket where I wanted to keep it. lol I've almost used it all up now on a kinda funky afghan; a scrap afghan I guess.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you came to my blog. It's fun to find people so close.
Dude. I couldn't even begin to advise you. My whole experience with knitting is row of plain, row of purl, the end. The picking up stitches down the side thing sounds waaaay too scary.
ReplyDeleteI love the wool you chose, though!
That sort of tank would never be suitable for my climate, though. You can't wear something as warm as wool made into something as cool and breezy as a tanktop. It would just be too hot against the skin. And by the time it gets cold enough to require wool, you'd want sleeves, too! What sort of weather would you wear that in?
Well, it's not wool, it's acrylic, so it's not so scratchy or heavy. I've also used a size needle that leaves tiny holes between the stitches so it'll breath. I'm hoping I'll be able to wear it over a short sleeve t-shirt (for the spring or fall) or over a dress shirt in the winter. I don't think I'll be wearing it in the middle of summer, but otherwise I should be okay. :)
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