beautiful things

The A-line Tank

My blogging is falling behind my knitting! I do want to do the "official" write up of the a-line tank so here it is:

A-line Tank

Date:
April 19th - May 2nd, 2007
Yarn:
Just under 4 skeins of Zitron Evita by Skacel Collection Inc. in #15 green
Needles:
40" US #8 needles

Pattern:

A-line tank from Knit Simple spring/summer 2007, shown near the bottom here.

I knit the medium size, which the pattern said needed 5 skeins but I still had a small amount of the 4th skein left. (What to do with the leftoever skein...)

The story:

As I've said, this was a good knit but I didn't fall in love with the yarn. And you had to be careful not to separate out the thin shiny thread, essentially dropping half the stitch - that did happen a bit.

I am in love with the end result! The fabric the yarn creates does feel lovely, and the fit worked well, even if I could possibly have knit the smaller size. I didn't make any pattern adjustments nor was there any need to. I found the binding off at the shoulder/neckline a little confusing but if I did it a bit wrong, I knew it wouldn't matter as I'd be picking up stitches and knitting an edge and could compensate then.

I was very proud of my garter stitch seaming, even if I say so myself.

Overall, I'm really thrilled with how this came out - my first real piece of clothing for myself!

Flat:

Being worn:

Flickr set is here.

Ta-da!

PS Through the powers of photoshop, I was able to remove an item I left on the counter ledge. I love photoshop! More later...

Finishing

I do love knitting. I knit the front of the tank top over the weekend, and last night I seamed the sides – I was very proud of how my garter stitch seaming came out. You can still tell there’s a seam, mostly because of how it pulls in, but so can you in the photos in the magazine. That finishing workshop was definitely worth it!

With the seams sewn, I was able to try the top on for the first time. Hubby gave it the seal of approval and it looks like it might kinda fit. Honestly, I could probably have knit the small size but that’s ok, better safe than sorry. I’m pretty much exactly hitting gauge, but the fabric is pretty stretchy. I’m not sure I’ll be needing the extra 5th ball of yarn I ordered when I switched to the larger size either.

This morning I picked up the stitches along the armholes and knit 3 rows of edging – it’s starting to look like something! I should probably be able to finish tonight – just need to pick up stitches along the neckline and knit and sew together the straps. This was a pretty easy and fast knit for an entire grown-up sized piece of clothing!

Getting on the a-line...

So, with my hat complete (I wore it all of one morning before it became too warm!) I have now turned my attention to the a-line tank. Aside from a few minor screw-ups due to lack of concentration, it's been going pretty well. The yarn seems very stretchy after the Manos Stria, and I can't say I love it like the stria, but it is a nice knit and it's exciting to see the top start to take shape.

Unlike Molly's sweater, this pattern does require a little analysis, at least for me, in terms of counting out the rows (decrease every 8th row five times becomes decrease on rows 14, 22, 30, 38 and 46 etc). I seem to be keeping to guage pretty well so that's good (I did go with the second to smallest size for safety).

Here are a couple of in progress shots:

I also geeked out a little and added some photos to the entry about the finishing workshop.

Swatches

So, I started swatching for the a-line tank. The gauge on the first swatch, knit with US#7 needles as called for in the pattern, came out too small, so I tried again with US #8 needles and it came out perfect. I can't believe it took me all of knitting group (over two hours) to knit the second swatch! I did remember to do a garter switch border this time.

The anoying thing is that right now my 40" circular US #8 needles are busy... last weekend I cast on a quick hat for myself using white Shepherd's Worsted left over from the Yankees set. I've been thinking about knitting myself a hat for a while but the weather got warmer, so I wasn't going to just yet, and then the weather got colder again so I thought I might as well, as I needed some easy knitting while waiting for my Evita yarn to arrive. I was hoping to have this project on the side while I worked on the a-line tank as I can practically knit it with my eyes closed (or reading other blogs) but now I'm going to have to either finish it first, or put it completely on hold.

The hat is an adapted "basic roll brim hat" from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts (seen here).

The other thing is that I'm having second thoughts about knitting the a-line tank in the size I was planning. I measured a variety of my favorite tank tops prior to ordering the yarn and it looked like the small size was going to work just fine. However, since swatching, I took some measurements on myself and, well, maybe I need to knit one size up. Which means I would need an additional ball of yarn. If the small comes out a little tight, could I make it bigger by blocking? Knitting the larger size seems to be a safer bet, but then I have to order one more ball of yarn. What to do, what to do...

Granny smith green

So, my new yarn arrived and... uh... well... it's bright! They weren't kidding when they named it granny smith green! It's really kind of a primary green. I know, green isn't a primary color, but this yarn makes it look like it should be!

It isn't ghastly though - it isn't quite as bright and fluorescent looking as the store website makes it look on my screen (and thanks to Angelika, owner of the store, for the nice comment on the blog and offer to exchange if necessary!) It just looks, to me, very different from the magazine where it looks more muted and a little more yellow of a green. You can see from my own photos though how different it can look when photographed under different lighting conditions.

My husband thinks I'm crazy as I keep holding it up to myself and looking in the mirror with it... I think I'm going to give it a try anyway. It will be more of a fun, beachy, weekend kind of tank and I will have to try not to expect the yarn to somehow magically darken. I'm also trying to remind myself that I am not going to transform into the Izzy-Stevens-like blonde in the magazine either...!

I couldn't help it!

So, I've been on a bit of a shopping spree lately. First, I ordered the Namaste bag I've been eyeing. I decided to go for brown in the end. I'm already buying a bag sight unseen, no need to play around with the color too! I would really kind of like to get The Trixy too as a more sturdy bag for traveling. I figure I should at least try and wait for the first bag to arrive...

I also bought a couple of knitting magazines - Knit Simple spring/summer 2007 and Vogue Knitting spring/summer 2007. I was tempted to get Interweave Knits but there wasn't really anything other than the Entrelac Socks that looked remotely interesting, at least as far as patterns go, and I should probably be able to find an entrelac tutorial online (I really just want to try a swatch for fun).

Anyway, I have picked out my next project! It's the green tank shown near the bottom here. I just ordered the yarn, although I'm a little concerned about the color. It looks beautiful in the magazine and on the manufacturer's website but it looks ghastly on the website of the store I bought it from. But it's the same yarn wherever I get it from, right? Plus it's a relatively cheap yarn... hopefuly that doesn't mean it's of lower quality than I am used to!!!

I chose that store because they also have the Susan Bates Knit Chek. I think I left mine on the plane when I was travelling on business a couple of weeks ago but haven't wanted to order it on its own and pay double its cost in shipping.

I want to finish all the other things I'm in the middle of knitting right now, and then I will probably switch between this and uniscarfity. I think this is a good first top for me to try as a) summer is coming along anyway b) it's less knitting and c) no sleeve joining. Plus I have many favorite tanks to use as a gauge. I guess it's also good that it's a slightly cheaper yarn too. I just really hope the color is similar to in the magazine...