Friday, February 24, 2012

Stripes

Piratess



Pattern: Contiguous Stripes by Isabell Kraemer (forthcoming)
Yarn: Cascade 220 Sport in 8401 and 8885 (and a bit of Cascade Alpaca Lana D'Oro in 1086)
Needles: US 8 and 7
Project Page

March is sneaking up on me a bit, so I made a mad rush to finish this this last week. I ran out of the grey Sport and went to pick some up at work last night, but, despite having received a new shipment of it at the beginning of the week, there was no more light grey! The Alpaca Lana D'Oro hangs above the Sport, though, so I compared color and weight and decided it would work fine. It did. I only used it for 2 and a half sleeve stripes. You can't tell the difference unless you are looking for it with a magnifying glass.

The pattern is magnificent! I was testing it for Isabell (lilalu on Ravelry) and I feel bad I don't have suggestions for her on how to improve it! It was an honor to knit for her, honestly. She was one of my first Ravelry friends that I didn't actually know in person. I just noticed that I loved everything she knit and we have entirely the same tastes in patterns. She does great modifications too. I borrowed some once. :)

Anything I dislike about the finished object is my own fault. I think I knit the armholes a bit too big, so it fits funny around the bust and under the arms and the fabric is kind of stiff, on top of that. I haven't blocked it (I literally finished it less than 2 hours ago), so I'm hoping that will fix most of my issues with the fabric. If the arm-holes prove too maddening, I'll redo the sleeves without picking up underarm stitches. That should fix them.

The other thing I dislike is the way I wove the ends in as I was knitting. I always do it the same way and it typically works okay, but it distorts the stripes just a bit on this sweater. I'll just have to undo the ends and weave them in the right way. The spots on the arms where I did it aren't quite so bad, so it's just the fronts. Not too many ends.

I really enjoyed doing the contiguous set-in sleeve. It was nice to try a new technique! It doesn't offer the garment much support, but, as my friend pointed out to me tonight, doing a crochet chain in the spots where the seams should be would help quite a lot. I recommend this pattern, so keep an eye out for it!

I named it for my favorite band Okkervil River's song "Piratess," but only because the first few lyrics mention lines. And of course I love the song! :D

For more FO Friday posts, hop on over to Tami's Amis!

8 comments:

  1. I can see why you might not like how the arm holes turned out, but honestly, from what I see in the picture they look perfect (match the feel of the rest of the sweater). However, you are a much better judge of fashion than I am. : P

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    1. They do match the feel of the sweater, for sure. If blocking it fixes the drape, then I'm sure I'll feel much better about them. :) And, if the last nineteen days have taught me anything, it's that my judgment of fashion is not as great as I thought it was, so I love advice! ;)

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  2. It looks very warm and cozy. I love Lana D'Oro! Have a stash of deep red violet just waiting to become something.

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    1. A whole sweater out of it would be DIVINE! I'm going to use the rest of the skein (which is quite a lot, actually) to make John some super soft gloves. :)

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  3. Wow, what a great, comfy looking sweater! And I don't notice any weirdness to the stripes... think it's one of those things that only you will ever notice :-)

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    1. Thanks! You're probably right. Some tugging and pulling has helped a bit. :)

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  4. It looks great! Can't tell that you had some issues with the underarms.

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I love to hear what's on your mind!